I've been thinking about this and if tortarella does get fired at the end of the season...who would be a good replacement and one name i thought of was the former Aves and Thrasher coach Bob Hartley. I'm not sure of his reputation around the league but i do know that he had a lot of success with colorado and kinda got a raw deal in atlanta trying to coach that team

It's one idea and I'd love to hear some other suggestions 

This kid has skills 1st game back from injury and he has 3 assists. He never should've been sent back down in my opinion, hope we get to see him crack the line up next year .Hope Sather resigns and doesnt let him walk He has good hockey sense and offensive talent along with Dan Byers and Dale Weise!!! 

 I liked the pick up of Oli Jokinen but if he doesn't show something at the end here you have to go for Marleau in the summer if not Pavel Demitra would be a better fit for Gaborik the guy can pass the puck         

It's amazing what the people in Toronto are doing when they review the rule book, or decide to change a rule in the middle of a season or in the middle of the playoffs. Was it the right thing to do?, or the wrong thing to do. Well let's review that certain rule that made everyone upset about two years ago when the New Jersey Devils played the Rangers in the first round. Game 3 at MSG & the Rangers lead 2-0 in the series.

The score is 1-1 in the second period and the Rangers are on a two man advantage power play, with 1:30 on the Devils penalties. Sean Avery has already skated towards the net to screen Martin Brodeur. But instead of turning his back, Avery decides to face Marty and waive his stick. Of course Avery does this several times and no penalty was given. At 6:50 of the second period Avery scores the goal on a quick feed by Scott Gomez to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

Even though the Rangers lost Game 3 in overtime, they would win the series in five and on Prudential Center Ice in Newark. But after Game 3 Colin Campbell already creating a rule after Sean Avery on how not to screen the goaltender. If any player wishes to screen the goaltender and doesn't do it the proper way, gets a two minute penalty. In my view Sean Avery never touched Brodeur, never interfered with Brodeur. In fact the two things he was guilty of was blocking Brodeur's vision to see the puck and using his brain to create the moment.

Now we come to a man who is hated in the NHL by the fans, players and his teammate Bill Guerin. Matt Cooke has been known to give dangerous hits, cheap shots & concussions. Now I didn't see the hit Cooke gave Marc Savard when the Bruins visited Penguins on Sunday, March 7th. But thanks to CBC's Don Cherry during his Coaches Corner segment, we saw Matt Cooke's resume.

First it was the cheap knee to knee hits on Mats Sundin & Vinny LeCavalier. Then we all remember the cheap way he started a fight with Chris Drury after Drury delivered a clean check when the Rangers won in OT on February 12th. But now it's high elbows and cheap shots to the head like he did to Savard and to our own Artem Anisimov, but sadly Savard got it worse. Marc Savard never knew Matt Cooke was coming & he got blasted.

If you click the link below and move the cursor to 1:29 on the player you can see Don Cherry get animated about what Cooke has done to Marc Savard. At the same time I have to agree that the NHL has done the wrong thing by not suspending Cooke for his actions. They have said they will put a rule into effect for the start of next season. In my view the NHL are a bunch of hypicrits, because it was easier to stop Avery's antics than to take a stand on cheap shots to the head of hockey players. Sure they are looking at it now, but this should've been taken care of a week ago.

Matt Cooke is very lucky he didn't have to use his get out of jail free card. But right now the target on Sidney Crosby's back just got bigger. You know someone like Daniel Carcillo is already itching to get Sidney in his crosshairs and take him out. But if the NHL is going to suspend Danny Boy, the roar in Bean Town will be so loud and angry there could be a field trip to Toronto and protests at the front door.

But let me say this as I believe what's good for the goose is good for the Gander. If Daniel Carcillo is reading this, or if any Flyers fans wants to read this. Please tell Carcillo to give Matt Cooke a taste of his own medicine. I honestly don't care how he does it, but make sure it's quick, painless and he isn't moving on the ice at all. Then Sidney Crosby is fair game and we shall see how the NHL will protect their golden ticket.

