via www.cbc.ca

The NCAA announced the seeding for it's 2012 Men's Ice Hockey Championship with rumored future All-Star Chris Kreider, and his Boston College Eagles getting the top overall seed, and the #1 seed in the North East Regional taking place March 24th and 25th in Worcester Mass. The Eagles take on #4 Air Force while on the other side of that regions bracket #2 Minnesota-Duluth takes on #3 Maine. While the Eagles should have little problem with Air Force (although I'm pretty sure Michigan thought the same thing a few years back), winning Sunday could prove a bit trickier. The Eagles had mixed results against the Black Bears in Hockey East play, and Bulldogs were the top team in the nation for much of the season.

Regardless of WHO makes it out of the North East Region, what's more interesting is the player on the teams who won't. The Black Bears boast NCAA leading scorer Spencer Abbott, who was undrafted and will become a UFA when his college season is over. The UMD Bulldogs have the NCAA's second leading scorer, Jack Connolly and the NCAA's fifth leading scorer Travis Oleksuk, who are both undrafted and will be UFA's as well. All these players have put up numbers on par with, or better then, Kreider throughout their careers. Abbott has done it in the same conference, while Connolly and Oleksuk have done it in arguably a better conference, so it's not a case of numbers being inflated.

The prospect of Kreider joining the Rangers at the end of his college season is something that's been brought up on here countless times, to the point where it's even become more of a WHEN then an IF when people talk about Kreider's arrival. Personally, I'm not convinced that a college scorer is the answer to NHL offense problems, but if college scoring is what we need, then it seems there will be plenty of it available in Worcester next weekend, and all it will take to land it is a checkbook, something we know Slats has.

via blog.timesunion.com

Just heard about this today, so it's kind of short notice, but thought I'd pass it on to any other fans in Upstate, NY. The New York Rangers are hosting a viewing party tonight at Wolfs 1-11 on Wolf Road, in Colonie. Never been there myself, but there will be free food, soft drinks, and prizes. For the real food snobs, here's a review of the place from the local paper. You can go back and forth all day about who's right and who's wrong in the MSG/TWC battle, but remember, it doesn't mean you like someone just because you are willing to eat their chicken wings. It would be great to show MSG that there's strong support for the team up here, and hopefully encourage them to keep sponsoring events up here.

My Fox NY has the full story, check it out for yourself HERE. Glad to see this was cleared up. It's a shame such an incident was made out of nothing. I have that the local police take the proper disciplinary actions against the officer who wasted the tax payers resources. In a state like California, where they struggle with massive government short falls, money can be spent on better things that nonsense charges. Remember, when closing your door is outlawed, only outlaws will close their door.

via 2.cdn.nhle.com

The full results are out for the NHL Awards Voting, and while no one brought any hardware back to Broadway, a few Rangers at least got their name into the conversation. Keep in mind that because of a boycott of the voting by the PHWA Chapters that cover the Rangers, Devils, and Islanders our players lost out on any local bump they might have received from the writers who see them the most.  

The only one who made any real noise was Hank who was 4th in Vienza voting, and 14th in MVP voting. The local votes could have given him the 10 pts he needed to get past Roberto Luongo, and made him a finalist, but not enough to make him anymore then a distant 3rd. Still for all he means to this team, it would have been nice to see him sneak by Luongo.

While Hank had a chance of being nominated, the rest of the team was pretty much just also rans. Stepan and Sauer were both nominated for the Calder, placing 13th with 6 points and 17th with 1 point respectively. John Tortorella's 9 points placed him 9th in voting for the Jack Adams, 81 points shy of 3rd ranked finalist Barry Trotz. Marc Staal was the only defenseman who got a vote. The one 4th place vote he received gave him a point and made him part of the 5 way tie for 20th. 

What I found most interesting was the Selke voting, where we had 2 players in the top 20. Ryan Callahan managed 15 votes for a total of 51 points, to round out the top 10 but the OTHER player in the mix was non other then BSB Spirtual Leader and Dig Deep heartthrob - Brandon Prust. Prust finished 18th with 4 votes worth 14 points. Not bad for guy who sort of a throw in from a salary dumping trade. But hey - "It's Just Votes". 

