SB Nation User Blog: ImaMoose

THE DAY HAS COME! Gaborik Hurt...

ImaMoose — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:22:17 -0000

Come on... we all knew it was going to happen. We(ranger fans) just didn't want it to happen.

Marian Gaborik unfortunately left the ice last night during the third period of Rangers victory over the Coyotes.

But what do the Rangers do now? Their leading scorer, on the shelf possibly. Before we all jump off the ledge lets look at some options and/or possibilities of whats to come.

1. Nothing is wrong! This would be the best thing in the world for the Rangers. A days rest to let his banged up "lower body injury" heal, and Gabby comes back and destroys the Isles. Lets be honest, ranger fans want their new toy to play against their hated rival Islanders. The Islanders are going to show up with an impressive record of 1-4-5! I honestly don't think you can lose that many games in OT or shoot-out if you tried to. But somehow the islanders have that amazing record, and are going to show their new toy, jon tavares off to the rangers. Either way this story line is about as important to the world as what i ate for lunch. What is important would be gaborik showing he is fine and not missing a game showing he is over his injury woes of the past, even if this isnt related to his hips, groin, or torso...

2. Gaborik is Injured... F***!

Now what? well, one man does not make the team right? So his teammates have to pick up the slack. People like Chris Higgins can no longer be a spectator on the bench and watch his teammates put up stats that get the ladies. Higgins, NEEDS to start making things happen. Not just Higgins, but Callahan, who signed a 2mill contract in the offseason needs to show he was worth it. No one questions his effort. Its his sudden lack of production that needs to wake up. and the third rostered player that needs to produce a little more is mr drury. Without gabby, Drury needs to pull this team together and tell them its going to be alright. Netting a few clutch goals wouldn't hurt this either, but when a team loses its biggest threat its time for someone else to step up, and it should be the captains job to help get people there.

3. prospects

Right now they called up PA Parenteau. He is doing a fine job in the AHL this season... #1 in goals scored. Tied for the lead in points... But he has been a career AHLer. Obviously as a rangers fan i wouldn't mind that success to translate into NHL success but that hasn't happened yet for the 26 year old. He is a good fit for this squad and has played well in the preseason with the big club. if Gabby should be out for an extended period of time, maybe Torts puts him in for a good long look. If he is brought up to the Rangers i wouldnt want to see him waste time on the third or 4th line with 10 minutes a game. Hes on a roll and confidence is up. Give him the top 6 minutes we waste on guys who are NOT producing. Whats the worst that can happen there? He doesnt get the job done? Well either are a few other people who are occupying those minutes right now. Grachev is the same deal with parenteau. Dont bring him up unless you plan on using him. As it stands, i dont like seeing Anisimov waste his time on the 4th line. I also dont think alot of these guys are 100% NHL ready. They need to get used to the banging and pace of the NHL game. Lots of potential from the youth, but is it ready for harvest if Gabby goes down? i dont think 100% ready but ALMOST.

4. IF gabby is hurt, can the team play the same without him? Will players like Del Zotto, Kotalik, and Prospal continue to score at the suprising rate they have? or is it all dependent on the health of marian gaborik?

5. Don't Jump!... yet.

Its early, and sometimes we have to remind ourselves that its better to let a star player rest a few games and get 100% healthy, rather than play at 50% health and get more hurt and be out for a longer period of time. Lets all just cross our fingers and wish for the best. we are playng the islanders and Marian's former team the Minnesota Wild in our next to games. You can bet your ass that Marian wants to play against his former team... who wouldnt?

What other options or scenarios are there? Trade? rub a lucky rabbits foot for success?! jump off the ledge and hope we grow wings after we realize what a horrible decision it was to jump? Injuries happen, it just sucks when it happens to the guy who everyone says was going to get injured, and who is youre hands down best player.(besides our goalie)

My hat has a bottle opener on it in section 140

ImaMoose — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:45:28 -0000

a couple of you noticed my awesome keystone light hat equipped with a handy bottle opener.

great for when you are in New Orleans and your team is being shown that their back up safety is not good. Sitting in the second row, i got a pretty good Black and Gold view of things that were going on. Sitting to my right were a gaggle of giants fans from new jersey and alabama of all places. through a certain LSU centers father they got their tix. Me? well lets just say i know a certain blogger with some sweet seats.

so, the game begins and the giants were trailing from the coin toss. They called tails, it was heads. The saints knew exactly what they were doing by taking the ball first. A quick march down the field and they never looked back.

