Video: Tortorella Calls Out Henrik Lundqvist Post-Game

Following a lackluster performance from his star goalie Rangers' coach John Tortorella was not afraid to "call a spade a spade" and call out Henrik Lundqvist for not being at the level the club needs him to be right now.

“Let’s call a spade a spade." Tortorella said. "Our goaltending hasn’t been there, certainly not at the level it needs to be this time of year. The Florida game we did everything but win it. The last game, too, prior to this one, we played well enough to win…We get five out of the six points if we get just decent goaltending.”

Henrik Lundqvist & Justin Bieber at Knicks Game (Photos, Video)

I guess I am too old to know or understand who Bieber is, but I certainly know who Henrik Lundqvist is and to have him supporting the local NBA team is a good thing, just like CC Sabathia coming to Tuesday's Rangers game.

They put Bieber on the big screen and he got a mixed reaction to say the least as many in the crowd booed the popstar. Henrik Lundqvist leaned over and talked to the kid and probably told him that he knows what is like to be booed in the Garden. He could tell them about the morons who gave him the mock cheer a couple weeks ago against the Flyers. Very classy move by Henrik as was pointed out by Mike Breen.

Lundqvist Nearly Pitches Shutout In Elimination Shootout

Last night in the NHL SuperSkills the New York Rangers were well represented having Derek Stepan, Marc Staal and Henrik Lundqvist all involved in the competition.  While Staal and Stepan would have their moments in the spotlight, it was Lundqvist who once again demonstrated why he is one of if not the best goaltender in the world during the night’s final event. Typically the performances in the shootout for Henrik get the Rangers the extra point, but on this night they would seal the victory for Team Staal.

During the concluding Elimination Shootout, Lundqvist would turn aside nine of 10 shooters he faced, which would rank him atop the standings for all of the six participating goaltenders.  The only player who would find an answer for Lundqvist on this night was Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis, who beat the Rangers goalie with a backhand. 

That Henrik put on this kind of performance is no surprise to Rangers fans who have the pleasure of watching him over the past six seasons.  Lundqvist is second all-time in shootout wins (33) and has stopped a remarkable 160/211 (75.8%) career attempts in the format.  

Other than Martin St. Louis, the only player who had a great chance to score on Henrik was his teammate Derek Stepan.  Stepan beat Lundqvist cleanly with his deke to the forehand side, but he would hit the crossbar as he tried to lift it over his down goalie.

Paired with Lundqvist on Team Staal, Marc Staal would be stopped by Team Lidstrom goalie Jonas Hiller in the first round of the Elimination Shootout. Staal would also compete in the Fastest Skater event to open the festivities.  In that competition, Staal would be matched up against Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene as the final skaters in the first round.  Staal was clearly the underdog in the pairing and then during his lap the timer for Staal malfunctioned, so no time was ever shown.  Duchene was clearly the winner and his time was 14.779 seconds.

Marc Staal would also participate in the Skills Challenge relay event on the evening.  The multi-player event which tested the All-Stars in a vast array of hockey skills would see Staal on a team with Kris Letang, Mike Green, Claude Giroux, Jamie McBain, David Backes, and Jeff Skinner.  The role for Stepan in the event was that of stickhandling through a series of pucks and overall he did fine, but there were a couple of hiccups.  Overall this group would end up with the worst time of the four groups at 2:34.

The only other event that saw a Rangers player participate was the Accuracy Shooting Competition in which Derek Stepan competed.  Stepan would compete head-to-head against Logan Couture of the San Jose Sharks.  Couture is currently considered one of the top two in the Calder trophy race.  In the event both Couture and Stepan would break all four targets, but Couture would do it in a faster time and earn Team Staal a point for winning the round. 

While Derek Stepan has no more hockey to participate in during the weekend, Marc Staal and Henrik Lundqvist will suit up for Team Staal in this afternoon’s All-Star game.  No word yet on who Marc will partner with on defense or what period Henrik will play, but one expects both to represent the Rangers proudly as they always do.