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/Sports/CBC's_Hockey_Night_in_Canada/ID=1440151444

After countless hours of deep thought and many sleepless nights I’ve finally figured out Glen Sather.  The man is an addict.  It’s the only possible explanation for Sather’s repeated extravagant spending.  He’s addicted to shopping sprees and the bottomless wallet of James Dolan is the means for Sather to get his fix.  Like parents who can’t cut their drug-addicted children off because of memories of the good times and the hope for a better future, Dolan keeps supporting Sather’s habit because of his success with the Oilers and the vision of a superstar posse of champions.

 People get addicted to things for a variety of reasons, one of which is that something in their past haunts them and they must cope with it.  With the Oilers Sather was forced to ship the greatest player in NHL history to the LA Kings because Oilers ownership refused to spend the requisite money to sign The Great One.  This has never left Sather and is the spawn of his addition.  Sather was devastated to trade Wayne Gretzky, and the elimination of financial restrictions was a huge perk to joining the Rangers. 

 What’s resulted is a laundry list of financial failures, signings that have woefully underperformed.  Sather’s mercenaries never live up to the deals they sign, but he is comforted that he’ll never again be outbid on a player he likes.  The Gretzky mistake must enter his mind every July 1 and Sather fights his ghosts by throwing money at every marquee name.

 It’s sad really.  The last 10 years of Ranger history could have been avoided if Edmonton owner Peter Pocklington had simply allowed Sather to keep Gretzky.  He is the real man to blame for Rangers fan woes. 

Continue reading this post »

I've been writing and covering hockey for two years now on various websites. I never had the aspiration of becoming a journalist, I just wanted this as a hobby. In case there was any doubt in my mind that I wanted this for a career, I wanted to thank you all personally for helping me realize that I never want to make a living writing. I'm not sure if I ever want to write again. I want to thank you all because now I no longer have to waste my time writing about stuff that clearly, no one cares about.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, or so I thought. What happened today is something I have never experienced before in my life. I can take people disagreeing with me, that's part of the journey. But to have personal attacks and insults thrown at me is something new. I thought Ranger fans could handle a slight, two sentence jab at a player on the team. Criticism is nothing new to this team, but I guess I rubbed you the wrong way.

Many of you were demanding that I no longer write for this site anymore because I "had no idea what I was talking about" and am "not a real fan", and in response to that, I have asked to be removed from the writing team here. I do not wish to be a part of a website whose readers cannot handle a jab thrown at a player, and have to revert to calling me, "a complete fucking retard". Since many of you said you would not read anything else I have to write or take me seriously again, I do not want to be a detriment to the site and cause reads to go down. I really enjoyed my few weeks on the site up to this point, and I want to thank those who enjoyed reading my articles as much as I enjoyed writing them. I have no ill feelings toward anyone on this site, and I wish you all well.

Aur revoir.

Should John Tortorella be fired? In my opinion yes. In my opinion he deserves it not only for the poor results that the team has delivered, but also for his own poor performance. I generally judge coaches in six areas: their system, team adjustments, motivation, team discipline, player development, and results, which I admit is unfair in some instances. I will briefly explain how I evaluate the performance in those areas later, and how I think he has performed in each area. But first I’d like to say why I am even more disappointed and concerned with these results then I otherwise would be.

The Rangers have been one of healthiest teams all year. Dubinsky’s broken wrist was the only injury to an important player lasting ten games or more. They have lost about 52 man games to injury all year, meanwhile even the teams directly above them have been decimated by injury. To name a few: Boston has missed the likes of Lucic, and Savard for very significant time, Montreal has had to go without Andrei Markov and Mike Cammalleri for months and weeks respectively (at different times), Philly has lost their starting goalie for the season, and is playing a guy (Leighton) who was cut earlier this year by the struggling hurricanes, and that is just to name a few. With all that being said, the door was wide open for any half decent team to walk right through, and with their constant failure to do so, how can anyone consider them even half decent?