Watching this game was kind of like watching your son step up to the plate in little league baseball, when you know he would rather be home playing with his transformers and comic books than doing anything athletic. And heres the pitch... and an awkward swing and miss, strike three! GAME OVER! 48-27. ugh.

I flew down here just because my friend has tickets, and the giants(the team i like) were playing. Then it was a battle of undefeateds. I was thinking, wow this should be a good game... and it was, just not for the giants or their fans.

The saints put on an offensive clinic against what people call a great defense. Good job saints. Very good job.

The giants injuries to key players on defense were blatently obvious as back up CC Brown looked like you or me trying to cover a professional. I watched this guy all preseason and he was awful at covering other teams 3rd team units. What makes people thing he will stop the leagues #1 passing unit? The defensive line somehow got ZERO pressure on drew all game, then chase blackburn got a sack on the back up qb in the waning minutes of the 4th Q.

Boley and the DTs out was okay against the bottom barrel teams, but this was a welcome wake up call. At least a good team beat the giants and not lets say... the KC Chumps, or Chokeland Raiders.

Giant fans are holding onto historical trends which result in Superbowl W's(something the saints lack). 5-0 starts mean superbowl appearances, blah blah blah... Its nice being 5-0 isnt it? the giants WERE 5-0, so dont hoist that lombardi trophy just yet saints fains. As good as you are just remember your team hasnt really sustained a plethora of injuries...

speaking of injuries, those giants fans i was speaking of earlier wouldnt shut up about how shockey would get hurt, blah blah blah, have fun... well shockey got hurt before the playoffs when the giants won the superbowl, so maybe that would be a good thing for them... either way, enjoy the unbeaten streak while you have it. If the giants collapse from 5-0 then ill start thinking about jumping from the ledge, but for now sitting 5-1 ontop of the NFC east, where the eagles lost to the FREAKIN RAIDERS?! i think there might be a giants saints rematch this winter...

In Response to preseason predictions for the rangers

ImaMoose — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:58:22 -0000

when you look at this ranger team, you see potential, and you see downside.
This is why the majority of "experts" call them a middle of the pack team. For them to say that shows that if the rangers bust, then obviously no one stepped up this year, and if they break out and are a top 4 seed, then obviously gaborik and the young guns stepped it up. All this means is that they predict some things to go right for the rangers, and some things to go wrong.

Things that could go right/wrong:

-Gaboriks health

-Chemistry between all the new faces not meshing

- the old guard(drury, redden, roszival, etc) show more signs of aging

- the young guns(MDZ, Gilroy, anisimov, etc) show they arent ready

- the new core(callahan, Dubinsky, Staal) arent the answer

thats alot of things that can go either way, some we wont know till after a year or two. But the fact that the rangers need more than a few things to go in their favor shows they aren't a certain playoff team.

We as ranger fans see every nook and cranny of this team and we all know it can be great, but after following this team forever we all know how blah it can be.

One thing we should all be looking at win or lose this season isnt donald brashear or ales kotalik... Not Drury or higgins or redden for that. What we should look at is our young players developing. Callahan, Dubinsky, and Staal lead the way for guys like Del Zotto, Gilroy, Anisimov and others who might come up and down.

thats the future of the team there. The New NHL(post Lock-out) is all about developing a core of young talent and building around it.

Albeit pitt and washington got a bunch of gems in the draft a few years back in the names of Crosby, Malkin, Ovechkin, Backstrom and semin. Throw in J. Staal MA Fleury and Mike Green and these two teams are set for years.

this will probably NEVER happen for the rangers becasue they are never a bottom of the barrel team like the islanders.

what ever happened to...

ImaMoose — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:04:28 -0000

...Ryan McDonagh?

The rangers traded away Gomez for Higgins and Ryan McDonagh and i havent heard a lick of news since.

Did I miss something? Was this guy in training camp? is he under contract? was he traded? was i dreaming that they aquired this guy?

Not for nothing but this guy was near the top of our prospects chart since we aquired him. All this talk about Gilroy and MDZ and Sanguinetti, what ever happened with Ryan McDonagh?

top ten sleeper teams

ImaMoose — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 21:17:46 -0000

Browsing through hockey blogs i came across a top 10 sleeper teams of this year.

