Your First Place New York Rangers. . .?

I know, I know. Kinda weird huh?

I mean as much as everyone said this team would be bad. Or not good. Or well, not great...I never believed it.

I am not saying I thought they'd be good. As much as I'm not saying they are going to remain as good as they are.

But to not take into account the good or potential for good - Gaborik, Prospal, etc - or the porential to surprise - Del Zotto and Gilroy - was a big mistake by many people.

True, predictions are just that - throwing a random assumption/feeling into the air (or blog universe) and treating it as something to base fact on.

And it's not.

The Rangers are impressive in the early going. It took them two games to seemingly improve the league's most dismal powerplay.

It took them two games to score more than 2 goals.

They are a force to be recognized, if not reckoned with. And they deserve some recognition.

Not because it will always be rosy on Broadway (Rozsival or otherwise), but because they are, baring what we cannot see at the moment, going to be better than many people thought.

Want proof?

Wade Redden went into tonight's game as a +4. Wade Redden! The same Redden who had a 3 point night on Monday.

Del Zotto is leading the league for first year players. The guy we weren't even sure'd be playing?

Gaborik is owning the game, the Garden, and the third period.

Cheer Rangers fans. Because we are fan enough to know anything can happen, to know nothing is perfect. But cheer because, for the first time in a long time, winning feels really, really good!

ESPN's Kings Random - The Trade of Wayne Gretzky. . .

If you get the opportunity to watch this 30 in 30 special featuring Wayne Gretzky's trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles, do so.

It takes about 10 minutes to get into the film, but it is very much worth the wait. In short, this is the most I feel like I ever truly understood what happened back then, back in a time before I even knew what professional hockey was.

Gretzky tries to explain what hockey means to the city of Edmonton. He likens it to how people feel about hockey during the two weeks it appears in the Olympics and then says that is the way it is 12 months a year in Edmonton.

Something that many of us, as Americans, can only dream about.


I encourage you to watch the special, but in case you don't or can't:

*Gretzky is not the most well-spoken man in the world. I've known this for years, but it's odd seeing an entire special surrounding him. He's awkward at times, perhaps a true indication of the kid of somewhat humble roots born in Ontario. Doesn't take away from his greatness, but in some way it does make him a little more human.

*I never knew how much conversations went into the trade. Gretzky had been talking to the owner of the LA Kings for weeks about the components of the trade. One day Pocklington, the Oilers owner, called when Gretzky was in the office and said maybe it was the best thing Gretzky leave. When they hung up, Gretzky said, "I'm an LA King."

*The docu-film gives the impression that Wayne was okay with the trade because he didn't understand why they would want to trade him. Thus, he felt he needed to go.

*He was asked up until the moment that "I promised Mess I wouldn't do this" press conference if he wanted to change his mind. He said no, cried on the podium, and couldn't continue his speech.

*Glen Sather, smiling and happy in old Edmonton videos, was dead-set against the move. Said he wouldn't trade an entire organization for Wayne, let alone draft picks, money, and players. Said he'd threaten to resign, but it was literally too late.

*Gretzy's wedding to actress Janet Jones was often the "reason" some people thought he want to LA. It had nothing to do with it. The coverage of Gretzky's wedding however was just unbelievable. You get just a small glimpse into just how deep the relationship between player and city truly ran.

*After the trade, the trade that was talked about on every news station, the Kings sold 5,000 season tickets in a week, many by people that said they'd never seen a hockey game.

*Clips were shown of Hollywood celebrities such as Tom Hanks, Michael J. Fox, the late John Candy, in the stands of the Forum and shaking hands with Wayne in the locker room.

*After Gretzky's departure, Edmonton would win one more Cup, in 1990. Wayne would win the Hart Trophy in his first year with Los Angeles, his last time winning the award.

*Gretzky didn't understand at the time why Edmonton needed to do what he did. He does now. He doesn't regret his decision.


Truly a rare look into the greatest athlete our sport has ever known.

Playing Catch-up on the Rangers and Yotes and More. . .