In Johns defense I will say that I like many others thought little to nothing of the roster that had been assembled by Sather. Sather put a bunch of one dimensional players together and expected what exactly? There are many roster flaws which I could go into in great depth, but that focuses more on Sather and there is no fan debate on him so I will say only one brief thing on that then focus back on Tortorellas failures. The biggest concern that I have when looking at this roster isn’t necessarily the lack of scoring, it’s the lack of everything. There is not one strong point other then goalie on this team. There is no identity with this team, no fallback position to say, well we can’t score but we will: out work, or play great defense, clog the neutral zone, or win battles along the boards. They have such a deficiency in all categories that they are more than a couple of players away from being a potential contender. That being said, as other fans have mentioned, I also believe that certain moves had Tortorellas hands all over them. Such as: letting Betts go in favor of Boyle (who cannot compare with Betts and ironically Betts is even outscoring the oversized doormat), Orr for Brashear, and Kotalik.

At this point the roster is what it is, and it is not like Renney had an overflow of superstars under his command, but he managed to get the rangers to take advantage of their strength (Henrik) enough to make four straight playoff appearances and even come close to the eastern conf. finals once, thanks again Drury.  If Renney can be canned after that, then why is Tortorella who hasn’t accomplished a thing in NY given so much leeway with some fans? I think the only reason is that his pseudo tough guy personality is more appealing to the frustrated fans that have given up hope of winning and just want the coach to call out the players every mistake.

I know this is a really long post and if you are still reading I will try to finish as quickly as possible, so you don’t nod off to my ramblings. So I will finish with how I feel Tortorella has performed in the areas I have chosen as my evaluation parameters, and why I think he should be fired.

The first area: system, I agree with his general philosophy, I prefer pressuring the other team and making them make a good play to beat you as opposed to sitting back and letting them dictate. That being said, I honestly don’t think he has the hockey intelligence to understand the subtleties of the game. I base this off of instances of seeing him praise or condemn a players mistake (or correct move) based solely on the outcome, I think that is a terrible thing for a coach to do because it will create a doubt in the players mind as to what is the right thing to do. If a player is out of position but somehow steals the puck anyway (for instance) he needs to be reminded to stay inside the system and not free lance, not be praise for a lucky play. I also think he lacks the communication skills to convey his system to the players, and I think because of these two issues I listed Mike Sullivan actually handles more of those responsibilities then he should.

Then next area to examine is team adjustments. This to me includes line adjustments, tempo or scheme changes, time out usage, and benchings and so forth. I think he poor at this as well. I have not agreed some of the line combinations he has put together nor have I agreed with the timing and reasoning for his changing of certain lines. I understand he doesn’t have a lot to work with but vainly reshuffling the lines every other game just to look like you’re trying something new isn’t going to help build chemistry either.

On to my favorite area of his failure: motivation. This one will be quick, what were the reporters saying when he was hired? You will definitely see a different Rangers team with him behind the bench. He won’t stand for their sluggish uninspired play. Is there anyone on the planet who thinks this team has heart or plays with passion and intensity? They play when they want to play, he hasn’t changed that and it is unacceptable from both Tortorella and the players.

Then there is team discipline. Penalty wise I think they are pretty average but I could be wrong about that. But they have no systematic discipline whatsoever. Players are constantly out of position in the defensive zone, and they have to be in the top three teams for odd man rushes against, which I also unacceptable.

The biggest reason I think he should be fired is the next category: player development. The Rags as I have also started calling them are obviously in the middle of a youth movement and have many promising young players in their organization. John Tortorella is not a developer, he is a guy you can bring in to motivate underachieving veterans and breathe new life into a stale situation, although apparently not here. We need someone who can teach these kids the right way to play the game. Recent examples are Joe Sacco (Col), Barry Trotz (Nas) Lindsey Ruff (Buf). I do not have any coach out there in mind that I think they should hire, just someone who fits the player developer mold. The lack of development in all of the rookies is blatantly obvious; in fact they have all regressed. Del Zotto who I think will be a perennial all star in a few years has become a complete liability and should actually be sent down for the remainder of the year for his own development if nothing else. It would be stupid and detrimental to the organization to keep Tortorella as the coach with the fact that more kids are expected to come up and contribute in the next two seasons.

As for the results, if you are still reading this I have taken enough of your time and they speak for themselves. Of course Sather and the players must share the blame but Tortorella hasn’t done anything to improve the team or prove that he deserves the job. The question isn’t: is Tortorella a good coach? It’s is he the right coach for the rangers, I think the rags would be better without him.

