Im Baaaaackkkkk!!!!!

So whoever has followed me in the past, can now follow me again. The reason I stopped posting, was because I was busy doing the whole moving thing back to NYC. So from here on out, I'll be back posting daily articles on Ranger games, news, trades and roster changes as they happen.

NY RANGERS MIDSEASON REPORT CARD

Its just about that time. 42 games have been played and recorded on the standings. The Rangers currently stand at 20-17-5. They are 7th in the East, and are only 4 points out of first place, trailing the NJ Devils. Now its time to evaluate the performance of the team, which so far has not been overly stellar.

OFFENSE: ( C-) This is by far a huge disappointment this season for the Blueshirts. They have only scored 102 goals in 42 games. The Rangers have not been very consistent putting the puck in the net. Since scoring 5 goals on opening night, they didn't score more than 4 goals for 15 straight games. Since then, they have been a bit more consistent and have put the puck in the net more often. Jaromir Jagr has been a disappointment to this point, but has been the Jaromir of old lately, since being paired with Scott Gomez. Chris Drury, has not been deadly putting up points, but the intangibles are there each and every night. The biggest problem with the team is the lack of scoring depth. After the 1st and 2nd line, there really is not any more scoring. Out of the 6 offensive players on the 3rd and 4th lines, only 1 player has more than 10 points. That is Brandon Dubinsky. He has been on the first line most of the season until recently. Petr Prucha is at 10 points. In order for the Rangers to be serious contenders, they HAVE to expand the depth of the scoring.

DEFENSE: ( B+) The army that stands in front of King Henrik has done pretty decent this season. Don't let the sub-par plus minuses fool you. Outside of Marek Malik, the Rangers defense has done well. Dan Girardi, and Fedor Tyutin are emerging to becoming a great tandem for years to come for this franchise. The communication and skill are there. They aren't afraid to hit either. Marc Staal, and Michal Rozsival are getting better as time goes on. Staal had it rough early, with rookie mistakes. Remember he is only 20. Just by his decisions, and puck handling alone, you can see he will be a top line defenseman in the future. Give him time. Onto the 3rd pairing, this line gets shuffled a lot more than staying together. For the beginning of the season, we saw a lot of Marek Malik and Paul Mara. Malik didn't work so he did not wear a uniform for a while. Jason Strudwick came along, and his average skill was decent enough to last 20 games. Now we are back with the Marek Malik experiment. He has not worked this season, and you can tell that the crowd at MSG has gotten in his head, and his play at home is just awful. His play on the road is better, but not by much. He still has value along with Paul Mara. Please trade them.

GOALTENDING: (A-) King Henrik for MVP. That's all this really should say but with a review, I have to write something. His performance this year is downright phenomenal. Hes in the top 6-10 in every goaltending category in the league. He was top 3 or 4 for a while but a slump as of late had dropped him off a little bit. He currently stands at 18-14-4 with a 2.26 GAA. With those numbers and 36 goaltending decisions so far, he should be 24-12 with this kind of offense. Only black cloud looming with Lundqvist, is trying to get a long term deal worked out. But as of right now, a deal should be in line by Mid-February the latest.

POWER-PLAY: (D) Yes I think this is the appropriate grade for this part of their game. They should not be hovering around 20th in the league on the PP. The team has just not gotten it done with the man advantage. The biggest problem this season, is the lack of presence in front of the net. The only guys that are usually in front of the net are Sean Avery and Petr Prucha. In order for this part (a very important part) of their game to improve, they have to have a guy in front of the net at all times. That creates screens and a hassle in front of the goalie. That also, leads to something kind of important. Goals.

PENALTY KILL: (B-) The penalty kill for the Rangers this season has been top 8 ALL season. This has been a saving grace along with the goaltending. The penalty kill is lead by Blair Betts and Chris Drury. They are constantly breaking up passes, and blocking shots. These 2 along with the other guys (Straka, Shanahn, D-Men, Hossa) have done very well, and this is why they're penalty killing should remain strong all season. This is one part of their game that they don't need to fix.

COACHING: (C-) Tom Renney is a good coach. I won't say much more about him. His decisions sometimes make me want to cringe. Like last year, letting Jagr to opt to NOT shoot and keeping guys that don't need to be on this team, make me want to strangle Glen Sather for not firing him. Why is Ryan Callahan, and Petr Prucha still on the team? These guys have to be sent down to get their scoring touch back. In 25 games this season Ryan Callahan has only recorded 1 POINT. Colton Orr has more points than him. Enough said. Petr Prucha went 18 games without a goal. He scored 2 against Toronto 2 weeks ago. He has not scored since. Renney has to see this and evaluate the performances of the guys in the AHL. I don't see why Alex Bourret cant get a shot. Bring back Nigel Dawes. These guys can't do any worse than Callahan and Prucha. Tom, please open your eyes.