*Author's note. Things are still pretty busy and even though I still got to watch some hockey these last few days =) - I was still caught out of computer range for a few days. I hope that'll be temorary, but if there's not as many updates as I'd like to make, that's why.*

So the Rangers opened their season! To a strange pre-game presentation that included Blue Man Group (to which I said ?????) and no player introductions, which I had the following to say about.

Simply it was very Tortorella. Very much how I'd expect him to want this team to be. No names. The name on the front being more important than the name on the back, and all. As much as I always look forward to those pre-game player intros, I didn't mind them playing up the whole one team united angle, if that's what they were aiming for.

The game was good. It wasn't without it's moments, but what game isn't. Del Zotto's gaol was the cherry on top. The fans went nuts for this kid and it was great to see.

Dubinsky appears to be getting showered with boos and not only Doos by the fans, which I guess to some degree is understandable. I'd never deny that considering he was the ONLY guy who could play with Jagr after Nylander was shown the door, that he was one of the most valuable players here, and I know he is worth more than some of the other players on this team (to remain nameless) and that he knows it to, which is why I can't disagree with him on his holding out. It's a players decision and I would never argue for or against, that's all I am going to say.

Except that I don't care what he did as long as he keeps scoring goals. This team needs that!

The powerplay movement has looked better. I mean, truthfully, I'm not going to be so dumb as to say that the powerplay can't possibly be any worse than the previous year - been there, done that, see 08-09 NYRs - but can I just say what a relief it is not to see Gomez, Drury, Naslund, Rozsival, and Redden come over the boards each and every freakin' time.

Whew!

Hank looked brilliant at times last night. Which he'll need to be that and more at times to get the Rangers through the rough patches.

Overall, thought it was a good effort and a good team win.


Yotes/Kings!:

Which brings us to the Coyotes and Kings who opened up their season in Los Angeles. The Kings looked kinda flat and Quick looked rather pedestrian in nets, but damn those Coyotes were flying.

To quote the Kings broadcast team:

"Phoenix is a very fast team. They are going to move the puck around because they skate so well...Phoenix's forwards can absolutely fly."

"Everyone in the NHL can skate, but the Coyotes, they have a speed on their team that is so effective."

"The Coyotes have come to play tonight; that much is obvious."

And it was obvious to me. Maybe, just maybe, they really can use all the horrible drama that has been happening as a springboard to becoming one of the most unified teams in the league.

Boy, would I love to see that!

They got off to a good start last night, being relentless with their puck pursuit.

The pepperpot - Prucha - was hitting like, well, like only he can. Good energy from him and the team tonight. Noticed two things in particular about his game.

One was on a play around 7:40 into the 2nd when he was passed the puck and dodged through what looked like at least two Kings to take a sweeping shot on net. Not really sure how it stayed out but the important thing is his continuation to keep control of the puck and to take the shot. Anything can happen.

And it did on Vrbata's goal, where the Czechs teamed up for some magic. Pete's first point of the season. Smiling I'm sure.

I certainly was.





Around the League:

The big questions/thoughts on my mind.

Umm, Vancouver, two big losses in a row. What happened to the Stanley Cup parade?

Florida looked pretty good overseas, no?

Will this Versus thing get figured out soon? I know a few Rangers fans who are not going to be happy missing the Rangers/Devils game tomorrow?

Ray Emery - legit?

Alex Ovechkin - something to prove? Yikes!

Rozsival. . .?

Okay, I feel a little better. Some of the doom and gloom from yesterday's blog entry as dissipated. With it, a new game, a new day. And wondering what the Rangers would do.

I'll be honest though, I didn't watch the game. Really. Again. It's almost funny to me. If I didn't have to go to work the next day, I would have been watching with popcorn and bells on, you know. But of course last night there was another reason I ignored the Kings/Rangers tilt (which I'll get to in the next entry), which is disappointing only on the level that the Kings are great fun to watch. Their young guys, the speed, the way a 19-year-old can quarterback a powerplay better than the guy the Rangers paid $6.5 over 6 years to do. Sigh. LA is fun.

And those jerseys (over the holiday I promise to do a blog reviewing each of the new 3rd ones), are fantastic. I want a shirt of it. In fact, if they make a shirt with that sheild, I'm buying one.With Kopitar on the back.


