Blueshirts By the Numbers: Number 17: Dean Prentice
Dean Prentice was another one of Emile Francis' players from the Guelph Biltmores of the OHA. Prentice played in Guelph with future Ranger stars such as Andy Bathgate, Ron Stewart, and Harry Howell. The Memorial Cup the Biltmores would win in 1952 would be the only championship team Prentice would play on.
Although Dean struggled to find his game his first few years with the Rangers, he would find success after pairing with Bathgate and Larry Popein to create the Rangers most successful line, with Prentice being the two way player on the line, backchecking and killing penalties while Bathgate was the flashy scorer.
Prentice scored a career-high 32 goals in 1959-60, which oddly enough is one of the worst seasons in Ranger history, the team finished last with just 17 wins. Dean would also capture the Rangers team MVP award that season.
After being traded in 1963, Prentice would continue his amazing twenty-two year NHL career with stops in Boston, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minnesota before retiring at the age of 41.
Honorable Mentions: Eddie Johnstone
Defense and the Power Play
As part of the discussion after Joe's X-Factor piece on Michael Del Zotto, regular commenter NTB posed the following question:
What I want to know is how much room for improvement on the PP there really is? What rate do the top PP D-men score at? That is the comparison that is most meaningful, in my opinion.
Strangely, this peaked my interest. Sure, it's easy to look up the numbers and find Mike Green's 98 points lead all defensemen over the past three years, but is that only because he logs tons of ice time?
Let's start by looking at the league wide averages for three years (this data is for 5v4 powerplays only):
| 2007 | 2008 | |||||||||||
| TOI | G/60 | A/60 | P/60 | IPP% | TOI | G/60 | A/60 | P/60 | IPP% | |||
| League | 26950.24 | 0.712 | 2.278 | 2.990 | 51.10% | League | 25938.32 | 0.800 | 2.556 | 3.356 | 52.10% | |
| 20% | 24752.28 | 0.742 | 2.378 | 3.120 | 51.69% | 20% | 23573.03 | 0.840 | 2.650 | 3.490 | 53.00% | |
| 40% | 17067.13 | 0.816 | 2.552 | 3.368 | 52.96% | 40% | 16594.72 | 0.936 | 2.929 | 3.865 | 55.19% | |
| 60% | 9189.65 | 0.783 | 2.879 | 3.663 | 54.05% | 60% | 7249.34 | 1.109 | 2.822 | 3.931 | 55.43% | |
| 2009 | Total | |||||||||||
| TOI | G/60 | A/60 | P/60 | IPP% | TOI | G/60 | A/60 | P/60 | IPP% | |||
| League | 23231.46 | 0.677 | 2.492 | 3.169 | 52.59% | League | 76120.02 | 0.731 | 2.438 | 3.169 | 51.91% | |
| 20% | 20627.75 | 0.724 | 2.618 | 3.342 | 53.84% | 20% | 68953.06 | 0.770 | 2.543 | 3.313 | 52.79% | |
| 40% | 16440.63 | 0.763 | 2.832 | 3.595 | 55.09% | 40% | 50102.48 | 0.838 | 2.769 | 3.607 | 54.43% | |
| 60% | 5891.00 | 0.835 | 3.076 | 3.911 | 55.65% | 60% | 22329.99 | 0.903 | 2.913 | 3.815 | 54.93% | |
Some clarification here, a legend if you will. The first column designates 4 categories of defensemen. League is obviously league wide. 20, 40 and 60% indicates only those defensemen whose ratio of TOI/60 ON versus Total TOI was greater than the respective numbers. For instance, MDZ was on ice for 3.77 min per 60, and off for 1.92 per 60. So his ratio was 3.77 / (3.77+1.92) = 66.3%. IPP% is individual point percentage, measured by the number of points earned divided by the number of goals scored while on the ice.
If you read my post on even strength shooting, you saw that league-wide there is not a lot of variation in skill over the last couple of years. Despite the smaller sample size, we see the same trend here. There's a small uptick in the last couple of seasons, but mostly the talent has stayed level. This gives us a solid baseline to go on. A team's defensive corps should be producing about 3.2 p/60. The team's primary PP defensemen should be around 3.8 p/60. Let's look at those "quarterbacks" on each team last year:
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Blueshirt Banter Radio Tonight at 8 PM!
Tonight at 8 PM, we will kick-start the five thousand watt generator and fire up another edition of Blueshirt Banter Radio.
We'll be talking about the latest Rangers news, and who knows what else. We may even have a surprise guest, but he is still unconfirmed.
Hope you can join us tonight at 8 PM!
