Wild To Have Boogaard Memorial Night Nov 27, Your Move New York Rangers

According to Hockey Wilderness, on November 27 the Minnesota Wild will be holding a tribute to honor the loss of Derek Boogaard.  The Wild are doing this the right way giving out posters to the fans, donating to Defending the Blue Line and adding a memorial to the concourse along with selling Boogaard memorial mechandise in addition to video tribute to his life and career.

This only increases the questions Rangers on why they have not done the same for a player, who while only with the organization for one injury shortened season, that was a member of their family when he passed so suddenly in May.  It is a shocking surprise considered how the Rangers organization and fan community reacted over the summer.

When Derek Boogaard suddenly passed away this summer the New York Rangers made all the right moves.  They invited his brother Aaron Boogaard to the podium during the 2011 NHL Entry Draft to announce New York's first pick.  In addition, thanks to our friend Kevin DeLury of NYRangers Blog the Rangers fan community got in on the act.  First Kevin organizaed a contest to design a shirt in his honor, then the shirts were sold raise money for Defending the Blue Line. 

The Rangers however have not made the right moves in how you honor a lost teammate since the 2011-12 season started.  There was no tribute to Boogaard in any way comparable to what Vancouver did in honoring the loss of Rick Rypien and certainly nothing to the level of Minnesota appears to be planning.  All they did was a video tribute during a TV timeout during the home opener.  Time for the Rangers to do the right thing and hold a memorial night of their own for Boogaard.

What A Difference A Week Makes In Rangers World

Amazing the difference a week makes.  Going into last Monday’s game against the San Jose the New York Rangers stood at 3-3-3 without having played a single complete game in bunch.  Questions about the offense, defense and even energy level of the team were running rampant while panic was festering in the fan base.  Fast forward a week and four wins later and the mood in Rangers’ land is flying high to the other extreme. 

The Rangers have found consistency not only in their results, but more importantly in their play.  The team, other than against San Jose, is still lacking that consistent effort throughout the game, but individuals and lines are playing their style with significantly more regularity.  The consistency and production has allowed coach John Tortorella to put away the line mixing, other than for Wolski’s injury, for a week and chemistry is building within the lines.  Brad Richards is at home with Dubinsky and Callahan using their physicality to bring more energy to his own game.  Gaborik has shown quick chemistry with Anisimov and Stepan as his wingers.  The Boyle line is finally getting back to playing their forechecking game and the fourth line has brought energy when they have gotten their chances.  Christensen has found some consistency of effort and purpose this week and Andre Deveaux has been excellent in playing his role thus far.

Defensively Girardi and McDonagh continue to be standouts and stalwarts.  Michael Sauer’s consistency is a huge benefit to the team and has aided Del Zotto tremendously at even strength.  Del Zotto is getting better with each game, adding to his confidence and improving his play in his own end.  Eminger and Woywitka have played solid as well and not giving coach John Tortorella any excuse to use newly signed defenseman Anton Stralman.

After a few subpar games for himself, Henrik Lundqvist is back on track and Martin Biron continues to show how valuable an addition he has been since last year.

The mood at 7-3-3 is sky high and with their play in the past week they have earned it.  Now the work continues to maintain or improve the level at which they are playing long-term, but for now enjoy it Rangers fans.

Wolski Out Four Weeks

The New York Rangers announced today that left wing, Wojtek Wolski will be out for four weeks with a sports hernia.  He will undergo surgery tomorrow in Philadelphia.

According to the press release, when Wolski returns, he will be playing his 400th NHL game. 

Wolski has 2 assists this season in six appearances and is 9 goals away from his 100th career NHL goal.

Video: Messier Talks NYC Marathon

Memo To Rangers Fans: Time To Get Girardi Apparel At MSG

The New York Rangers are a team that has certain lynchpins that hold the whole thing together.  When you think of those players Lundqvist, Callahan, Staal are the first three that come to mind for me.  Obviously the work of Gaborik, Richards and Dubinsky are keys to success of the team along with continuing emergence of Ryan McDonagh and Michael Sauer defensively.  The guy that is as big to the team as anyone is Dan Girardi.

