An Optimist's Post Game Thoughts. . .

I would have combined the two, but after how cynical the last blog entry was turning, I thought it best to move on to a new and fresh space.

In terms of what went well last night, I'd like to take a minute to clarify something and perhaps apologize to Blair Betts.

Yes, I said apologize. I know.

Now, long before I started writing this blog, I really liked Blair Betts. I thought he was probably the most underappreciated and one of the most valuable players on the team.

And that was when this team HAD Jaromir Jagr, Sean Avery, Marty Straka, etc.

I appreciated him for the role he played. A penalty killer who does what is asked of him. A guy with no flash, but that gets the job done. A guy who doesn't say much, but doesn't need to. A true blue collar type player.

Blair Bett's game last night is a perfect example of why I once thought so highly of him. And perhaps why I should start to think highly of him again.

I attack the Rangers powerplay because, well, it's horrible. And it very much deserves to be attacked.

But I don't stop often enough to praise the Rangers penalty kill, which is spectacular.

When Betts blocked those shots last night, the Garden was louder than it's been in a long while for a PK. And, yes, at MSG they do cheer wildly for good penalty kills.

(Again, remember, not a lot of goals, they have to pick and choose their moments).

And now a moment to apologize. I was not kind to Betts earlier this year. And I know why. To me, and to many, it was a competition in training camp between Blair Betts and one of my all time favorites in Petr Nedved. And to see how truly well Petr played and then to watch him be dismissed because of Renney's apparent love of Betts, it didn't sit well with me.

I realize now, months later, I was taking it out on the wrong person. Betts does deserve a place on this team. And unlike about 75% of the players on it, he has very much earned it.

My anger over the Nedved situation should fall to Renney, Sather, and whomever else had an issue with a deserving Czech veteran having a limited but deserved role on this team. This team that can't score, let me remind you.

Secondly, I think my view of Betts this year was skewed, perhaps more than it should have been, because Betts is...well Betts. Again, not flashy, not high-scoring, not anything remarkable really. Except he is in the way he showed last night.

But I am now realizing that I was viewing Betts as just one more of the boring, non-scoring guys on this team. Another North American guy with no dazzle.

And that's true. Betts won't apologize for it. He doesn't need to.

BUT...unlike the other boring, non-scoring guys on this team, Betts actually does his job and is worth every cent they pay him.

I overlooked that, and I am sorry for my shortsidedness.

And in complete fairness to Betts - he scored 8 and 9 goals his first years here, before scoring 2 last year. While not spectacular, he chipped in. And he has done that again this year, and once again last night (empty net not-with-standing). With five goals, he does have a good chance of at least reaching his career high.

Perhaps he, too, like everyone on this team, is just trying to find a way - any way - to make anything from...well a bunch of pieces that might just not go together, but that's a story for the cynic's side of the blog.

I'll say this though. As much as I like 7-0, 5-2 scores, I'd hate to constantly be the team giving up 5 or 7 goals.

And thanks to guys like Betts, the Rangers are not one of those teams.

Kudos Blair Betts.



Other thoughts on the game:

-Anaheim does not appear as strong as I remember them to be. They are big and strong in stature, but they have not played that way against the Rangers this year, it seems. True there were two fights, but it wasn't a case of Anaheim playing smash and crash and the Rangers crumbling. I thought Anaheim would be a middle of the road playoff team, and perhaps they will be, but they have not looked the same as the team that won the Cup two years ago. Far from it, in fact.

-Pronger's legs are like freakin' tree trunks. (Sorry, that's all I have to say about that.)

- I thought Bobby Ryan would break out - last year. I may be a year behind, but I'm glad to see it.

-Voros did not have the best re-insertion into the lineup. Taking a trifecta of penalties will not look good to anyone. And he can't feel good about it. I feel almost bad for him in that, he really did seem to be a vibrant source of life to the team at the onset of the season, and that has disappeared. I'd really love to know whether it was just a natural fade, or whether at all induced by Renney's constant line juggling. We may never know. I still like to believe he's a good guy that wants to do well. The being out of shape thing drove me crazy though, I won't lie.

-Fritsche, I feel, cannot be judged. I still contend he's a better player than he is being allowed to show here. As is too often the case when Sather plays "ooo, ooo, free agent, me want" during the summers, there are just too many players and too few spots, as I've said over and over again. And if there were one, Fritsche is definitely the outside guy. But he comes in and does nothing spectacular but nothing wrong. What could anyone have expected from him - a bunch of goals? He's probably more suited to being a fourth line type player, but well, as you know the Rangers already have a plethora of those.

