Rangers Prospect Christian Thomas Hits 50 Goals, But Doesnt Stop There

While many of the New York Rangers prospects have struggled with injury issues this season 2010 second round pick Christian Thomas has been lighting up the Ontario Hockey League for the Oshawa Generals.  Yesterday in the Eastern Conference Coaches Poll Thomas was deemed to have the best shot, be the most dangerous in the goal area and have the second hardest shot in the league.  That is a tremendous amount of respect shown to the offensive ability Thomas has and the respect he has garnered from the coaches who see everyone in the league.

Clearly those coaches knew what they were talking about as tonight not only did Thomas put up his 50th of the season, but he would get a hat-trick to add number 51 and 52 in his tremendous campaign.  Thomas would also add an assist to take his season numbers to 52-40-92 in 62 games.  He is currently tied for 1st in goals with Ottawa’s Tyler Toffoli and 4th overall in points.  Thomas has been tremendous all year, but his work down the stretch of the season has been extraordinary as he has 18 goals 14 assists in 17 games since the start of February.

Before Rangers fans get overly excited, as we have a tendency to do, do not expect Thomas to be able to put up those numbers in the NHL, but as a pure sniper he is certainly the best of any Rangers prospect, so be excited about that.

Enough With The Excuses, Gaborik Must Rise To The Occasion Down The Stretch

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The New York Rangers have 13 games left in this season and as of this moment they are still in the playoffs without their best offensive player producing anywhere near his capabilities.  If they want to stay there it is well beyond time that Marian Gaborik step his game up and get beyond the struggles for consistent goal scoring he has suffered from all season.  One of the few things as frustrating as the lack of goal scoring from Gaborik has been the sheer number of excuses and apologists that have come out looking to explain why he has struggled so mightily.  Yes, he has been hurt at different points this year.  Yes, he does not have elite talent to play with him.  Yes, the team does play a grinding style that is not particularly suited for Gaborik’s playing style.  No, those are not valid excuses to explain why in 49 games this season a world class sniper like Marian Gaborik has 18 goals, all which have come in just 11 games.  Reality is if the excuses do not end and the goals begin then the Rangers will lose out on all the hard work that has gone into this season and fall short of the playoffs again.

The latest attempt to explain Gaborik’s ineffectiveness was from Larry Brooks today in the NY Post when he discussed how coach John Tortorella needs to let Gaborik be Gaborik.

There's been a push and pull all year and it hasn't worked.

John Tortorella, the coach, has publicly (and assuredly more pointedly behind closed doors) attempted to prod Marian Gaborik into becoming a card-carrying member of the Black-and-Blueshirts' shot-blocking wall-battlers.

Wednesday morning, even in praising Gaborik's performance against the Flyers, Tortorella made a reference to "grinding." There were no such references last year when Gaborik finished fifth in the league in goal scoring.

We get it. Gaborik has the same responsibility to compete as every one of his teammates. But we can tell you that dynastic Islanders' coach Al Arbour never once called for Mike Bossy to be a grinder in the mold of teammates Clark Gillies, John Tonelli, Bob Nystrom and Duane Sutter. Are you kidding?

The point Brooks is pushing towards is a valid one in that asking Gaborik to play the game the Rangers’ “less skilled” players have to play is not going to work because it does not fit his skill set.  The problem is that Brooks is pushing this as if Gaborik is doing the things he is capable of doing and just not getting enough ice time to show it.  He was invisible for the first two periods the other night and that had nothing to do with John Tortorella.  The problem with Gaborik is the same as it has been all season; he is not skating. 

No one is to blame for Gaborik’s lack of aggressiveness skating or in the offensive zone except him.  It is that lack of being a threat that is making it easy for him to be defended.  When you remove all the excuses and watch Gaborik in every game that he has played well this season you notice him in front of the net, you notice him taking guys on one-on-one, you notice him constantly moving.  The Rangers need Marian to be that dynamic threat that everyone in the building rises to their feet every time he touches the puck.  The need to opponent’s to fear him on every shift.  They need him to get back to doing what makes him so dangerous to play against.  That begins with his skating and carrying the puck instead of dumping it in.  It continues with shooting off the rush as it will create not only space, but rebounds for his teammates. 