Black cloud follows Rangers to Vancouver in a 3-0 shutout

The game tonight started how it basically ended last night. Henrik let in a really bad goal to make it 4-2, and basically take the Rangers out of it. Tonight, Vancouver got a goal very similar to what Lundqvist gave up last night. Valiquette had his skate out a little to far, and a bad angle shot from Ryan Kesler found its way under his pads after hitting the skate. That's all that the Canucks needed, as the Rangers could not score a single goal tonight. They faced quite possibly the best goalie in hockey, as maybe even in the world. Roberto Luongo stopped everything thrown at him, up and down, and left and right. He kept Vancouver in the game, as they didn't muster much offense throguh 2 and half periods. They only had 13 shots midway through the 3rd. The Rangers had outshot the Canucks 21-8 through 2 periods.

The wheels came off late in the third as Vancouver scored 2 quick goals in 34 seconds to make it 3-0. That pretty much ended it there with about 4 minutes to go. Before hand the Rangers had chances but penalties hampered the comeback. The Hossa high-sticking penalty is understandable. The stick did make contact with the face, but Colton Orr's interference penalty.........this was by far the worst penalty ever called in the history of hockey. It was barely incidental contact, and it was called a penalty. All Orr did was "bump" the Canucks forward, and was immediately called for interference. Bogus, if you ask me.

Not making excuses here, the Rangers had a lot of chances. The best quite possibly came in the second period, after Dan Girardi got high-sticked in the face and the Rangers had a 4 minute power-play to possibly tie the game. They did not, as they didn't create much on the 4 minute man advantage. Hossa had the best shot on goal in the game in the third period, after trying to find the right corner of the net. Only thing that got in the way was Luongo's right pad. He was phenomenal tonight in net, and recorded his 6th shutout. He is tied for 2nd now with Henrik Lundqvist, only trailing Pascal LeClaire who has 7.

Rangers ring in 2008 with a loss

Coming into 2008 with a 3 game winning streak, things were looking up for the Blueshirts. They beat Carolina, Toronto and Montreal over this streak. All respectable teams. That came to end tonight, as the Calgary Flames took down the Rangers 4-3. The Rangers never lead in this game once. Calgary struck early with a goal by Adrian Aucoin in the first. Lundqvist didn't even see the puck go by him, as he didn't react. After that Calgary went shot-less for about 12 and a half minutes. That didn't stop them from scoring in the second either. This coming off the stick of Jarome Iginla to give the Flames a 2-0 lead. Michal Rozsival finally got the goose egg off the TV screen late in the second, as he scored his 10th of the season, bringing the Rangers within one.

This gaol for gaol thing went on for the whole game, as the Rangers could not score a tying goal. Calgary scored again in the 3rd, giving them they're 2 goal lead back. Brandon Dubinsky made it 3-2 later in the period. This was by far, Dubinsky's best game of his career, as he was a monster with the puck, making plays, shooting, and drawing penalties. Less than 2 minutes after Dubi's goal, Kristian Huselius, banked one in off Lundqvist's skates, as he was not protecting the post making it 4-2. At the end of the 3rd, with 14 seconds left, Brendan Shanahan made it 4-3, but it was too late.

Tonight's game seemed like the never-ending climb for the Rangers, as they couldn't battle to tie the game. They were always down by 2, down by 1, down by 2, down by 1.

"Calgary's got what they've got going for a reason, they prey on those little mistakes," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "I'm not going to stand up here and be philosophical and dress up a loss, we lost the hockey game and that was two valuable points that we let slip away."

"We had our opportunities and we had our chances but they capitalized on theirs while we made some key mistakes," Scott Gomez said.

This was a valuable two points, as the Devils wont their game tonight, against the Panthers 3-2. This brings the Devils to a 3 point lead over the Rangers, with a game at hand on them. Tomorrow the Rangers travel further west, facing off against the Vancouver Canucks, and superstar goalie Roberto Luongo. Things have to turn around for the Rangers to win this game, as Luongo is very stingy with letting goals in the net. They pretty much have to play mistake free hockey. Lets see what team shows up tomorrow night.

Double header at Garden helped by Rangers OT win

Well the Garden is like a neutral playing ground this season. Earlier in the afternoon, the Knicks stunk up MSG once again, with lackluster play and a team that just doesn't care. Luckily the Rangers saved the Garden from melting tonight with an OT win vs. the Montreal Canadiens. It has been like this the whole season. Knicks are terrible, Rangers are championship contenders. With a win tonight, the Rangers would pull within 1 point of the idle first place NJ Devils. The Rangers got started early, with a goal by Dan Girardi, for a one goal lead. The Habs tied it up later, thanks to a power-play goal from Andrei Kostitsyn. A minute later the Captain, Jaromir Jagr regained the one goal lead to the Rangers.