Video: Lundqvist Goes Ron Hextall Punching Max Pacioretty With Blocker

Over the past few seasons New York Rangers fans have seen Henrik Lundqvist run into by the opposition on countless occasions and all wondered at what point Henrik would just snap and go after a guy for doing it and it turns out the answer was January 15, 2011 in Montreal.

With 2:20 left in the second period and being one of the only players on his team to show up to that point in the game Henrik Lundqvist just flew off the handle after being run into by Max Pacioretty.  Lundqvist got up jumped on top of Pacioretty and proceeded to punch him in the face with his blocker.  In Pacioretty's defense he was pushed into Lundqvist by Dubinsky, but with the series of circumstances that would not have mattered to Lundqvist as he did his best imitation of Ron Hextall.  For the play Lundqvist was given two minutes for roughing, but if it means that he gets run even one less time in the future the penalty is more than worth it as keeping him healthy must be the number one priority of the organization.

If only his team had shown that much fight the first 38 minutes maybe they would have won tonight.  Good for Henrik for finally saying if the team will not stand up for him as they should, he will do it himself.

Update: New video from @Cathybytes

Lundqvist, Boyle, Dubinsky Help Rangers Find A Way To Win Another One

Andy Marlin/NHLI via Getty

The Rangers have become a team that does just find a way to win games they might not even deserve to be in and they did that again tonight where they played an awful first period, decent second and better third, and got some breaks against a team they should dominate.  The reality was the play that typified the season for the Rangers and conversely the Devils was the game winning goal.  At 13:22 of the second following a good shift for the Rangers Brandon Dubinsky would have the puck behind the net and find a pinching Michal Rozsival who would fire a shot that was going five feet wide until it hit Devils defender Andy Greene and went in. 

Combine that with the 43 saves that Lundqvist made tonight to keep the team in the game long enough to catch those breaks and you have an ugly win.   The Rangers a season ago do not win this game, so there is certainly a lot of positives to take from that side of it, but this team still does not handle huge wins all that well in that they come out sluggish and have to then fight uphill the rest of the night.  It is good they are showing that capability, but let’s not get into the habit of looking to do that.

Something to watch for will be the injury that Erik Christensen sustained just over eight minutes in when he crashed into the post and immediately grabbed at his knee.  He would not return in the game in what was described as a lower leg injury.   After the game it was announced that with the injury the Rangers have recalled Dale Weise from the Connecticut Whale.  Full details of play below.

Which New York Rangers Make Up The Core?

The New York Rangers seem to have different buzz words every year and one for this year appears to be “core.”  I hear the term core so much watching and listening to Rangers games that I feel like the 2009 playoffs and I am waiting for Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte, and Posada to come out.  For the most part the use of the core terminology has been used to refer to the Ranger home grown and specifically younger players.  I am not going to stick to those guidelines, but I am going to pick the guys I believe will make up the core of the Rangers not just this year, but going forward.  There are players I will leave off the list who will likely be here for a while, but to me these are the guys that right now have to be a part of this team and I am going to cap it at eight guys though there are three others I think right on the verge of being there.  To be crystal clear I am going to put them in my order of selection starting with the first guy I take.

Rangers Final Lineup: White Scratched; Lundqvist Start; Prospal Sent Home

Yesterday coach John Tortorella left the final spot in his lineup open for discussion when he said it would be either Erik Christensen or Todd White who was to be scratched to make room for Chris Drury’s return.  This morning Torts put an end to that speculation by saying it Todd White would be the one who was sitting at watching tonight and Erik Christensen will play with Drury and Sean Avery on the team’s fourth line.  As frustrating as watching Christensen is this is the right move for the club as White has brought little to nothing this year and there is always the chance that Christensen will have his lightning in a bottle moment tonight, especially against a former team.

In other news that should surprise no one it will be Henrik Lundqvist who will go tonight against the Penguins though I am more interested to see tomorrow’s goaltending choice because the Rangers really need to get Martin Biron back in there as tomorrow would be two weeks since he was pulled against the Islanders and if you keep letting him sit you can lose him.