I say put the two of them in a room and winner takes all! Whoever comes out of that room stays and TORTS and SATHER MUST GO (period – end of story!).

On another note, the entire Defense with the exception of Stahl needs to be either reassigned to HFD – Gilroy, Girardi and Del Zotto (-21) for crying out LOUD – and – Redden (11 pts and $39M reasons why – not his fault (will get to Sather in a moment)- should be waived outright – and – let’s trade Rozival if we can for even the last pick in the draft would be an upgrade. Our D-Corp is the softest in the league. Does somebody understand clearing out your zone – Does anyone win a battle along the boards – No one is disciplined and plays the puck up the boards – and not ONE of the bunch understands playing the man vs playing the puck.

SATHER is a moron, an idiot and the Oilers are not walking through the dressing room. We cannot have this buffoon running our organization 10 years has felt like the 1940 drought all over again – He has to go, period!!!!

Let’s get a hockey man or men in here. Solution – a consortium of JD (pluck him from the Blues – he should’ve never gotten away), Adam Graves, Ray Ferraro, Pat Verbeek, perhaps Mess, and Darren Pang. All, with the exception of Panger, have roots with the Rangers, are leaders, understand hockey and Panger is a brillant hockey mind, just listen to his broadcasts, he knows what’s going on and gets it. Let’s build a winner, stay winners and be an upper echelon franchise, because the product put out for the past 10 years has been garbage and there’s only one person responsible for that and that’s Sather the Swamp Turkey!!

Anyone know what Kris King(er), Rudy Poeschke is up to these days?

Note By Joe Fortunato: Sorry for the delay. Awesome story Leetch so I'm bumping it up. By the way if anyone ever questions my determination to this site, I'm 15 minutes of of a medical procedure (I'm fine). Only for you guys though, because you're the best. Onto Leetch:

According to the beat crew the lines based on practice and the Avery scratch appear to be

Vinny-Joker-Gabby

Dubi-AA-Cally

Prust-EC-Dru

Shelley-Boyle-Lisin

Continue reading this post »

Just found this on the western college hockey blog in a ranking of the top 50 college hockey players and our wisconsin badger brothers both made the top 10, but it may surprise you the order and rank in which they made it.

http://www.westerncollegehockeyblog.com/2010/2/25/1324825/2009-2010-top-50-nhl-prospects

The general disposition I have gotten from comments made on the board has been a disappointment with the lack of numbers that McDonagh has put up this year and how that downgrades his stock as a prospect and while we all love to see more numbers all the reports I have read on him have talked about how he is doing exactly what his club needs him to do and that he has been a hitting machine, much like what we fans have been clamoring for in a d-man for years.  To see Ryan ranked 3rd in all of college hockey in this list is a little surprising to me especially when Brendan Smith has been such an offensive force for the same club, but speaks highly of McDonagh's all around game even if the offense hasnt been there as prolifically as we would hope this year.

The Joe Pavelski comparison for Derek Stepan is one that might disappoint some Ranger fans in that after the World Juniors the names that were brought up were bigger stars and more prolific scorers, but i think Pavelski is a pretty good comparison in terms of production to look for in the 50-60 pt range with great leadership.  Speaking of leadership qualities today on his blog Jess Rubenstein discusses that and a conversation he had with Stepan in the frame of how this new GROUP of prospects is coming up together caring about one another and how that will pay dividends down the line for us.  I happen to agree and I also agree that Stepan is a future captain of this club and it is because of the all around game and personality i see in him that the thought for a while has been about getting the most talented young players around him to continue the culture change that started under renney and i think has somewhat stalled with Torts.

Jess' article:  http://theprospectpark.blogspot.com/2010/03/they-are-starting-their-own-evolution.html

Also on the list was Carl Hagelin who for the most part around here goes unmentioned but has had a very good year for the Michigan program and plays a very physical style which isnt always the case with european players.  He has earned an EL deal with the Rangers, we will now see if they give it to him this summer.