-Speaking of bunch of goals, I was surprised to see some last night. Namely from Naslund and Gomez. Naslund had a much better game than of late. Looked a lot more together. And gosh help me, if Renney stubbornly insists on playing Naslund and Gomez together with Callahan, I hope to goodness they start to score. Honestly.

-And that will bring me to my other point. Which is that Gomez, being the highest paid, should, on most levels, be the best player on the team, or make the guys he plays with the best players on the team. It's a simple thought I doubt many will argue with, but that has yet to happen. I think that's what bothers me the most. Maybe he's STILL not being put with the right guys. Maybe he's having a really, really off year (because honestly it's not as if last year was stellar either). I'm not sure. But any complaint of him, probably stems from that. I have to believe he's trying though, as I have to believe they all are.

-Lastly, since I've lauded Blair Betts and mentioned Petr Nedved, of course my mind goes back to thinking just how much I wanted Nedved on the team and how much I still, from time to time, think he could be useful to this team. So if he couldn't have replaced Betts on the 4th line, how nice would Nedved be centering our 3rd line of [insert names of random interchangeable parts here], while Dubinsky took the 2nd, and EITHER Gomez OR Drury centered the top line? How would that look. I mean, close your eyes and picture it. Seriously you should, because with Gomez AND Drury both on the team, it's all really a dream sequence anyway right.

Everyone keeps saying Prucha/Gomez/Zherdev, which, sure, I'd love to see, I really would. But tonight I'll think of Prucha/Nedved/Zherdev. What a pretty foreign line that would be.

My dream. And Tom Renney's European Nightmare.


********

Over All-Star break, I'll check in with a few thoughts from around the league, see where certain teams are at, some surprises so far this year. Seriously lots of interesting stuff happening. But I'll wait til the weekend for that. :)

Peace.

Rangers/Canes Post Game Thoughts. . .

Well to say the Rangers got back on track, is accurate, I guess, if you are not looking at the whole picture. They got another win, yes. Another win in a shootout. Tell me you're surprised.

The game didn't have a bad pace at all. It was actually pretty good. The second was kind of boring, with not much action. But the first and third were not bad.

Hard to tell what was more surprising however - the Rangers powerplay goal they got or the shorthanded goal they didn't give up? Heck the Rangers even got a shortie of their own, with what was actually a really pretty play from Sjostrom and Betts (who got his 4th on the season).

What might have gotten lost in yet another typical Rangers shootout win [well typical in that they were having it, tied 2-2, but I guess a-typical in that it took five rounds for anyone to score], was the poor discpline from both teams, the Rangers especially. They took a bunch of penalties, many in the third, that they were just lucky to kill off. If the Rangers penalty kill wasn't so damn good, the whole game could have played out a lot differently.

As it was the Hurricanes went 0-8 on the man advantage. The Rangers 1-5. On a side note, Philadelphia (I believe) went 4-6 in their game versus Pitt today. See, Rangers, it is possible!!

I am not going to knock them too much, but I'm not going to pat them on the back either. It was an important win. Especially for Lundqvist. And this team will only go as far as he can carry them, that is for sure.

But it was not pretty or convincing. Too many things need to be shored up before that's the case.

Two other things real quickly.

One - Chris Drury shocked many when he gave a post game interview and did not put everyone to sleep. Good job on that. And it is good for him to get the unofficial game winning goal in the shootout. Bad he didn't seem to do much before that, but good for him.

Two - I actually really love Carolina's 3rd jerseys. I mean, don't get me wrong, I think when they wear all black, it makes me think Ottawa. But I like the logo, no matter what Al Trautwig says about gale force winds. And the numbers on the back, with the white outline, pop and you can see them perfectly.

In other news, there is no news on Mats Sundin, except that he was there at the Garden. Is he the magic piece? I . . .all I can say is I can't imagine he'd make the team any worse.

But will they let him play the powerplay??

A Step In A Direction. . .

I'm not going to necessarily say it was the "right" direction, but it was a step nonetheless.
Is having Scott Gomez in the lineup a mental thing? Is he like their lucky rabbit's foot or something? Because credit the guy for having a monster night on faceoffs (19-4) and actually looking VERY speedy, especially in light of his being off for the last five games with a stress fracture. But ironically, it was not really his line - Callahan, Drury, and himself - who played the best for the Rangers on the night.

It was actually other lines stepping up. Dubinsky/Naslund/Zherdev looked sharp and Zherdev had a great night, getting primary assists on the first three Rangers goals. Dubinsky finally looked back in stride, after appearing lost in the last bunch of games. A loud shot rung off the post behind Ilya Bryzgalov in the first by Dubinsky, but he would later bury a shot for his first goal since October 24th in Columbus. Big time to step up. Even if the kid is not a fighter. In case there was any doubt, he has not much improved since Luke Richardson knocked him out last season.