Anyway, since I didn't watch the game, didn't find out the score until the highlights package on Hockey This Morning (XM204), I can't really comment.

The one thing I can comment on is that Roszival's shootout goal proves two things: He can be a good player when he wants to be and that if I had to take a guess, playing under the NY spotlight gets to him. I've seen him do good things and bad things in his time with the team. A soft-spoken prideful man (tell me one Czech who isn't prideful, I dare you) and I knew immedidately that he'd be one player that wouldn't respond well to booing. Not really that those that came before him - Nedved, Poti, Malik - did, but Roszival seemed to take it a little extra personally. He came back and played much better around Thanksgiving, but I'm thinking he's played far better on the road, than at home. Just a hunch. Which is a connundrum to say the least. The guy can have a game like last night - when I heard Roszival in Overtime, I almost drove out of my lane - and pot a goal like that, he's not all bad. I'm just not sure it was the right mix. And I'm sure that 4
years at that price was too long for such a question mark.

That goal, one of the few moments I did watch in the game, was gorgeous though. No denying that. Beautiful goal.

The Flames/Kings Finale and One Anze Kopitar. . .

Let me just say, the last 1 minute of the Kings/Flames game last night was the MOST exciting hockey I have seen this year. Period. And that might just be because I've been watching the bland (I refuse to say vanilla as an adjective because I, like Steven Stamkos very much like vanilla) play of the Rangers, but wow. Wow. And Wow.

Tim Preissing's guts on that play to literally dive, and keep the puck, snow plow style, in the zone was something. The pressure of the Kings to tie in that last minute was incredible. And it was just by some luck, perhaps, and some Miikka Kiprusoff, that the puck did not go in. Intense.

Earlier, Oscar Moller scored his first two NHL goals for the Kings. The second was to tie it late in the 3rd at 2-2.

Lucky Luc Robataille spoke with the CBC mid-game and said, it's not that their players are young - the Kings that is - it's that they are young and really, really good. And they will get good, hopefully stay good together, and be really something in a few years, and for years to come.

If that game was any indication, I agree.

Calgary, admittedly, did not play their best. Although they've now won 6 in a row. But LA stayed with them, and made it a very close, very interesting game. With an ending, we wish more games had. I know I do.

Credit all around.

And a bonus, because I was home and my Tivo was not left to it's own devices, I got to see all of After Hours. And they interviewed Anze Kopitar. :)

A kid who, growing up in a country that really had very little hockey and certainly not hockey that bread a consistent crop of NHL players (well, none, to be exact), knew what he wanted to do. Be that NHL player. And he did become the first ever from Slovenia. An All-Star last year. He was humble, he was funny, and he was, yes, well-spoken. Why you ask? Because frankly I was a little surprised a guy so young from such a foreign place was dropping "you knows" like kids I went to high school with.

The story goes that as a young teenager Anze told his Grandmother, who taught English, that he wanted to learn the language. He said, I don't expect to be in Slovenia for much longer. And when I get to the NHL I am going to want to know English.

Cocky? Not at all. Confident? You bet.

The league needs more. And I admire his attitude. The Kings have locked him up with a new seven year contract. And with all their young talent- O'Sullivan, Brown, Doughty, Frolov, etc - seem poised to really make a statement for LA in a few years and for a long, long time.

***

Nothing else really much to say on last night. I stand by my statement that there should be, if nothing else, a change in personnel and/or a change in attitude on Tuesday night for the Rangers. We will see.

Oh, but and in mentioning Drew Doughty above, let me just say, he appears to set up the powerplay for his Kings better than the guy the Rangers paid $6.5 million a year to do so. Sorry Wade. Truth hurts.

And as it gets mentioned from time to time, it makes you appreciate BrianLeetch. Brian Leetch was a thousand times more than just a guy who set up the Rangers on the point, but. . .he did that too. And he can never, ever be replaced, we know that. But it also makes me think of the (although most recently injury plagued) great Sergei Zubov who never did get the credit he deserved for being that guy. For well over a decade now.

A fan of the stay at home defenseman? At times. But give me a guy who can step up into the offensive play and make it - - I'll take them any day. Hands down.