When he plays along the wall and drifts around the ice aimlessly he is useless to this team and there is no reason to give him more ice time.  To toss the blame for a player struggling is the easiest thing that one can do, but that does not mean the blame does not belong on the player’s shoulders.  That is not to say the reasons/excuses all have not individually and collectively played a role in the season that Gaborik has had but it is well past time to ditch the crutches and hold Gaborik accountable for his own performance.  If Gaborik is skating the results will take care of themselves and then if he is still getting 14 minutes a night, I will gladly point the finger at the coaches for not using him properly. Until he does what he needs to do in having an impact while he is on the ice there is no reason to just hand him more time for the sake of saying he is the star.  Stars find a way to produce in the face of the adversities that everyone is claiming as his reasons for not producing, not hide behind them.  He did not have elite linemates in Minnesota, yet he produced.  He played in a defense first system in Minnesota, yet he produced.  He was injured a lot in Minnesota, yet he produced. 

There are 13 games left in the regular season so the time for excuses for Gaborik and everyone else must end and the performance must show up or the team will go down, simple as that.

Playoffs Begin Now, Will The Rangers Rise To Moment Or Fall Short Again?

With Buffalo’s win last night in Boston the New York Rangers have fallen into eighth place in the Eastern Conference playoff race courtesy of the games played tiebreaker.  New York is still two points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, though the Hurricanes also possess two games in hand on the Rangers.  With those as the facts and the bitter taste remaining from the Anaheim performance there is a sense of panic amongst Rangers fans.  Is it really time to panic?  Not just yet, but the sense of urgency better be there with the team these last 13 games or they will be home watching along with us as the playoffs start.

Every team hits rough patches in the season.  The difference between those that survive the grind and those that don’t is how quickly they can stop the bleeding and right the ship.  Another key, especially under this playoff system is to find a way to get at least one point in games you might lose and the Rangers are doing an awful job of that.  The Rangers have 35 wins this season while Buffalo has 33 and Carolina only 31, but the Rangers have only gotten one point out of a game 4 times while Buffalo has done it 8 and Carolina 10.  Sometimes you just have to find a way to get one point.  Also under the new tiebreaker rules those wins do not mean the same thing they used to as shootout wins are removed from the equation so the Rangers have 28 wins in regulation/OT while Buffalo has 28 and Carolina 27.

Those facts do not help the Rangers cause in thinking about whether they will be able to maintain their current playoff spot.  Yesterday at ESPN.com Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun discussed the chase for the final two spots in the East and did not look to favorably on the Rangers chances of remaining inside the top eight.

Burnside: The Rangers have won just two of their past six games, and their offense comes in fits and starts even with Marian Gaborik back in the lineup. Buffalo looks like a good bet to settle into the seventh seed given games in hand and its current level of play, although the Sabres have a big tilt with Boston on Thursday night in Beantown. But the Rangers have to be concerned that their up and down play is going to open the door for one of those on-the-bubble teams to make a late push and snatch up that final playoff berth. Do you think the Rangers can hang on, my friend?

LeBrun: The Rangers concern me greatly. They've lost some confidence. Only three wins in their last 10, that's not going to cut it. I feel like they overachieved in the first half and now reality is settling in. But they're a better team than what they showed last night in Anaheim.

LeBrun is correct when he says that the Rangers, in the first half of the year, greatly overachieved and performed beyond their abilities. That's something that has been stated quite often here on the blog. But the play we have seen from this team as of late, in the games against the Ducks, Wild and Sabres, the Blueshirts have been playing below their abilities. They may have been overpowered in the tilt with Anaheim, but there is no reason that they couldn't have made that a closer contest.

Burnside: As the games dwindle, this is where you see teams start to knuckle. Sometimes it's injuries, but in the case of the Rangers, I think they have to work so hard for every point that at some point the tank dries up. That's why Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist are so important to keeping them afloat. They will need to be better.

Both are right in talking about the Rangers have lowered their level and gone from overachievers in the first half to underachievers in the second half and part of that is the fact that they have gone from a team that outworked their opponents over the course of a game to a team that is content with constantly trying to come back in the third period.  In the first half of the year they were finding a way to get those late goals and comeback wins that they cannot manage to secure now.  Their stars must be better and more importantly their effort has to get back to where it was before.  In the words of Dennis Green, “they are who we thought they were,” and with that we knew that this season was going to come down to the wire in terms of getting in or being left out of the playoffs and now there are 13 games to decide their fate.  Regardless of the outcome there is hope for the future, but this final month will tell a lot about the leadership in that locker room.