If Ryan Callahan is the epitome of what the Rangers want to be as an identity, then Dan Girardi is right there with him.  No player in the league blocks more shots than Girardi who every game is seemingly limping at least twice from a blocked shot but continues to return to the ice on his next shift.  He has done this as a top pair defender on the Rangers for the past three seasons without the proper recognition, at least outside of the locker room.  He is the unquestioned leader of the defense corps that is surviving the loss of All-Star Marc Staal for an indefinite amount of time.  In Staal's absence this year, Girardi has taken his game to another level leading the league in ice time (27:58), while chipping in seven points (2G, 5A) and doing his normal thing blocking shots (34) and hitting the opposition (27).

Yet with all that Girardi has done and is doing this season there is no recognition of him inside Madison Square Garden in terms of merchandise in the team store.  It might seem silly to worry about something like that, but with all that Girardi has done for this team you would think that the stands could stand to have few less Lundqvist, Callahan or Dubinsky shirts/jersey's and a few more Girardi.  I do not begrudge anyone of their favorite player, but it is time we start giving Girardi some love commensurate with the work he puts in for us.

From what I have been told, the reason that no Girardi merchandise is available in the stores at MSG is because it is not a requested item by the fans.  Time for us to change that fact.  Making that happen is very simple.  Next time you are at MSG for a Rangers game take a few minutes to walk into a store and tell someone working there that you are requesting the Rangers start making Dan Girardi apparel.  If you want go ahead and ask for some other players as well since McDonagh, Sauer, Anisimov, and the best backup in the league Martin Biron deserve some love as well, but in my opinion at least Girardi not having one at this point is simply wrong.

I created a facebook page just so you can share it with friends and fellow Rangers fans to spread the word in order to get Girardi a little piece of recognition that he deserves showing we respect all he does on the ice.

Photo: "Closest Thing" to Flyers Winter Classic Jersey

Posted by Greg Wyshynski at PuckDaddy a new leak has been released of the Flyers Winter Classic Jersey.
While it is NOT the actual jersey, insiders have said it is the closest thing to the real jersey that they have seen.

Rangers' Anisimov Continues To Grow Before Our Eyes

Artem Anisimov an excellent sophomore season with the New York Rangers last year watching his production go from 28 points (12G, 16A) to 44 points (18G, 26A).  Anisimov found a home playing with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan on the team’s best line last season.  The performance of that trio led to lofty expectations for all three entering the season.  Anisimov showed in training camp/during the preseason that he has put in the work to get stronger and work on the flaws in his game, but the results were not showing early. 

His individual play was good, however the line was struggling to produce anything on the scoreboard.  Callahan and Dubinsky were not playing their typical style of game and that even more than the lack of scoring was what cause coach John Tortorella to start tinkering with the line.  Anisimov was the victim of the line being broken up because Tortorella had seemed averse to putting him with Gaborik on the top line.  Once Anisimov fell out of the top six he ended up being pushed to the fourth line. 

Anisimov continued to work and finally got his first goal of season Monday against San Jose on  a tremendous backhand shot high over the shoulder.   The work and effort Anisimov put in while waiting for his chance to get more ice time while playing higher in the lineup has now paid off.   The most recent groin injury to Wojtek Wolski afforded him that opportunity and Anisimov is playing like he has no intention of going anywhere from his spot alongside Derek Stepan and Marian Gaborik.  In two games the 23-year-old forward has four assists and is showing excellent chemistry with both Stepan and Gaborik.  The four points for Anisimov have him third on the team with eight points thus far (1G, 7A) and as long as he continues to play at the level he has been at the last two those numbers are going to continue to rise.