The Rangers took the second period off. They only recorded 1 shot on goal. That was a season low for a period. The previous low was 4, which they have done 7 times this season. The Canadiens scored twice, again on the power-play, and once when they had the advantage before a delayed penalty. After 2 periods it was 3-2 Canadiens. The Canadiens were lead by Alex kovalev the whole way tonight, as he held the puck for the Habs most of the game, and wore the "C" as Saku Koivu was out with the flu. Kovalev took advantage tonight and had the game of the season for him.

Late in the 3rd period, the Rangers tied it up after a odd angle wrist shot from Fedor Tyutin......but wait. After the replay and review, it was clear that it hit the crossbar and then the post. Sean Avery did what he could to sell it when it first happened, but it did not work. Hard work persevered as a few minutes later Chris Drury found the puck through a slew of defenders, and put it past Cristobal Huet, as Avery had a great screen and Huet did not even react to the puck. The game ended up going to OT, and the 39 year old veteran Brendan Shanahan lasered a wrist shot past the glove of Huet, off a great foward pass from Chris Drury to give the Rangers their 3rd win in the last 3 games and pull within 1 point of first place.

Rangers power-play themselves to a 6-1 win over the Leafs

With a four way tie with the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th place teams, the Rangers being 8th, this was an important game to give a slight edge in the standings to the Rangers. With that in store, the Rangers came out and shut up the Leafs crowd early on. The Rangers got 2 in the 1st period, and lead 2-0 after one. Another 3 goals were scored in the 2nd period, when the Rangers were on 3 straight 5-on-3 power plays. The Rangers scored a total of 5 power-play goals tonight, and made the Leafs look silly. 2 of them were scored by Petr Prucha, one by Straka, one by Shanahan, and one by Jagr. The last time that the Blueshirts scored 5 PP goals, was back in 1996 vs. the Capitals.

Steve Valiquette got the nod in net tonight, giving Henrik some rest for Tomorrow evening's game against the hot Montreal Canadiens. They beat Tampa and Florida 5-2 and 5-1 respectively. Valiquette play very well, allowing 1 goal on 28 shots. His counterpart, Andrew Raycroft was chased allowing 4 goals before the midway point through the 2nd period. The Rangers fed off the 4th line goal scored in the 1st period by Blair Betts. After that the ice seemed tilted in the Rangers favor, as they dominated the burnt biscuit for almost all of the first half of the game. Jaromir Jagr had a goal and 3 assists to bring his point streak up to 6 (3 G 8A) in a row. Scotty Gomez has a new career high with an 11 game point streak.

"It's the first time in about 10 games we have something going on the power play, our unit anyway," Jagr said. "We have to wait and see. The power play won the game for us."

Tomorrow holds no easy task, as the Habs visit MSG. They are currently 4th in the Eastern Conference, 2 points ahead of the Rangers. If the Rangers win in regulation, they will move up to 4th place after being in 8th place before tonight's game. Tight race isn't it?

Rangers break the funk, defeating 'Canes 4-2

Coming off the Christmas holiday following a loss, and a horrible stretch, the Rangers came back with a great performance. They defeated the Hurricanes 4-2, after being shut out at MSG last meeting 4-0. Rangers came out of the gate throwing everything they could at goalie Cam Ward. Only problem is, he stopped everything. That changed early in the second period, with Jaromir Jagr scoring to break the scoreless tie. That was his first goal in his last 10 games. The longest stretch without going with a goal since 1998. That was one of two he scored tonight. Scott Gomez assisted on both of them, bringing his point scoring streak to 10 games, tying a career high.

Things got ugly in the 2nd period with Matt Cullen crossing the blue line with the puck, with his head down. Colton Orr was coming in the same direction, and trying to shield himself, put both of his hands up and hit Cullen right in the face. Cullen hit the ice face first and lied unconscious for about 15 seconds. It was a clean hit though, but the referees seen different. Orr got a 5 minute major for interference, and a game misconduct for, from what we all seen was a clean hit. The Rangers shut down the 5 minute major and held Carolina to only 1 shot on goal, but Eric Cole did hit the post on a wrist shot.

The Rangers got hot in the 3rd period. They scored 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the period. 2 power-play goals from Chris Drury and Dan Girardi respectively. Then Jagr capped it off with his 2nd of the night. Things got stirred up again 14 minutes in when Sean Avery and Andrew Ladd went at it. Both got 10 minute misconducts. Avery got the game misconduct and an extra 2 minutes. There may be a suspension for Avery from the league though. He went after Ladd when the referees were restraining them, and repeatedly punched him while being restrained. Back to hockey, the Rangers outshot the 'Canes 35-22, and fed of the great goaltending of Henrik Lundqvist.....again. He may have made the save of the year on Ray Whitney late in the 3rd, when the Hurricanes were on a power-play, after a juicy rebound found Whitney's stick. Whitney threw it right at the net, but Lundqvist dove across the crease, making an amazing save with his blocker. After tonight's win, the Rangers next 5 opponents are Canadian teams starting with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.