Finally, Vinny Prospal was sent home and away from the team, but not due to any sort of injury, just the flu and they did not want him to put in through the team like it was earlier this season.

Today’s full pregame notes and thoughts can be found here:

Lundqvist The Fall Guy Again, But Plenty of Blame To Go Around In Rangers Loss

Each time the New York Rangers win all I hear about is the playoffs and what seed they are at and at different points I try to let myself believe in this team all the while in the back of my head knowing they have not beaten anyone and then there is a game like tonight.  Tonight is a step up from the competition of the last four games but nowhere near a true test when a team comes in having gone 1-5-1 in their last seven and 0-6 in weekend home games.  The one thing the Jackets possess that the Rangers have been unable to account for all season is speed and it would eventually burn them again tonight.  For two plus periods they played a decent if not good game but their inability to cash in on chances left them in a tie game when Henrik Lundqvist let it an awful goal without question and he was bad on the first one in my opinion as well.  I am not one of those who is going to jump full on Henrik just because that ended up being the game winner but he does let in way too many soft goals

For all of those who want to blame the loss on Henrik, what about the other 19 guys who played in this game and could only must 1 goal on a Steve Mason who is not exactly Vezina caliber this season?  How about the coaching decisions to continually throw Frolov out there on the power play shift after shift to kill chance after chance?  How about the utter lack of desperation this team possesses when they trail late in a game by one goal?  There are so many things that are wrong with this team that to blame it solely on Henrik is a cop out that happens way too often for fans.  This team lacks any sense of a killer instinct to put a wounded team down and instead all they seem to do is take years off the lives of the fans by letting the bad teams hang around and then the fans find a scapegoat for the whole team’s failure to get the result; tonight that is Hank.

Some disturbing stats to keep in mind: Rangers are now 4-13-1 when they are tied or trailing after 2; Rangers are now 6-8 when they outshoot their opponents and 11-3-1 in games they get outshot.

Details of the game:

Video: Sauer First NHL Goal/PP Game winnger; Lundqvist Robs Fisher of Hat-trick

Mike Sauer getting his first NHL goal




Lundqvist robbing Fisher of the Hat-trick

Who Is The Most Irreplaceable New York Ranger Right Now?

Over the past few days I have looked at the team, the record and what is coming next in determining if the team is legit this season.  Today I want to take a little step back and go with a more open ended discussion seeing as how the Rangers have missed various players this year due to injury and illness on the topic of what player can the Rangers least afford to be without.  When I say be without I am mainly referring to injury situations, but there is also the idea that if they left the organization in there as well.  If I had to guess coming into the season the obvious front runners for this type of question would have been Henrik Lundqvist with Marian Gaborik probably coming in second.  Right now I would say there are probably six candidates in what personally I would deem to be a relatively close debate as the current team is constructed.

Is Marian Gaborik Holding Brandon Dubinsky Back?

Over the past few years the Rangers have been marred by inconsistency both in play and in overall results.  This season they have still had the rollercoaster feel at times, but the most consistent of all Rangers forwards, if not players I terms of effort and production has been Brandon Dubinsky.  From the moment he had his hot start to the season there has been a section of Rangers fans who could not believe the results due to past inconsistency and have been waiting for the slump to happen.  I will admit that I was not necessarily in the belief a slump was due, but more that the production would slow down especially with how well he was playing carrying the offensive load in the absence of Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal.  The slump just kept getting pushed back and back and then over the last five games I was not seeing the same level of effectiveness from Dubinsky in terms of creating chances on the offensive side of the ice.  There were references to the possibility that the line had gotten stale along with the dropping of hints as to the fatigue of the team without naming names as a reason for the drop in production.  Both of those could be very valid, but I started to think back to something I wrote when Marian Gaborik was coming back.  I said the following:

One of the keys for the Rangers though will be treat the game as if he still is not in the lineup.  What I mean is when you have a superstar out the other players feel the urgency to raise their individual and collective games and in this stretch certain players like Dubinsky and Boyle in particular did that, but what cannot happen is they fall into a lull thinking the star is back and will now carry the team.  If the Rangers play the way they showed they can without Gaborik and add his skill into the lineup the results overall should improve.