The constant improvement in all facets of the game that Artem Anisimov continues to make seems to get overlooked by the media and the fans of the New York Rangers.  Last year the talk centered on Dubinsky and Callahan for the work the line did and in the past two games it was about Stepan and Gaborik.  All four of those other players deserve the attention they get, but Anisimov should get some credit for what those lines accomplished as well.  Each year Anisimov adds to his game and the 23-year-old has become a player more than capable of hanging with top line players on both ends of the ice.  Add a quicker release to his added strength, good skating, quality vision/passing and lethal shot off the rush and you have a force to be reckoned with.  The consistency in production on the scoreboard is still coming, but there is nothing about the development of this young Russian forward that should be taken for granted.

Biron Shutout Leads Rangers To Fourth Straight Win

The New York Rangers extended their winning streak to four games with a 3-0 win over the Winnipeg Jets. The win gave New York a 4-1-1 homestand, which is quite the improvement after coming away winless in their first two games of the stand. Overall the team sits at 7-3-3 on the season.

Martin Biron stopped 23 saves for his first shutout as a Ranger. While not tested a whole lot, other than a few plays in the first, Biron once again showed why there should be no concern over him getting action and resting Lundqvist.  The win improved him to 3-0 this season. 

After an uneventful opening the period the Rangers got on the board when Derek Stepan tallied on the power play. Gaborik took care of the rest of the scoring, first off a beautiful feed from Stepan on 2 on 1 and then with a backhander into an empty net with 1.1 seconds left.

• Power play was not pretty for most of the night, but they did tally once improving to 5-0-1 when they get a power play goal.
• Girardi continues to take a beating and keep going as there were multiple times tonight that he looked hurt and returned to action.
• Dubinsky's issues scoring are now impacting him even the simple plays.  No better example of it then late in the game when they were trying to feed him for the empty-netter and he couldn't even skate or handle the puck out of his own zone.  Still believe when he gets one he will go on a run, but the pressure is mounting.

Video: KHL Coach Andrei Nazarov Swings Stick At Fans From Bench

Andrei Nazarov used to be an NHL player, but is now the coach of Vityaz in the KHL.  His team lost 3-2 to Dinamo Minsk, but that was not the story of this one.  A fan threw something from the stands at Nazarov behind the bench in the closing seconds of the game and Nazarov decided he was going to take action.  Nazarov grabbed a stick and started swinging it over the glass at the fan.




H/T to Puck Daddy for the video:

Rangers' Kreider Continues Domination For Boston College

Last summer there was a push amongst many to have Chris Kreider (2009 1st round pick) turn pro even though he had a subpar season at Boston College.  The idea behind it was that you get him in the professional ranks with the New York Rangers and let them take over his development.  Part of the theory for some was that Kreider seemed bored with college hockey and was not going to take the next step while at Boston College.  My problem with that is a prospect shows they are ready when they go out and dominate their competition level.  It might have taken longer than some had both hoped and expected, but Kreider is now a doing that for Boston College. 

Each game for Boston College Kreider seemingly ups his game and that happened again Friday night with another three point performance.  He scored once and assisted on two others Friday as BC dominated Maine 5-1. On Saturday he had a power play goal in the 4-2 loss to UMass.

Jess Rubenstein at The Prospect Park has more on Kreider’s play the Friday night.

Kreider was involved in all 3 of those goals and then in the 3rd period showed us something we have been waiting to see for 3 years. We saw some snarl out of him as Kreider even showed us some temper when Maine tried to push him around and Kreider pushed back.

A little snarl would be a welcomed addition to Kreider's game because he is going to take a ton of punishment at the NHL level with his role as a power forward around the net.  As long as Kreider is smart about when and how to push back it will only help him establish himself once he becomes a pro.

The four points in the two games gives Kreider 15 points (8G, 7A) in only 10 games this season after tallying only 11 goals and 13 assists in 32 games last year.  There was never any question that Kreider had the physical tools to play in the NHL, even possibly this year, but his game was not at that consistent level.  This kind of domination in college shows that he is putting it everything together now and vastly improves his chances of being the impact player he wants to be at the NHL level.