And Betts - yes Blair Betts - had a nice looking goal. I had to look down, look at the replay, before saying, Betts? Seriously? But, it was a nice one. And it helped the Rangers re-gain the momentum in the game.

Overall, though, without trying to burst bubbles, it has to be taken into consideration that this victory was against a Phoenix team, who was ranked 14th in the West coming into last night.

Does that mean it doesn't count? No. It counts and because it was a "much needed" win, it counts for more than just two points. But the point remains, I'm not sure they'd have been able to get away with some of their early (and characteristically) sloppy play in the first, if they were playing a stronger team.

It should also be noted that specialty teams were not really a factor last night, but not even for the reason you may think. Phoenix took only 2 minor penalties. Therefore, with Girardi's powerplay goal, the Rangers were 1-2 on the PP. 50%. Amazing.

Almost more importantly, the Rangers did not take stupid penalties. In fact, the Rangers took only one minor all night. When was the last time that happened? Anyone?

Now, the question for this Thanksgiving week is - will the Rangers be able to build on this and beat the very beatable Tampa Bay (1) and Florida (2) teams they face in their next three games? I sure hope so. But, at the same time, the Rangers sometimes confuse trips to Florida for early summer vacations. Let's hope that's not the case when the Rangers face Tampa Bay tomorrow at 7:30. I'm probably missing the game live, but I'll catch up at some point. Enjoy!

p.s. was that Sweet Caroline I heard playing in the Garden? Hasn't that been on a hiatus, win or lose? I wonder why it came back, but I wonder even more why it went away in the first place.

GRR!. . .

And it looks, sports fans, like I was at least half right in Friday's assessment of Petr Nedved's being cut from the Rangers.

It wasn't due to his play. It was because someone liked Blair Betts better. However, it was not Sather, perhaps, so much as coach Tom Renney himself.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/09282008/sports/rangers/rangers_head_to_europe_on_sour_note_131011.htm

I've almost always at least been a Renney acceptor. Maybe not supporter, but certainly not hater. That is, mostly, because I've known that I would never be able to guess what kind of coach a certain team would need to be successful. Come on, with the Rangers that would be like spinning a wheel of luck at a carnival. You never know. But I really hate to think that was the reason. I really do.

Again, if the Rangers are 3-10 going into November (and after 6 straight games of scoring only 2 goals in each, in 2 straight games of "The King" looking less and less like royalty, and after an entire pre-season of not one single incidence of chemistry becoming evident - this is all looking all the more likely) they might all wish they had Nedved who at least scored a few goals and had a good camp. Although they will never, ever admit it. And that is, to quote Larry Brooks, "a shame."

His other points hit home as well. The over-abundance of pre-season games (and yes, blame the Rangers organization on this one; for they make these plans) was a cruel joke. The players have to be tired as they flew off yesterday evening. And they don't have it easy in Europe for the next week. And unless there is a complete and drastic change in the next few days, this team will be no better off and look no better on ice, than it has in the last week. They just haven't gelled. Whether they were never going to, or whether they have not had time, remains to be seen. But they are not a team I have confidence in at this point, and I think they shot themselves in the foot on a few things.

Okay, fine, maybe still a little bitterness, but you may or may not have had to sit through the game at the Garden yesterday. I'm not a fan of watching the Devils obliterate the Rangers, pre-season or not. For all those (perhaps myself) that said the Devils would not be one of the better teams in the East this year, I might have to change my opinion. I still haven't made predictions for the season and will hold off until later this week but. . . they look miles ahead of the Rangers. Or at least they brought their game yesterday.

In other notes -

-The penalty on Korpikoski 5 minutes and change into the game was SO incredibly bad, the NHL resinded his game misconduct shortly after. Unfortunately that didn't change the fact that the lines we were supposed to be looking at, changed and had to be shuffled immediately because of the phantom boarding major and game misconduct.

Around the league -

-This, despite recent rants and inclusions, will not be an entirely NY Rangers based blog for the season. It truly won't. Honestly, with 6 games in 8 days, I've had little time to catch any other games, except for the random few minutes on the radio driving home, and the updates I get every morning on XM204. I've been very out of the rest of the hockey world and will be so for another week. But...by the time the regular season opens up in the states, I look forward to more thoughts and commentary on other teams. Until then, apologies for the rants of a Rangers fan with nothing else to talk about. . .