NHL News: Congrats to the Blackhawks

Being a fan of two teams is still a major violation of Man Code, but assuming Philly makes the finals, I think we’ll all be Hawk fans for the remainder of the season.

Thats a pretty wrong view. Its true that we don’t take many penalities or fight majors, but we’ve got shizzy lizzies of grit. Ben Eager is our only pure enforcer, meanwhile bolland, brouwer, buff, ladd, hendry, and seabrook are all very tough and gritty players. They just happen to also have skillsets that overshadow their grit. Almost everyone on our team is a 2 way hockey player; kane is pretty much the only non defensively talented forward, but he’s learning positioning and stickwork. The reason why we take so few shots on goal is our possession. We have the puck so often that the opposition rarely has great chances. Whenever we get the puck, we know how to hold onto it with quick accurate passes and excellent skating.
We (Rangers this time) still need a tough guy like Orr or Shelley. Almost every Stanley cup team has players that can deliver crippling checks, and the Rangers don’t have that.

Byfuglien is pretty bad as a Defenseman. In terms of putting up points, it helps to play on a line with Kane and Toews. Byfuglien is a good player, but right now he is in the ideal situation for him.

Cambell didn’t really go Redden he went drury. The guy still works hard and contributes both ways. Yes, he’s grossly overpaid, but we can say honestly that we are a worse team without him. Whereas Redden, well, I’d rather have a ball of yarn manning the back.

You can’t trade for that kind of commitment. It has to grow within you. The reason why Keith, Seabrook, Toews, Kane, Versteeg, and Buff work so hard is because they developped within the franchise. They are faithful to the Hawks, so they give it their all. We (Rangers) can say that we want to buy this and that player because of their motivation, not many players are willing to sacrifice themselves for a team they’ve only been with for a year.