What I was noticing more and more was that Dubinsky was letting his offensive game take a back seat to Gaborik instead of pressing the issue as he was when Gaborik was out of the lineup.  Obviously this is not Marian Gaborik’s fault because it a mentality problem for Brandon but it does speak to how a superstar can in some ways stunt the growth of others around him.  What I mean is on a two-on-one if the superstar is not there, the player may shoot the puck while with him they look to force the pass instead of just playing their own game.  For Dubinsky the change has been most evident on the powerplay where he was running he unit with his puck possession along wall a lot while Gaborik was out and creating chances for himself or teammates but with Gaborik he was deferring.

Join me inside for more on how last night was different and the stats to possibly support what is being seen by my eyes.

Lundqvist, Dubinsky Lead Way In Gutty SO Win at Nashville

The Rangers took the ice tonight against the Nashville Predators looking to build on last night’s victory over the Florida Panthers, but found out a few hours before the game that they would be without their offensive superstar, Marian Gaborik.  Gaborik was out with the flu, but the Rangers had experience playing without Gaborik already this season when he was out with his shoulder injury so there were no excuses to be had.  If the team was tired before tonight’s game considering the brutal November schedule and the back-to-back they would be even more exhausted after the night was over since they got an extra five and the shootout tonight.  This would be the first shootout for the Rangers this season.

In the shootout Erik Christensen would make a beautiful deke to the backhand to pull it back to his forehand and beat Pekka Rinne.  Henrik Lundqvist would stop on O’reilly.  Stepan would come in and be stopped by Renne.  The next Nashville shooter was Marcel Goc who tried to beat Henrik, but Lundqvist did not go for the dekes and stoned him.  Ryan Callahan would try to deke and beat Rinne on his forehand but could not stuff it home, so heading to the last shooter it was 1-0 Rangers.  Martin Erat would have to beat Henrik Lundqvist or the game would be over and he would come in and shoot high glove to watch Lundqvist snare it for the Rangers 2-1 victory.

Overall the game was a tale of opposing half periods for each team as in each period the Predators would dominate the opening half of the period and the Rangers would have the edge in the second half of the period.  The boxscore will say that Henrik Lundqvist had to make 29 saves in the game, but after the first period it was a relatively easy night in terms of the difficulty of the shots he faced.  In the absence of Gaborik the same players who carried the team when he was out before did it again as Brandon Dubinsky was a man out there playing 25:44 in the game and creating what would be the only goal for the Rangers scored by Ryan Callahan.

This win is the type of game the Rangers are going to have to play even with a healthy Gaborik as they played a tough gritty game where they were physical and once again their goal did not come off a flash play but rather a hard work cycle play that eventually led to the Cally goal.

In the first period the key moments were the Nashville goal where Dan Girardi had the puck hop over the stick and led to a breakaway for Colin Wilson as he got between Girardi and Michael Del Zotto at 5:04 of the period.  After that there were two successive fights as Sean Avery and Jordin Tootoo would scrap after they came out of the penalty box and then off the ensuing faceoff Brandon Prust and Shane O’Brien would fight in the Nashville zone.  Later in the period Christensen would put the puck in the net but it was an intentional kick so it would not count.

In the second period it would take the Rangers over ten minutes to register a shot and once they did they would have three golden opportunities to score but could not convert any of them.  The best of the chances was on Erik Christensen’s stick and he had all day but could not lift the puck over Rinne.  The other chances were Alex Frolov off a beautiful feed from Derek Stepan and then Callahan driving to the net and on both the Rangers would miss the net.  The same story would play out in the third as another slow start would be followed by a good second half of the period which culminated in the Ryan Callahan goal which was created solely by the work of Brandon Dubinsky refusing to be taken off the puck and then Callahan would have his shot deflect off JP Dumont and in at 13:04.