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NBC Pro Hockey Talk ran an article with some insight from fellow tough guy George Laraque, who also seems to have been a close friend of Derek Boogaard. Laraque was pretty critical of the Rangers organization, so I figured he'd fit right in around here. According to Laraque, Boogy was ready to come back and Torts didn't want him to, cause Torts wasn't a fan of his. Basically, cause Torts is just a jerk.

Torts not wanting to bring Boogy back late in the season, and urging him to take the rest of the season off, seems like another example of Torts bizarre "i like you, I don't like you" school of thought. Why turn off Boogy and not Drury? Both players had played in little more then a handful games, the only difference was Boogy had overachieved in his few games as a Blueshirt, while Dru had been a disappointment for years. If anything the spark that Boogy could give the team, a group that often had problems with blocks of uninspired play, seems to be more of a benefit that what Drury could bring to a PK that was already doing fine. We don't know exactly what happened to Derek Boogaard yet, but it would be a shame if Torts attitude wasn't just ruining player development, but now lives as well.  In fairness,  Laraque is a guy with a bone to pick with "the man", and since his career ended has been willing to offer up his thoughts, on a variety of subjects, weather you've got a penny for him or not. Still, I don't know what motivation he has to cook up something against the Rangers, if it wasn't true. 

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Not sure if anyone else has noticed, but MDZ has been back on twitter the past few days. His most recent tweet was this.

Spending day with ex teammate, now appointed bodyguard @Sorzy4747

Justin Soryal IS at the end of his contract, but it seems a bit early to be tweeting he's not coming back. After Torts making his feelings clear about things like twitter, and guys who want to be "the chairman of the social committee" seems like MDZ is diving into a gray area tweeting team info on another player. Possibly something afoot with DelZotto? Thought I'd give us a slate to share if anything more comes of it. 

via rangers.nhl.com

Those are your 1995-1996 New York Rangers. The last Rangers team to have home ice advantage in a playoff series. We keep talking about BUILDING a championship team, but I think a more achievable goal would be having a team that's in the top half of the bracket first. The beauty of the NHL playoffs is that any team CAN make a run. Still, it seems the goal of this "youth movement" isn't just to win a cup, it's to create a perennial contender. I'm not saying you NEED to be a top seed, or have home ice advantage to win it all, instead I'm using it as a measuring stick to see where we stand, now and in the near future against the rest of the league. 

Of this years playoff teams the top three seeds (The Capitals, The Flyers, and The Bruins) I'd say the Flyers might be the closest to showing signs of slowing down, although none of those 3 teams has a "core" much older, or more experienced,  then our own "core players". Behind them, you have the Pens, who landed a #4 seed, while their two best players (who happen to be two of the best players in the world) spent most of the season on the IR. The #5 seed Tampa Bay Lightning seem to be on the right track with new ownership, management, and Steve Stamkos. Rounding out the bottom we have the Canadiens, the Sabres, and finally us. 

Only 3 points seperated the #8 seed from the #6 seed, while 4 points was the difference between #5 and #1. The difference between the #5 spot and #6, however, was 7 points. It seems to be where the step is in this conference, and my question is, when do you see us getting over it? This is something I've been chewing on for a while, and with our team still "alive" late in the season, and in the playoffs, it didn't seem right to start in with fan posts about next season. Now that it's a wrap, and with the Rangers set to embark on what could be a monumental off season, with UFA's to consider, on own RFA's to evaluate, the draft coming up, and the "hot stove league", it seemed like a good time to encourage everyone to take a look at this team, and where it sits in the grand pecking order of the Eastern Conference and the NHL. 

