Before anything else I just want to say thank you to all the visitors that made today a record day here at Bleeding All Blue and hope that each of you found a reason to keep coming back in the future.
Inside there will be discussion of Grachev, MZA, Gaborik, Giroux contract implications on the Rangers, A Review of Last Week, and the Consistent Inconsistency that is this hockey club.
Due to the traffic caused by the good deal of news out today not the least of which was the story on Evgeny Grachev being sent down to Hartford I decided to try out a sort of daily recap of stories and see how that goes tonight. The story on Grachev being sent down can be found here: Grachev to Hartford. In terms of my thoughts on the subject since I didn’t give much in that post but more in the comments I believe he showed some good things while he was here but also showed what I believed before he came up which is he is not ready for the NHL at this point. Many people are down on him and throwing around the B word already and I am not at all ready to go there just yet. I believe his development has been screwed up by being rushed out of Juniors and maybe even some more by being rushed to the NHL because of the failures of the staff in Hartford to develop him. My thoughts on his development from the day of his call-up are here: My Take on Grachev Development and Recall. Going forward as I said in the comment discussion I believe he needs to be given a position, left wing, and left there while finding him a pair of consistent partners to play with. For right now Tim Kennedy could be a very good center, Stepan if he is eventually sent down would fit as well to go with Dale Weise as the other winger when he returns from injury. If you give him consistency then he can focus on just playing the game instead of learning new positions, roles and partners over and over again.
In other Hartford related news I posted the highlights of the game last night where MZA got his hat-trick and said that I would look to call him up for the week and see what he has as long as it was to play a top 9 role and not be saddled with Boogaard.
In terms of the big club I reviewed last week in which the rollercoaster continued; looked at how the Giroux extension might impact Dubinsky, Callahan, Anisimov contracts; discussed the stories out of practice today including Gaborik back with contact allowed though hopefully not rushed projecting him to play Thursday or Sunday.
Finally part of the reason I am doing this is in the hoopla that stumbling on the unreported move of Grachev to Hartford this morning I feel that my story for today about how the only consistent thing the Rangers do is being inconsistent got lost so here it is again. The New York Rangers: A Model For Consistent Inconsistency.
Again thanks for all the visits and some discussion in the comments today, both are always greatly appreciated and enjoyed by me. Hopefully you found something you liked and I look forward to “seeing” you again.
