Daily Recap: Everything From Today Grachev to Gaborik to Giroux; Last Week Meeting Last Year and Unleashing a Hobbit

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.

Quick Analysis: What Giroux Extension Means for Dubinsky, Callahan, Anisimov

The other day I speculated on what the hot starts for Dubinsky, Callahan and Anisimov would mean in terms of their contracts this summer and now we have another piece to the equation in that Claude Giroux the excellent 3rd year forward for the hated Philadelphia Flyers.   The extension Giroux agreed to was 3 years 11.25 million or an average cap hit of 3.75 million.  On talent alone I clearly take Giroux over any of the Rangers three especially Dubinsky and Callahan, but what does the cap hit Giroux got mean for the Ranger trio?

Rangers Week In Review 11/1-11/7 : Round and Round It Goes

The Rangers opened the week at 5-4-1 coming off a nice win in Toronto having to play four games and looking to kick off November and create some momentum.  On Monday they took on the defending champs and played like they wanted to get hot and stay hot as the effort was there in a what could best described as the Rangers finally translating the way they had played on the road to home ice.  The team worked the fore-check and cycle and it lead directly to both Dubinsky tallies on the night along with the Rangers showing mental toughness when after Lundqvist let in Kane’s soft goal they responded with Christensen’s winner just 28 seconds later.  Once again it was Dubinsky and Callahan carrying the club, but everyone else seemed involved in this one instead of just watching.  There was again reason for hope.

Video: Hartford Goal Explosion: Zuccarello Hat-Trick

Here is the highlight package from last night's Pack game in which they exploded for 7 goals after getting 6 total in their last 4 games and struggling offensively all season so far. 

Video and thoughts on MZA callup inside

Gaborik Cleared For Contact

According to Andrew Gross Marian Gaborik was cleared for contact last night and is at practice today skating with Todd White and Erik Christensen.  Derek Boogaard is not at practice so for me this means White and EC will be on the 4th line tomorrow and Gaborik is just an extra since I dont expect him to play tomorrow.  One day of contact in practice is not enough to be ready for an NHL game in my opinion.  To rush him back for tomorrow would be a panic overreaction to last night's lowly offensive performance, which at this point is unnecessary with 68 games left in the year. 

Lines I would expect tomorrow if no call-up
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan
Frolov-Stepan-Fedotenko
Avery-Boyle-Prust
Boogaard-EC-White

Grachev back to Hartford?

Maybe I am breaking some news here since I haven't seen it reported elsewhere but the Pack/Whale site has in their transaction list Grachev listed as being sent back to them today.  As I said no official announcement that I have seen to this point, but it would make some sense since he has 0 points in his 6 games and Gabby is due back this week.  More as it comes.

2010-11-08

Evgeny Grachev (C)

ADD Returned on loan from N.Y. Rangers (NHL)

http://www.hartfordwolfpack.com/default.asp?wolfpack=33&urlkeyword=standings-statistics

Update: The AHL Transaction logs officially confirm it has happened, but still no announcement from the Rangers.

New York Rangers: A Model of Consistent Inconsistency

For the past few years the buzz word around the Rangers has been consistency as they seek to get consistent efforts, build a system of play and in turn get consistently good results.  The reality of the situation is no matter how long the good flashes might last for the only thing this team has been good consistent at is being inconsistent.  Part of that can be blamed on the level of talent that is in the room, but the majority of it still comes back to the players and the coaches.