Anyone's who's read my posts knows I don't always embrace other people's feel good view of this team and season, and I think my opinions and outlook for the team became a bit darker when I started thinking of our players, and their development, as NHL players, and not Rangers players. We've got young guys, and they SHOULD get better, but everyone else does too. Even if Gabby "bounces back" and "stays healthy" how does he give us what Crosby, Ovi, Geno, and Stamkos give their teams. Also Gabby is almost 30, while none of those other players are older then 25. While our "young core" of Cally, Dubi, Staal, Girardi, AA and Step might improve over time, how will their development compare to the other teams young guys? Giroux, JVR, Jordan Staal, Tyler Seguin, Backstrom, Green, "Carlzner", Letang, and Hedman are all young guys on those top 5 seeds that should continue to improve as well. 

If you're going to be good enough to contend for a cup year after year, you should be able to have your ticket to dance punched before game 82. Even if all our stars align, and our "core" meets realistic expectations, is it enough to vault us into the top half of the conference? 

via www.sportsavengers.com

For reasons I'm still not sure of, MSG Networks decided to make Ron Duguay and Sam Rosen available to hockey reporter Pete Dougherty, of The Albany Times Union. Pete runs the Capital District Hockey Blog "Hockey Spoken Here" covering mostly AHL and NCAA hockey. The fact the Devils affiliate plays in Albany, it would seem like Chico and Ken Daneyko would be a better pair, but since the Devs are on the golf course, I guess they don't have a lot to talk about. The Duguay interview is up on the blog now. The highlight was definatly this

"No. In fact, because I stay in such good shape and I still play, I still think that I can play. You start making comparisons to certain players. ‘You know how, I probably could go give six minutes on that fourth line. I still think I can make that play in that situation.’ You start comparing yourself to players. Until I’m in that rocking chair, maybe at that point I wouldn’t be thinking that way."

You can check out the whole interview HERE. Pete said he'll have Sam's interview up today. I'm excited to see what kind of pace that interview has. Not sure if there will be anything as good as knowing Ron sits in the "Hockey Night Live" telling himself "I'm still better then that guy", but I'll try to put up a link to it later. 

With the clock winding down,  and Colorado College  in charge with a 7-4 lead, it's safe to say the BC Eagles season is over. Perhaps tonight, but definatly by tomorrow, we should know what Chris Kreider's plans are. If he's ready to leave, we should be able to sign him for next season (we still have plenty of room with expiring contracts) and sign him to a PTO for this season. Should be something to talk about regardless. If you hear anything, please share.

via www.thesportsbank.net

Not exactly Ranger related, but I thought this was pretty amazing and would be of interest on an off day. As many of you might know from my other posts, RPI Rennselear ( sorry Shirley ) is my local NCAA team and when I'm not watching the Rangers I try to sneak down and catch a couple games at the Houston Field House. They're also covered on the blog Without A Peer, who had a recent post on a formula created to figure out the engineers chances of getting an at-large bid to the NCAA tourney. Since it also gives the chances for the teams our prospects are playing for I thought some of you might like to check it out. Here's the link to the article.

George - for you, this is TOTALLY NSFW. 

via cache.daylife.com

Incase you missed it, John Mitchell was our big draft day score.Here's the link to his wikipedia page. There's a couple John Mitchell's out there, so I thought I'd make it easy for everyone. He scored his first TWO goals on Valli. Other then that it seems like Toronto has had no no intention of doing anything for him. I guessing this is a move to add experienced bodies in Hartford, now that Kennedy is gone and Newbury is probably gonna be staying up. 

Chatting over on Joe's Post the other day put this little gem into my head. I didn't want to throw it out down there, cause we were having a pretty good chat, and didn't want to mess it up with a kinda off topic fantasy proposal. I'm not saying this is GOING to happen, I'm not saying there are any reports that this could be a possibility, I'm just saying it could be a nice little BS talking point leading up to game time.

My proposal is working something with the Kings,  centering around Gabby and Staal for Drew Doughty. That can't be the whole deal, as we need to take back some salary to keep the Kings under the cap, and we would probably want a little something else of value back (swap of picks, prospect)  but that would be the heart of the deal. My explanations and justifications for the move below.

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USA Hockey Announced the final roster for the World Junior Championships. Nothing really shocking for Rangers prospects, as both Bourque and Kreider made the team, but I thought I'd post it for discussion anyway.