Rangers Lack Both Elite Talent And Finishing Quality

Last night’s game showed two huge flaws with this team, ones which are huge reasons why I do not believe the New York Rangers can legitimately threaten to win a Stanley Cup this year.  Of those two flaws, at least one cannot be solved in the final 13 games of this season.  The one that is fixable or at least able to be improved is our level of finishing quality.  The other, which is somewhat related, which cannot be fixed this season is the Rangers lack of elite talent on the offensive end.

Regardless of the talent level of any of the individual players this team is abysmal at finishing the chances they create.  There were three missed open nets, a couple of posts and countless other opportunities that we did not cash in against a replacement level goaltender last night.  We are capable of the 7 goal outbursts because one they get rolling the confidence side takes over and everyone stops thinking about finishing and just shoots, but the Rangers consistent inability to hit the right side of an open net or lift the puck over prone goaltenders is ridiculous.

Most of these guys are not natural goal scorers or at least not of the sniper variety, but you can teach or at least improve technique in finishing around the net.  I am not asking them to learn how to read the play better or beat guys on dazzling moves, just finish when the puck is on your stick within five feet of the net. 

Our coaching staff talks all the time about building with this group, them learning at this level, then how about they start teaching them some basic fundamentals on the offensive end too.  Run it like a free throw drill in basketball for all I care, but do not let them off the ice until they have successfully scored on X many chances from different spots in front.  I would love to see them use that little blocker they had during the skill competition which covers the bottom few inches of the net and forces players to lift the puck off the ice.

Part of what makes for the awful finishing is the lack of elite talent on the roster.  You watch the Ducks and while their lineup certainly lacks the depth and balance that the Rangers have they have three true top line players in Ryan, Getzlaf, and Perry, while the Rangers even at their best have one in Marian Gaborik.  To make matters worse Gaborik has not played at that top level with any consistency this season, partially due to injury, partially from his lack of consistent and/or high end partners, but if the Rangers are going to develop any kind of consistent offense and hold on down the stretch he is going to have to step his game up.  Yes, he did score a goal last night. No, it does not mean anything. 

It is always nice for a player to see the puck go in and you hope they can build on it mentally to avoid pressing, but as we saw just a few shifts later having that goal go in did nothing to help him finish on the open net, which would have cut the game to one at 4-3.  Last year Gaborik buries that goal without question and he also abuses Cam Fowler on that one-on-one play instead of having the puck roll harmlessly to Dan Ellis.  He is just not there this season and while the talk was about the other struggling stars throughout the league just about all of them have found their form again while Gaborik is still searching.

Beyond Gaborik this team is a bunch of hard workers and second line players that lack the natural talent to be game changers.  This is why the Rangers play the grinding style that they do in order to manufacture goals and try to win games.  I see all this talk about why don’t the Rangers open it up more and play with more skill in the safe is death mode and the simple answer is we do not have that kind of personnel. 

The lack of top line, game breaking players is what has many eager to jump into the Brad Richards sweepstakes, but I look at the Ducks and most of the other top lines/players in the league and I cannot think of one that was “bought.”  Nearly all of the best lines in the league were built through the draft and while Brad Richards will certainly add talent to Marian Gaborik how long does he remain at that level so that the Rangers as an organization can sustain their ability to contend.

Rangers Unacceptable Performance Has Tortorella Admit "We Sucked" (W/ Video)

New York Rangers coach John Tortorella is not typically one to mince his words and he certainly did not last night when he opened his post-game remarks with two simple words, “We sucked.”

Recently in each loss the Rangers have suffered Tortorella has taken the upbeat approach choosing to focus more on the things that the team did well and how they were close, but just not getting there.  On this night there was nothing to cling to.  Sure the Rangers gave up some fluke goals off deflections and bad bounces, but that was not the difference in the game. The effort, if you can call it that, was one of the worst of the season for a club that has prided itself on playing hard every night regardless of the results.  Losing is one thing and while disappointing it can be stomached if the effort is there.  Last night was something completely different and with only 13 games remaining on the schedule it must be corrected immediately.  It was not just one player, it was an epidemic problem last night.

"We had some passengers and some guys testing the water,” Tortorella said. “We haven't played that way too often and we'll bounce back, but it's a tough way to play at this time of year."

This team simply is not talented enough to put in the effort they did against Anaheim and beat anyone in this league.  They have a style they must play and with a level of energy and effort they must play at to beat people and when it does not produce they will get blown out by anyone.  

Here is my full recap of last night's action. 
 