Blueshirt Banter Talks with Henrik Lundqvist
Yesterday, August 31, 2010, was a very special day on several levels. First and
foremost, New York
Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist was awarded by Gray Line Bus Tours for his work with the Garden of Dreams Foundation. His award? A New York City Sightseeing bus named in his honor with a photo tribute to him on the front of the bus. To celebrate, the Rangers and Gray Line held a ceremony for the "King" on Seventh Avenue in front of Madison Square Garden, in which fans were invited to attend and cheer on their favorite goaltender. I was there representing my site, The Rangers Tribune, and in addition to having full coverage of the event, I also got an exclusive interview with Henrik that I shared with Banter readers below.
Here's what I asked:
Nick Montemagno: What are your expectations for the season this year and are you looking forward to it yet?
Henrik Lundqvist: Ah, my expectations. Well I am happy to be back and all of the guys are excited to be back. I can't wait to start camp and get going. I guess we will see how it [the season] goes.
NM: How have the informal pre-camp skates been going?
HL: Very great. They are a lot of fun.
NM: I heard Zuccarello-Aasen had a slick goal on you this morning. (Referring to a nifty goal scored at yesterday's skate)
HL: (Laughing) Oh yeah, he is really good.
Lundqvist also mentioned that he has been playing the sport of hockey since 8-years-old, when he used to skate on the lakes in Sweden with his twin brother, Joel. Growing up, Henrik said, his favorite players were Dominik Hasek and Patrick Roy, both of which were elite goaltenders during their time.
The ceremony was very well put together and fans appreciated Henrik taking time out of his busy schedule to participate. For a complete recap of the event, as well as pictures and video from the ceremony, head over to my site where that is all posted.
Blueshirts By the Numbers: Number 16: Mark Pavelich
Initially undrafted by the NHL, Mark Pavelich found himself playing in Switzerland after helping the USA Hockey team capture the gold medal in 1980.
When the architects of that team, Craig Patrick and Herb Brooks were brought on to run the Rangers, Pavelich was brought to New York and was an immediate sensation on Broadway, setting the team record for points by a rookie (78).
Previously ignored because of his small size, Pavelich excelled with the Rangers, as part of the "Smurfs" that Brooks employed which helped the Rangers knock the bigger Flyers out of the playoffs in 1982 and 1983. In 1983, against the Hartford Whalers, Pavelich became only the second player in Ranger history to score five goals in one game, a record he shares with Don Murdoch.
Injuries took their toll in the 84-85 and 85-86 seasons, and after a feud with then-Rangers coach Ted Sator, Pavelich was shipped off to Minnesota.
Pavelich scored 133 goals and 185 points in five seasons with the Blueshirts.
Honorable Mentions at 16: Rod Seiling, Alf Pike
I know the picture on the story is not the most flattering of Pavelich, but I used it because it also has our buddy "Kotsy" Chris Kotsopolous from his days with the Whalers, wearing the infamous pants.
Rink Side Radio Tonight From 9-10: Featuring Special Guest Andrew Gross!
Just a reminder that Rink Side Radio is airing live tonight from 9-10. Tonight we will be joined by special guest Andrew Gross.
Tonight Andrew will go over the most up to date Marc Staal situation, and will go into details about his feelings on the offer sheet and its potential use as a weapon. Travis and I will also bring you all the most up to date information about the Ilya Kovalchuk situation.
It's going to be a fun one tonight guys, so make sure to tune in and give Andrew a listen. The call in number is (646) 595-2440.
Rangers News: Tim Kennedy to Sign One Year Deal with Rangers
Andrew Gross has confirmed on Twitter that Tim Kennedy, the 24 year old Forward from Buffalo, NY who also played for Buffalo last season is to sign a one-year deal with the Rangers. I also want to note that our own Nick Montemagno broke this story to us here at the Banter through an Eyewitness News report. You can see his full write-up on his website here.
Follow me after the jump for more on Kennedy
X Factors For 2010: Michael Del Zotto Edition
Today we will continue with out next edition of "X Factors For 2010." We have already covered Sean Aver and his aggressive role on the team and we have also looked into Martin Biron's role as a backup goaltender. Today we look at Michael Del Zotto.
Del Zotto, who jumped right from the OHL to the New York Rangers as a 19-year-old last year, was immediately thrust into a primary role on the team. John Tortorella -- who was wildly impressed with Del Zotto's performance in camp -- had him quarterbacking the power play from game one. Del Zotto (did I mention he's only 19?) flourished in the role as a rookie, scoring 9 goals and adding 28 assists for 37 points.
Of those 37 points, 22 of them were scored on the power play; with Del Zotto notching 4 goals and 18 assists on the man advantage. To put that into perspective Dan Girardi and Michal Rozsival both had 1 goal and 3 assists on the power play. Matt Gilroy notched 3 assists and Wade Redden put up 1 assist with the man advantage. Marc Staal was the only defenseman not to record a point on the man advantage this year.










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