The 2011 U.S. National Junior Team:
Goaltenders - Jack Campbell, Andy Iles
Defensemen - Brian Dumoulin, Justin Faulk, Derek Forbort, Nick Leddy, Jon Merrill, John Ramage, Patrick Wey
Forwards - Nick Bjugstad, Ryan Bourque, Chris Brown, Mitch Callahan, Charlie Coyle, Jerry D'Amigo, Emerson Etem, Chris Kreider, Jeremy Morin, Brock Nelson, Kyle Palmieri, Drew Shore, Jason Zucker

I know there was a few players I though might make the cut, who didn't, but based on what we've seen I still think we have a squad who can skate past anybody.

Just back from the Connecticut Whale's win over the Adirondack Phantoms. The team looked OK, but none of the prospects looked heads and tails above the rest - the way Artie did in '08 - '09. We still don't seem to be trying to get the guys to play the way Torts wants the Rangers to play, which was a bit disapointing. I think that if we're going to try to use our own talent, we need to get them all on the same page. Redden still looked like the best defenseman, and Newberry's line seems to be the one they look to when they want to score. 

Our seats were just above the glass, behind the teams bench so we got to interact with the guys a bit. We shit down a few hecklers for them, and they seemed to appreciate it. When they came out after the second intermission, we joked with them that the right shots should be on their game, since we saw Cally just went down with a broken hand. The guys seemed to already know, and most of them looked at Dale Weise, so if he gets called up, don't be suprised. 

Did anyone else catch the pregame showing of "Behind the Bench with John Tortarella and Mike Keenen"? I didn't get a chance to sit down with it all, since their was pre-game festivities to attend to, but what I did see kind of reinforced some of the concerns I've already expressed about Torts. To clarify, I don't think Torts is a horrible coach, but sometimes I wonder if parts of his strategy, or certain methods, might not be our best options. A few things that stuck out...

1. He gave credit to Shoeny for the PK. Year after year, our PK keeps the fans hearts beating. Betts and Sjostrom were the PK KINGS and there was no way we could lose them. Then, Drury found a place to earn his salary killing PK's and he was the reason our PK was so strong. This season we've been seeing a PK anchored by the likes of pre-season AHL All-Star, Brian Boyle, and, despite a bit of an early season adjustment period, or PK has been AWESOME! Really I think Tom Renney deserves some credit here for laying the PK groundwork (It is Renney's WHEELHOUSE, the PK is played largely in the defensive end) but great work by Shoeny to see what DID WORK from the Renney days, and keep it alive. Combine this with what he did for the defense when Torts took over, and I'm starting to think he belongs behind the bench, and not in the front office. 

2. Torts team philosophy, and the lack of tape in it. They even use a sound bite from this in previews for this show. Torts say they don't use alot of tape study on other teams, aside from the other teams PP. This is something I think is WRONG. We all know we have a young team. They can learn the quirks of the opposition, over the course of their career, playing them a few times a year, OR you can have someone edit together film on players tendencies and help our team age before our eyes in 1-on-1 situations. So many of our mistakes seem to come from these types of situations too, it's frustrating to hear Torts can't realize this and embrace technology. 

If anyone else caught it, and has something to add, feel free to share. My thoughts are far from a complete recap, but I thought I'd throw out a few ideas to start some discussion, and give a platform to anyone else who caught it and wanted to discuss any of Torts thoughts.

Final thought - since there's no game summary up yet. I expected to see Dubi, Boyle, or both in the shootout. Glad we won, but thought those two could have contributed. 

The NHL opened up ALL STAR voting this morning at midnight. For those of you unfamiliar with the fan voting process, here's the blurb from the NHL. 

Through Jan. 3, NHL fans will be able to select up to six players by position - three forwards, two defensemen and one goaltender – without regard to the Conference in which their teams play for in the 2011 NHL All-Star Game presented by Discover in Raleigh, N.C. As part of a new format for the 2011 NHL All-Star Game presented by Discover, the three forwards, two defensemen and goalie with the most votes will be named first NHL All-Stars.

