Sunday, December 19, 2010

Daily Recap: Is Gaborik Really A Star?; Del Zotto Trade Rumor; Christian Thomas Fight; Jack Johnson Slapper

This morning I examined whether New York Rangers RW Marian Gaborik truly is a star or if he is just an opportunistic sniper who can put up points.  I broke down some of the stories behind the box score in terms of not only Gaborik’s numbers this season but also the differential between his first and second half last season in terms of the consistency of his production.  In the piece I gave a definition of what I believe a star to be in terms of what they can do within a game and over a stretch of games to see if Gaborik met those criteria.  Finally I looked at things that Gaborik could do to help himself while looking at some of the reasons that have been given for his struggles to be a consistent impact player this season.

This afternoon there was a discussion of a rumor concerning the Columbus Blue Jackets interest in trading for Michael Del Zotto in terms of many different angles for the Rangers including: should the team be considering dealing the 20 year old defender; what it should/would take to do a deal like that; if what was being speculated about met that standard; what if anything that Columbus had would make a trade of Del Zotto something the Rangers should do.  Obviously in the article is the rumor as it was reported in the Edmonton Journal.

This evening I posted video of Rangers prospect Christian Thomas fighting from Friday evening in a game in which he recorded a Gordie Howe hat-trick.  The fight itself was entertaining as Thomas while the smaller of the two combatants was not shy about getting in the scrap nor the bombs he was throwing during the fight.

Finally there was video of Kings defender Jack Johnson winding up for a slapshot missing the net and putting a hole through the glass behind the net.