Full Video of Tortorella following the game:

Video: Martin St. Louis Spin-o-rama Clips Hawks, But Was It Legal?

If the Tampa Bay Lightning and Chicago Blackhawks meet again this season there will be no shootout to decide the outcome, but there was tonight and there was some controversy to it.  Spin-o-rama goals have become a popular way to attempt to score in shootouts and it was the preferred method of Tampa's Martin St. Louis as he came down on Chicago's Corey Crawford.  The move itself and the finish were absolutely beautiful.

Here's the video of the move and the goal:

Where the controversy comes in is at the end of the spin and whether or not St. Louis comes to a stop.  

Here is the rule: 

Rule 25.2: The spin-o-rama type move where the player completes a 360° turn as he approaches the goal, shall be permitted as this involves continuous motion.

After review it was ruled that the motion was continuous and the goal was allowed to stand, though to my eyes it certainly looks like he stops momentarily.

Was it the right call?

Rangers Lay An Egg vs Ducks in 5-2 Loss

Debora Robinson/NHLI via Getty Images

The Rangers are who we thought they were.  They are a team that can put up huge goal totals in one game and fail to finish in the next.  They are a team that does not handle momentum type wins very well as they destroyed a nemesis on Sunday and came out tonight and put in an awful effort in a 5-2 loss to the Ducks.  They were outhustled and out skilled all night by Anaheim in one the worst performances this team has put on all season.  Tonight you really saw the difference between the Rangers as a team that tries to grind out everything and rely on committee offense versus a team that truly has elite skill.  The line of Ryan, Getzlaf, and Perry dominated the Rangers all night long combining for three goals, five assists and a plus 10, while the Rangers line of Dubinsky, Anisimov, Callahan had one goal and were a minus 10.

The first period started very well with an excellent opening five minutes.  The Rangers struck first with Brandon Dubinsky netting his 20th goal on the season just 3:30 into the game.  The play was a beautiful setup by Ryan Callahan that saw Dubinsky walk in all alone on a busted defensive play by Cam Fowler and he finished it off.  Things went straight downhill from there.

The Ducks tallied three goals before the end of the first and each one was off a Rangers player.  Corey Perry would get the first 7:34 in when he threw the puck toward the crease and it banked off the skate of Dan Girardi.  Next up was Lubomir Visnovsky firing one from the point off Marc Staal’s arm and in to give the Ducks the lead.  Visnovsky was not done as he got another deflected goal late in the first.  This time off Artem Anisimov’s stick turning it into a knuckle puck that bounced off the ice and over Lundqvist’s shoulder.

The Rangers were dominated again in the second period, but there were no goals.  The third period was a combination of Rangers failures and Anaheim showing how finishing is done by top players in this league.  Brandon Dubinsky had a wide open net to shoot at early in the third but instead of burying the chance he shot it back across the net into Dan Ellis paddle.  Of course the Ducks would take the puck the other way on a two-on-one and show the Rangers how it is done with Bobby Ryan burying the chance to turn what could have been a 3-2 deficit immediately into a 4-1 hole.  On the play Girardi did not take away the shot or the pass and Perry found Ryan for the finish.

Marian Gaborik scored a meaningless power play goal 5:31 into the third after being invisible for the first two plus periods of action.  With the score still 4-2 Gaborik would have a similar chance with at least three feet of the net to work with and he too shot it back across into Ellis instead of burying it and making it a game.

Anaheim would cap it with just over five minutes remaining when Bobby Ryan walked around Dan Girardi, who once again dove on the ice and got nothing, and fed the puck across to Corey Perry who made it 5-2.

• Marian Gaborik getting a meaningless goal for me was nothing more than stat padding and I don’t take it as any sort of sign that he is headed in the right direction.  His invisibility when the game was even in question was ridiculous.
• Dan Girardi was abysmal tonight

Impact of McCabe Goes Beyond Numbers

Nick Laham/Getty Images

Normally I agree with George Ays of Tracking the Rangers when he says, “Numbers don’t lie, they just don’t agree with you.”  One place where I don’t agree, at least not yet, is in terms of the impact Bryan McCabe has had on the New York Rangers power play.  It has been five games and the stats say the man advantage is still struggling only converting on 3 of 20 (15%) power plays.  The numbers say that the impact has been negligible to this point.  I do not get that same feel in watching the Rangers when they have the advantage since he has been here.