According the The Bleacher Report, The rangers are #9 on the top 10 sleeper teams this year.

go there and read for yourself. Let the optimism begin

althought nothing profound is said in their blurb about the rangers, its a sign that the hockey world sees the change on the team as having potential. This also shows the world that the rangers are still a big WHAT IF.

Beating a dead Horse

ImaMoose — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:33:08 -0000

Now i know ive been complaining alot about the rangers of late, but this really irks me. Everyone knows the deal. Nik Zherdev will most likely NOT be a ranger in the very short future.

But here is what drives me crazy about glen sather.

The man simply doesnt know what he is doing. He would rather pay Wade Redden an incredible amount of money for a long time, than pay a YOUNG and incredibly skilled top 6 foward a good amount for 1 year.

He trades away a solid d man in fedor tyutin and gets zherdev. Now youre gonna dump zherdev and we are stuck for a couple more seasons with redden?! It doesnt make sense to me at all.

Who would you ranter have on your team? Zherdev or Redden? I dont even think you can say Redden and mean it. Not at that salary. Even with a lower salary, i wouldnt want him.

Zherdev will be 25. redden is in his 30s and on the decline. He isnt going to have a breakout season. Zherdev could.

If Sather didnt smoke crack a year ago before he signed wade redden, then dubinsky and zherdev would be signed no problem.

Ive been a zherdev fan for a long time now. Yes he is like alex kovalev. Remember how kovalev was on Pitt? imagine a few seasons like that from Zherdev on the rangers? We arent talking about Bobby Holik, or Anson Carter here. Two of the biggest hacks to come to broadway.(but i think anson carter + money for jagr was the greatest deal ever.) We are talking about an actual skilled player. He is unmotivated at times yes... but i can deal with that if he scores 70 points. i think his potential is totally worth it for this season.

Gaborik for 7 mil... the guy is made of glass. At least Zherdev will play games for you and give you the potential of being a kovalchuk. gaborik gives you the potential to be pat lafontaine but with groin injuries. Think of him as a Jose Reyes of the hockey world.

I leave you with this brain buster:

Poll

Who would you get rid of? Comment on why?

Nik Zherdev

1 votes

Wade Redden

9 votes

Glen Sather

15 votes

Other(leave a comment of who)

1 votes

26 votes | Poll has closed

RFA Enver Lisin

ImaMoose — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:19:16 -0000

Are the Rangers going to sign this guy? or was this trade a move to just free up the roster. I can see them NOT signing him and trying to trade him with some other baggage(hopefully Redden) to dump salary to make room for a Heatley trade.

What is the deal with RFAs when do they have to be signed by? Who is left for the Rangers? Dubinsky, Zherdev? Any other key people out there that need to be signed?

Opinion: Disgruntled

ImaMoose — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 21:35:54 -0000

I do not know about the rest of Ranger Nation, but is anyone else out there ready for another disappointing season?

Its like waking up christmas morning and finding a beautifly wrapped gift under the tree and opening it up to find that it has been filled with dog crap.

This is how I feel about Glen Sathers Gifts to the ranger fans over the tenure of his stay.

We dont need to go down the list of past rangers disappointments, because there has been plenty.

This year we have Lost fan favorite Colton Orr and replaced him with a piece of garbage called Brashear. Why? Because they play the same game? WRONG. Orr was getting better while brashear is just a goon. Dont mistake my comments for me saying Orr is going to score 20 goals EVER, but he was a nice 4th line energy guy who could basically beat the hell out of anyone. He did stupid things too, he wasnt an angel. But he most certainly didnt cheap shot Mara one year and then dismantle Betts in the playoffs jsut last postseason. Its almost as if we got Bush out of Office and replaced him with public enemy #1 Osama Bin Laden. (ok ok maybe not THAT dramatic but you get my point).

This is all for a 4th line player. Now we move up the ladder. Glen trades GOMEZ! what he gets back in return is a decent 2nd line scorer and a highly touted prospect. WOW GLEN!!! you did something good. I liked gomez and i think he is such a better player than how he played on the rangers, but good riddance, i couldnt deal with a 60 point scorer at 7 million dollar cap hit.