Three Rangers  (Gaborik, Staal and Lundqvist) are on the NHL's published ballot of 98 players and Sydney Crosby. However, you can very easily WRITE IN any player you want by scrolling to the bottom of each section (Forwards, Defensemen and Goalies) and typing the players name that you want into the form. It's great, they have auto-fill, so the players can't be cost votes do to a typo, and once you add them, they're VOTE button pops up at the bottom of the ballot in their position.

The 98 players and Crosby who the NHL chose to put on the offical ballot, were chosen rather arbitrarily, so a player like Dubi, who has made great strides in their game since last season, was not considered for the official ballot. I think most of us can agree that Dubi deserves some recognition for what he's done with his game, and while it might be impossible to get him enough votes to surpass the likes of Alex Ovechekin for one of the 3 forwards spots available LEAGUE WIDE, I think The Banter CAN put together enough votes to make some noise, and show Dubi we appreciate what he's been doing for us. For a guy like Dubi, who seems to feed of the Garden enegery, I think a nice internet All -Star campaign could be a great show off appreciation, and hopefully will draw the attention of the League when they vote on who will fill the other All Star positions. 

The ballot is online at http://vote.nhl.com/ . You can vote up to 30 times a day, so if you're hanging out, trolling the boards here, it shouldn't be hard to get your votes in on another window. 

Thank You

Dubi' 2011 - For A Better Tomorrow!

I'm not suggesting we re-tool the whole D, but some changes need to be made. We need a solid, experienced player back there, to take the heat as the #1 and help the rest of our D live up to their potential. 

The best way for us to acquire someone like that would seem to be to "color up". Take our glut of prospects on D and someone young from the lineup, and try to get back someone back is already is what we HOPE when of our young defensemen will become. We're not selling the whole farm, just a piece or two - for a player who can help with the development of all the pieces we have left. 

To make something like that happen, you have to include one of Staal or MDZ. Before everyone freaks out, let me point out, I'm not talking about trade for a 34 year old who USED TO be good. I'm talking about brining in a player who is IN THEIR PRIME, and will be an upgrade over either Staal or MDZ now, and for years to come. Whoever we brought in would the type of player WE HOPE Staal or MDZ become when they reach their primes. Because the pipeline has alot more in the way of defensive defensemen then puck movers, I'd recomend moving Staal over MDZ. 

In a completely fictional move, that I'm not saying would happen, but is strictly to demonstrate what I'm talking about, so everyone doesn't turn this into "why do you want to trade Staal" thing - I'd suggest trying to move Staal and prospects/picks for Duncan Keith. Keith would clearly be our top guy, and someone the rest of the D would have no problem looking to for help. He's still young, and will be part of our team for years to come. From the Hawks perspective Staal would be able to step in and contribute immediatly, while giving a cash strapped team roughly 2 mil in cap relief. (and we could cover that extra 2 mil coming back by demoting Todd White).

Now, that's a trade that will NEVER happen. Keith has a NMC. I know this. However, it seemed like a good way to make my point about THE TYPE of move I'd like to see Glen make. I'm not talking about  selling off these guys for has beens, I'm talking about making a move that can help us today, and tomorrow. If you have your own suggestions, share them in the comments. Obviously, as I said above, MDZ could be the guy we move, if you thought there was an offensive defenseman who we should bring in. Just thought it might provide a POSITIVE outlet to get some of our frustration with the D out. 

So when I logged onto The Banter this afternoon, I was greeted by a little red box courtsey of Blue Shirt Banter Alternate, Ranger Tribune Dictator For Life, and Wayne Gretzky photo co-pilot, Nick Montemagno. Apparantly Nick wasn't too happy that I didn't see eye to eye with his Game Recap last night. Here's what it said ...

I don't care if someone writes about disagreeing with me on the recap, I will usually respect their point of view. But when that person does it just to be an asshole, I have a problem with it. Criticizing me on saying Avery worked hard for a goal because Mason stops it if he is a half second quicker? Dude, you need to find better things to do with your life.

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Just got back from the Pack vs Albany Devils game. Devils got the best of us in a shootout, but that's not the least of our problems. Here's a couple thoughts below. 