• Dubinsky was the man tonight as he seems to be when Gaborik is out of the lineup.  He showed why he deserves to be an all-star as he led by example and would not be denied on the tying goal.  Now the Rangers need him to play that way with Gaborik in there as well
• Christensen showed the flashes of why he is so frustrating because the talent is clearly there but he does not put it together
• Callahan is fearless in blocking shots
• Frolov had a good first period but did not notice him much after that
• Stepan made some good plays
• After a poor first period, Marc Staal rebounded to have a solid last two periods
• Eminger and Sauer were both good in this game
• Lundqvist continued his better technique tonight staying high and more upright in the net

Lineup News: Lundqvist to Start; Rozsival Back...Should Del Zotto Sit Instead of Gilroy?

It has been announced that Henrik Lundqvist will get the start for the Rangers when they play the Predators in Nashville tonight.  This is the right move for the club not only tonight, but for the season and not just because he had a shutout last night.  Earlier this morning I looked at why Lundqvist had to make the start tonight and you can find those thoughts here.

The other news is good for the defense as Michal Rozsival will return to the lineup tonight after missing the last 9 games with both shoulder and knee issues.  The return of Rozsival will bring another veteran blue-liner into the defensive core and if Rozi returns playing as he was earlier in the year the defense will be much stronger for it.  

Rangers Goalies: Why Lundqvist Must Continue To Play; Biron Can Wait

Coming off last night’s game the topic that first came to my mind this morning more than the way they played or  how good Henrik was in net was who would get the start against the Predators.  With the Rangers having been so focused on making sure to get Biron some work I believe he was probably scheduled to go tonight and that is not a bad thing, but if that was the schedule they need to make a change on it.  The biggest thing for the Rangers hopes this season and any season is the play of Henrik Lundqvist without question as he is their franchise guy.  In that you have your franchise player who has been up and down for the first 24 games of the year even to the point where his technique and his confidence were off.  Last night he comes out and I believe plays his best game of the year overall.

Daily Recap: Lundqvist Back in Form; Staal a Scapegoat; Stepan and the Calder; Avery Rule Lives; Prust In a Battle

After the somewhat slow news day on the Thanksgiving holiday the Rangers got back at it today and that meant more news and stories on the site ranging from looking at Staal becoming a scapegoat for some; Stepan creeping up in Calder contention; previewing tonight’s game; looking at the Sean Avery rule being called on Chris Pronger and of course the recap of the game itself. 

This morning after a couple of days of reading a series of comments sticking the majority of the loss to Tampa on Marc Staal’s shoulders I wrote about how for some Staal has become a target to be criticized whenever things seem to go wrong defensively.  The fact is he did play a lousy game against the Lightning, but so did just about everyone else and to act like he was the main reason they lost that game just takes it too far for me.  If that part of it was not enough to then take a bad game and claim it as proof of him being over-rated is just beyond comprehension to me as he is one of the best defensive defenders in the game.

Following the Staal story I looked at how in the past week Stepan has made the most of his increased role and with his hot scoring was not only taking himself off the Hartford train but moving him into the talk for the Calder.  Obvious it will take more than a hot week for him to be a legitimate candidate for the award, but with the signs in his game the idea is certainly within the realm of possibilities.

The pregame is as the pregame always is, but today the question was about how the team and especially the best players would respond to being called out by Tortorella for the way they performed against the Lightning.

During the early evening the news broke about how during overtime of the Flyers-Flames game that Chris Pronger was called for the Sean Avery rule not only giving the Flyers a penalty but nullifying what would have been the game winning goal for the team.  I put up the video of the incident which to me looked relatively harmless though the intent from Pronger was obvious and the video of Pronger’s post-game comments which were great.  Later on I put up the video of back when Avery faced up against Brodeur literally and was the impetus for the rule in the first place.

From the game itself there was the video of an entertaining fight between two very good fighters in Brandon Prust and Darcy Hordichuk which can be seen here.  Finally there was the game recap in which I looked at how while the effort was better tonight the team did not play nearly well enough to have beaten a better opponent on the night and if not for Henrik Lundqvist and his brilliance might not have even beaten this one.  Stepan kept his hot play up making me look smart from this morning, Prust got his first of the year, Gaborik, Staal and Girardi all responded from their subpar games to have a very positive impact in this one.