The willingness to shoot the puck and hit the net has created something opponents have not had to account for all season.  He has yet to score with his bombs from the point, but it has created a number of rebound opportunities and beyond that has made other players on the ice more aggressive and that aggression has been utterly lacking for this team all season.  More players are willing to pull the trigger on their own shots, with more space to do so and some are even heading to the front of the net for a change.  All of these things are critical to getting the final reward.

Along with his shot the biggest help to the power play has been his ability to keep the puck in the zone.  For much of the year the Rangers would spend half the power play chasing the puck down to the other end of the ice and starting over because they were unable to hold the line, but McCabe has been a virtual vacuum back there sucking up clearing attempts and continuing possession for the offense.

His understanding and comfort running a power play also shows in how he walks the line at the point to create angles for both his own shot and passing lanes.  These are the types of things that a power play quarterback does and the things that McCabe should be imparting to the rest of the Rangers defense core.  The results are not there yet, but I believe that between the movement, the aggression, the puck possession and the big shot from the point those results will come in short order.

So, do the numbers lie or my eyes?

Could Sean Avery Be A Healthy Scratch In The Near Future?

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New York Rangers coach John Tortorella refusing to commit to a lineup the day before a game is nothing new, but does it speak to potential changes in the near future?  The assumption for many was that once Erik Christensen was the healthy scratch on Sunday the Rangers had their forward lineup for the rest of the season.  That is certainly possible, but to this point I am not convinced that is the case.  In fact, I believe he will be back in the lineup pretty soon and a fan favorite, Sean Avery, might be the one who goes out in his place.

The reason given for Christensen taking a seat against Philadelphia was about his toughness against that kind of team, which is certainly a valid criticism of his game.  The interesting lineup questions will come when the Rangers play teams that are not as physical and the team needs to incorporate more skill.  Christensen frustrates like few others because he possesses elite skill that should make him a top six forward, but absolutely no consistency to his play.  On the season he has been disappointing with just 9 goals and 20 points in 50 games, but he does have three goals and three assists in the last five games.  The combination of his recent hot play, his prior chemistry with Marian Gaborik and his shootout abilities down the stretch in a tight playoff race make him an option John Tortorella is likely to go back to.

If Christensen is to go back into the lineup, someone must come out and barring any other injuries the most likely candidate is Sean Avery.  I am not arguing that Avery should come out of the lineup for Christensen, just that it is likely to happen.  Avery has been excellent this year in playing his role and of late has picked up his threat level in terms of scoring goals, but nothing he has done has translated to him getting more minutes.  Only once in the last seven games has Avery even hit the 10 minute mark for ice time in a game. The minutes certainly play a role in his point production, but Avery has only accounted for one goal and three assists in his last 17 games.

In practice the past few days the lines have been consistent:

Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan

Avery/Christensen-Prospal-Gaborik

Wolski-Stepan-Zuccarello

Fedotenko-Boyle-Prust

With those being the lines it only furthers the belief that if Christensen is to come back in the lineup and there are no injuries it would be a clean swap of him and Avery.  The line of Avery, Prospal, Gaborik failed to generate much of anything on Sunday, other than the disallowed goal, so that also factors in when considering where a change would be made as the other three lines are playing well together.  I do not see that happening tonight against a physical team like Anaheim, but it could happen much sooner than many fans would like.

I know a lot of the comments will be against the move, and I appreciate that, but I am more interested in whether you think it will happen, so leave that as well. Thanks.

Video: Zdeno Chara Hits Max Pacioretty Into Glass Divider, Pacioretty Stretchered Off

After their last meeting there was some bad blood between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens and tonight’s action will not do anything to stem that from these two longtime rivals.  Late in the second period, Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara rode Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty along the wall and Pacioretty’s head would slam into the glass divider between the two benches. 

Pacioretty was down and unconscious for some time before he was placed on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.  Early reports from the Canadiens are that Pacioretty is conscious and able to move all of his extremities, which is excellent news. 

Update: Per Darren Dreger the news on Pacioretty is not good.

According to Habs, Pacioretty suffered a severe concussion and fractured 4th cervical vertebra.

Here is the video of the hit:

As for the hit itself it is definitely late and Chara was assessed a 5-minute major penalty for interference, as well as a game misconduct on the play.  The question now is what kind of punishment Chara will get from the league.  There does appear to be malicious intent on Chara’s part, but the severity of the result will certainly be factored into any decision that the league makes.

What do you think the league should do with Chara?