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Anyone who watched the game last night will agree, that we looked good up the middle. The centers on all 3 lines contributed on the scoresheet. I can't remember the last time that happened for our squad. We scored lots of goals on one of the best goaltenders in the league. Usually we can't on AVERAGE goaltender, so to see 5 on Miller was exciting. We did it all without our injured captian. We also have heard nothing but good things all week about team chemistry despite missing "out leader". If you put the homerism aside, It's pretty obvious, Drury is the new Redden. Unfortunatly, we can't hide him in the minors with Wade because of his NMC. However, we can ask him to take a voluntary 2 week conditioning assignment in Hartford. With the way we're playing, I think this is the best move. If he says no, he looks like an ass, and it makes it easier to chase him outta town. If he says yes, it gives our guys 2 more weeks to prove winning a LLWS is worthless in the NHL, and legitimizes him sitting in the pressbox until he retires, or his contract is up. 

Looks like when the 'Pack plays the Bears, it's set to be an $12 milllion showdown! TSN says that the Oilers assigned Souray to the Hershey Bears of the AHL. The Bears are the defending Calder Cup Champs, and the affiliate of the Washington Captials. 

Not sure what this means for us. The article says Hershey has him their AHL plans, and that's the only reason he wound up there. Washington would have the space to bring him on if he came through re-entry waivers as well, and their style might suit him rather nicely. 

The New York Post ran an article titled "Ranger Coach High On Dubinsky". I'm not sure if anyone else saw it, mostly said alot of the same things we already knew, but there were a couple of quotes that caught my eye. I posted them below. Also, what's the deal with the Rangers being covered by Brett Cyrgalis ? Don't know much about him, although I found he had a Rangers blog, but it seems he was more of Renney fan then a Rangers fan, since he left the blog when Renney was asked to leave The Garden. I hope my criticism didn't send Larry over the edge? Perhaps "Brooksie"is just looking for stregenth in numbers. You never know when you're gonna see Torts at the Port Authority Bus Terminal, and who better to have on your side then a Renney fan. Anyway onto the important parts...

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With Marc Staal re-signed, and most of the site celebrating, I thought I'd pull up the numbers from our defense over the past few years. While Staal's being heralded as our "shut down" defenseman and Dan Girardi being rewarded to the tune of $3.25 mil a year, I wonder how much of this praise is being earned on the back of the guy who REALLY shuts down the teams best players, King Henrik.

Just to clarify, I don't think Staal's deal is horrible, but i would have rather seen us give him a short deal at a cheap price, and take our chances with the arbitrator in 2 years when we have alot more money open. Girardi's deal on the other hand, I think is totally nuts. I don't think it would have hurt to let him try his luck on the open market, and replace him with a more experienced, cheaper,  vet short term, knowing one of the prospects would pass him in the near future.

Anyway, I pulled up the Rangers stats over the past 5 years, giving us a good idea of our situation before Staal and Girardi, and with Hank between pipes. The chart below shows Hank's Shots Against and GAA ranks for each season. I also threw in our teams scoring rank for each season.

While Staal and Girardi have been "shutting down" our opponents the past two full seasons, Hank has found himself in the Top 3 for shots faced. At the same time, he's managed to stay in the Top 10 in GAA almost every season. The exception was 2008-2009, where he slipped to 11th. If we're defending so well, why is Hank doing all the work?

Not trying to fire this up for nothing but I but read this post on Howlings last night, suggesting that the Rangers were getting ready to pull the trigger on 3 for 1 deal that would bring us in a big defenseman. Then I noticed Steve Zipay's tweet "Dallas still in for half I believe" about an hour ago. With the addition of Tyler Kennedy yesterday it seems that we have a glut of forwards and a move that would reduce our numbers wouldn't be realistic. Also, it's my opinion that Avery is NOT one of Torts favorite guys, and could likely be one of the players to move in such a deal. Anyway, just thought I'd put this out there, and if anyone knows anymore feel free to share in the comments. I couldn't find the articles Mitch was talking about.