As we wind down towards the playoffs it remains clear that Rangers are very unlikely to make the second season. The team is flawed, unreliable and in all honesty, a mess. Tortorella it seems has finally come to deal with his frustrations with this team and understands the deep flaws. He just tries to roll the best lines he can, and sometimes it backfires, as we saw last night with Henrik having to be pulled. The Rangers have some hope of course, but as well all know being in a big market, the Rangers will continue to try the free agent solution to make this team a winner.

Here's what I believe the Rangers should do, to ice a more competitve club next year.

The front office:

Can we expect Glen Sather to retire? I for one would be truly giddy if he did step down. He's had his run of bad contracts, good and bad draft picks and i feel that his age coupled with his errors, it's time for a change. I vote that Jim Schoenfeld be given the reigns with Mark Messier as his assistant. The Rangers need to make a positive step, and Shoeny has proven to be a solid talent evaluator and mentor.

The coaching staff:

John Tortorella is a good coach. I am a fan of his. I like his style. In his defense Torts has not had a true top line playmaker and one could argue he hasn't had a second line playmaker either. He takes chances with players and gives players more time when they play hard for him. Holding Torts accountable for a flawed roster would be dumb. I think we give Torts another year, and hopefully we give him a better team.

The Draft:

The Rangers as it stands will probably draft around #10. I assume the Rangers will draft size either up front or on the blue line and my vote goes to either Derek Forbort, a huge American born blueliner, with a projectable frame, he's 6'4 already and skates well. He can also handle the puck. My other choice would be Kiril Kabanov. Kabanov also has good size at his young age and is a true offensive weapon. Kabanov has seen his stock dip, largely due to the rise of other North American prospects getting more attention. 

In the later rounds the Rangers need to add a center, size on the blueline and perhaps a project sniper.

Current upcoming free agents and roster moves:

Olli Jokinen UFA: Sure Olli was once an excellent scorer in the NHL, but this guy is a disaster and he will likely want a 3-4 million dollar contract, for at least a few seasons. I say, he walks.

Wade Redden: He's under contract and as we all know, overpaid. If a trade cannot be found for him, waive him and deal with it later. The Rangers have several other options, all younger, that might play a lot better.

Vinny Prospal: I was surprised the Rangers kept him. How can you be in hockey for all those years(Sather) and not realize that even with Prospal, the Rangers are on the outside looking in? I think Prospal walks, but I would be fine with keeping him, for a similar reasonable contract.

Erik Christensen: Erik has been a great find for the Rangers I hope he is retained on a 2 year deal, with incentives. Anything to keep motivating this kid. Eventually a winger spot would be ideal for him, with power play time to boot.

Enver Lisin: Lisin has so much speed and desire. He just can't finish......just like a lot of Ranger prospects. I think the Rangers should qualify Lisin, at least to retain his rights.

Prust, Newbury, Shelley, Eriksson - all four borderline roster players. I like Shelley, and Prust seems to play with a lot of energy. Keep Shelley and Prust, dump the other two.

Dan Girardi: His game has been up and down a lot this season. But I still believe Girardi is a top 4 defenseman. Keep him, long term.

Marc Staal: Could be our best skater, in terms of age and upside. Long term contract for Staal.

Spending in free agency:

The Rangers will actually have around 10 million in cap space going into free agency.

They could go after Marleau with about 6.5 of that and keep the rest for the season.

Marleau would look nice centering Gaborik and whomever. I think the whomever addresses my following point. Why should the Rangers spend this cap space? They obviously lack wingers to put the puck home and have several young forwards playing in the minors. The Rangers could improve quicker by just keeping the freed up cap space, and playing their own players, guys like Grachev, Dupont, Byers, Lisin, Crowder, Hillier, and perhaps a re-signed Parenteau. My hope would be that the Rangers pave the way for younger players, keep the space under the cap and go forward. If the Rangers are playing well during the season, they can go out and add to it. There will be sellers as always and the Rangers with cap space could be scarier than that if they signed away all their freed up money on guys like Marleau or Kovalchuk.

We all know that with good coaching and patience, hockey teams can become downright nasty. The Rangers way of doing things has never worked, except once, but i guess some people argue it only takes once. How many Messier's are in the league now?

The time has come to play the kids, save the cash for when the team is close. Buying it only frustrates the coach, the players and the fans.