So glen becomes liek a little boy in a candy shop with a $20 bill and spends it on a jawbreaker! THOSE BIG ONES. They look like a great investment and cool in all those colors but in the end we eat it( or lick it) for about 20 minutes and say what the hell was i thinking getting this!? i could have gotten a bag of swedish fish and sour patch kids. or a combo of other things that would be SO MUCH BETTER. So basically Glen goes and gets GABORIK the jaw breaker. High Risk High Reward. We can talk about one vs the other but im sure youre sick of that. Gaborik costs more than Gomez and he might play 1/4 of the games he did which means he returns alot less production which = sucks.

The rangers let Sjostrom go. there goes part of the rangers strength. then penalty kill. when betts leaves too, then there goes 3/4 of the pk that was 2nd in the league. betts gomez and sjostrom.

The rangers get Kotalik. Many speculate he will replace Zherdev. WHAT?! AT 3 Mill?!

Glen sather is constantly overpaying for mediocre talent. i could only imagine what he thinks he is worth. if the avg GM makes 2 million a year. he would estimate himself at like 10. If youre still reading this i am amazed and thank you. Im pissed as hell, and sick of watching these overpaid underachievers flop year to year.

Please Add your own rants, id love to hear them. Please try not to be optimistic... Unless there really is something to be 100% optimistic about. Like maybe jon tavares got traded to the rangers for redden zherdev and rozy

After Day 1 Rangers get worse as Atlantic rivals get better

ImaMoose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:33:28 -0000

Okay, so the Rangers dont make a big splash on day so far. Hossa gone to chicago forever(12 years for a 30 year old dude?) But seeing teams like philly with pronger on their roster, seeing the islanders get a healthy NHL caliber goalie and Tavares, and the penguins still have Crosby and Malkin. So what do the rangers do? well they trade their "number one center" for an above avg 2nd/3rd line scoring winger.

Okay that deal moved a TON of cap space to sign a couple guns for this season right?

well thats the thinking among Ranger fans. So early in the day we see fan favorite Colton Orr goto Toronto. In my opinion I dont mind seeing he leave the team because the team blows offensively and his 5 points didnt really help. The one thing I dont want to see is when Toronto plays the rangers and he inevitably will beat up whoever they might replace him with...

Enter Donald Brashear. The man who took out Blair Betts from the postseason last year with a Douchebag play. Im sure that will make for good team chemistry if they decide to bring Blair back into the fold... considering they will probably play on the 4th line together. Brashear can throw punches, but in the NHL today you need to do more than that. He is a big body that they could put in front of the crease on the Powerplay, but id rather see Avery do that because he actually has talent.

Im not too thrilled with the rumors of Heatley coming to the team unless Sather somehow snags him for wade "f-ing" redden straight up. thats it. Dont get me wrong, heatley is a tremendous talent, but this trade demand stuff is a real question of character. Then, the price of the trade? whatever, we as fans can only sit here and wait.

Havlat, Gaborik... huge health issues in the past. The Rangers have NOTHING to compete with the atlantic divisions fowards. They lack any star power up front to compete with the rest of the divisions talent.

Islanders have Tavares(im pretty sure he will be good)

Pitt - Crosby, Malkin

Phi- Richards, Carter

NJD - Parise

the Rangers - Drury? Zherdev? if he plays? Callahan? AVERY?! none of these players would scare me if the other team got a Powerplay. Why? cause out of all of them, Drury is the only one with a decent history.

So i think the rangers need to make a move in order to compete within its own division, let alone the eastern conference.

Problem with trading for HEatley

ImaMoose — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:09:42 -0000

Okay, it would be awesome to get dany heatley, but what is the price going to be?
They wanna open up some room for the young guys they say?
well who are we talking about? you trade gomez, so that opens a top line center position up. Enter Drury. Okay, So now who is going to be the second line Center... Dubinsky. I like Duby but he needs to make more things happen this year. He shows crazy amounts of potential to be a gomez replacement.

But here lays the big problem...

who are you going to trade for heatley?

Callahan - the only young guy who shows heart and desire. The only one that has scoring abilty.

Staal - YOUR BEST DEFENSEMEN?!

Dubinsky ? he would replace gomez easily...

and you wanna make room for youth to grow... but you gotta trade them for a talent like heatley...

My problem with DANY... hes asked to be traded from two teams now. The first time was becasue he killed his best friend. wanted to escape the demons and memories of that.... Okay ill let that slide.

then he wants to be traded again.... im sorry thats not how it works in this world. THEN he gives a list of teams he would be happy with going to?

It has to raise a few questions on when would he ask to be traded from the rangers?