The Rangers will be in Nashville tomorrow to take on the Predators and we will certainly cover that along with other news and stories.

Lundqvist Tames Panthers As Rangers Win 3-0 In Solid Bounceback Effort

Eliot J. Schechter/ Getty Images

The Rangers took the ice against the Florida Panthers looking to rebound from a bad performance on Wednesday against the Lightning and the effort was much better tonight and their world class goaltender made all of it stand up with a brilliant game.  For those who were worried about Henrik and his confidence you can exhale as he was on top of his game from the opening shift of the game and they needed him to be.  In all Henrik would have to make 40 saves in the game as his defense really was not great tonight either as a whole though an improvement from Wednesday.  In a relative sense this was a better performance but by no means should fans or the team be jumping for joy over this performance outside of a couple players because as a team if they play this way against a good team they are in trouble.

Pregame: Will Rangers Stars Respond Against Panthers? 11/26/2010

New York (12-10-1) at Florida (9-11)

Key Opposition Player: Frolik (4-9-13)

Rangers Lineup:

Dubinsky-Stepan-Gaborik
Fedotenko-Boyle-Callahan
Frolov-Anisimov-Prust
Avery-EC-White

Staal - Girardi
Del Zotto - Eminger
Gilroy - Sauer

Lundqvist

Biron

Daily Recap: Rangers D Lags For Lundqvist; Drury Has To Earn His Letter; Practice News on Lines, Rozsival, Team Meeting; Thank you and Viewing Party

Before I get to hockey I want to say that I hope you and yours had a wonderful Thanksgiving probably filled with good family and good fun and hopefully no turkey coma.  I also want to be serious and tell you how thankful I am for the support of all of you with the new site and that it humbles and drives me to work even harder with it.  As I have said before, the reason that I do this is to try to lend a voice to a lot of Rangers fans out there and when they take the time out of there day to read what I have put together that makes the act of doing it worthwhile.  Enjoy your night; don’t spend too much money on Black Friday and now onto today’s hockey.

On this Thanksgiving it was a relatively quiet day on Bleeding All Blue, but there were a few articles put out today.  This morning I took a look at something that has been brewing for a long time for the Rangers and noticed by probably most all Rangers fans over the years in that the Rangers seem to play better defensively for the backup goaltenders than they do for Henrik Lundqvist.  With the help of Ranger Smurf and his statistics I took a look at the staggering differential in the number of scoring chances the Rangers allow when Henrik is in the net versus what the way they limit them when Martin Biron plays.

This afternoon I took a look at Chris Drury and how over the past few seasons I have defended him from the critics not for the contract he has but for the importance he has had to this team in different areas even if the scoring numbers had slipped dramatically.  Right now I cannot defend the way this rehabilitation from a finger is being handled whether it be a month to get back on the ice and skate and still being unable to grip a stick, that must be some break is all I can think.  While we are talking eight weeks for the Captain to get back from a finger problem you have other players playing through injuries every game with the most glaring example being someone like Brandon Prust.  Other players have stepped up in the absence of Drury both on the ice and in the room but it is time for the Captain to earn his letter or give it up.

Final hockey piece there was news from today’s practice that included a team meeting, new lines, an update on the Michal Rozsival injury situation and even something on Chris Drury.  All the details are here.

Lastly tomorrow for the Rangers game at Florida, Blueshirt Banter is holding a viewing party at Poitin Still Irish Restaurant and Pub in Hackensack, NJ.  I do not know if I will personally be able to attend but there will be plenty of the best Rangers bloggers out there in attendance, a live episode of Blueshirt Banter radio and Ranger legends Nick Fotiu, Ron Greschner and Chris Kotsopoulos will be in the house.  I would recommend the even to all and point you to Blueshirt Banter to get more information, though I am sure all you already know the way.