The Rangers are on the road against the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight.  They are looking for their first win on the road this season where they are 0-5-1 coming into tonights game.

Stephen Valiquette gots his first start of the season tonight.

Sean Avery gets a the “Gordie Howe” hat-trick tonight.  In the first period he fought Darcy Tucker and during the second period he assited on Brendan Shanahan’s goal before putting in a rebound of his own.

Rangers are tied 2-2 going into the third.

Saturday night’s game was the first appearance by Sean Avery since he was injured on a hard hit by Ottawa Senator’s defenseman Chris Neil on October 6.

Without Avery in the lineup the Rangers looked very similar to the same passive team they had early last season, not able to protect finesse players like Scott Gomez and Jaromir Jagr. With Avery back in the lineup things are different.

During the second period of last night’s game Devil’s defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski landed a big hit along the boards on Gomez and it wasn’t long before Avery came down on Vishnevski in retaliation. Colton Orr followed the feisty winger’s lead later in the game when he fought Michael Rupp who came in to break up the quarrel, and the message was clear that when you mess with Rangers skaters now there will be consequences - an ingredient that’s been absent in the season’s opening weeks.

In fact even before that play came close to materializing the Devils were well aware of Avery. Before the game started the scrapper was jawing with winger David Clarkson. The confrontation ended shortly after Avery pointed his stick towards Clarkson in what was simply an intimidation attempt.

Ranger’s coach Tom Renney was glad to have his winger back in action. “His energy, his enthusiasm. I think he’s got a skill level that’s been under appreciated.” Renney continued to discuss with the NY Daily News, “He’s got a nose for the net and plays the tough areas with a vigor that you like. We haven’t had that in a consistent manner throughout our lineup. And I think he helps elevate that in others.”

Rob Abruzzese’s articles can also be read @ Hot Stove NY.

The New York Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in a shootout at Madison Square Garden Saturday night.

Petr Prucha has been spending most of his time this season on the third line with rookies Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan, but was the hero of the game Saturday while skating on a line with stars Scott Gomez and Sean Avery.

Prucha assisted on Gomez’ goal in the first period and won the game during the shootout with a shot over the left shoulder of Devil’s goalie Martin Brodeur.

This was not the first time Prucha notched the game winner in a shootout against Brodeur. As a rookie he won a game on November 5 when he beat the future hall-of-fame goalie between his legs. That season Prucha got attention as he scored 30 goals, but up till this point this season he has not looked anything like that promising young star. Going into Saturday night’s game he had only one goal and one assist.

Many Prucha fans have been disappointed with the playing time the speedster has been receiving and blame that on his poor results statistically. Critics have said if he scored once and a while on the third line he would be given more opportunities to skate on the top two lines.

Rob Abruzzese’s articles can also be read @ Hot Stove NY.

Could the Rangers pull off its first two game win streak of the season? Yeah baby! Thanks to Chris Drury’s two point night and Henrik Lundqvist’s third shutout of the season.

The visiting Capitals wanted to set the tone early. They were going to be a more physical team than the one that was tossed around like ragdolls in a 3-1 loss to the Rangers on October 12. To that end, resident goon Donald Brashear lined up for the opening faceoff. Curiously enough, Coach Renney decided to match the Jagr line against the Ovechkin line.

After a lackluster opening 20 minutes that saw the Blueshirts outshot 10-7 they came out with more energy to start the second and were rewarded with the first goal of the game from Chris Drury at 6:45. Drury’s goal came off a nifty deflection of a booming point shot by Marc Staal. Brendan Shanahan picked up the other assist for his 1301^st career point.

Tonight, the buzz going into MSG was, “Would Shanahan get his 1300^th point?” The buzz kill said otherwise. It was announced before the game that Shanahan was given credit for the Blueshirts go-ahead goal against the Bolts on Monday. The goal was originally credited to Jaromir Jagr.

Hope you enjoyed your moment out of the spotlight Brendan. As for the Tampa goal itself? I still say it was Jagr’s, but then again I don’t have a hidef TV and all those blurry pucks passing Shanahan’s blurry skate didn’t look like they connected.

The Rangers escaped the second period with a 1-0 lead. That statistic is notable because the Blueshirts have shown a propensity to bleed goals in the middle frame this year. Half of the goals scored against them this year have occurred in the middle 20 minutes.

The Capitals gameplan to be more physical worked to a point. They were laying the body and Brashear was a presence every time that he was on the ice. Fortunately the Blueshirts, led by Colton Orr, didn’t wilt under the onslaught and gave as good as they got. The Rangers outhit Washington 42-29 on the night.

Despite the physicality both teams were disciplined early. Only one whistle blew in the opening 40 minutes and that was for a Washington powerplay midway through the first period. Both teams traded fruitless powerplay opportunities early in the third until the Rangers were awarded a two man advantage for a full two minutes.

With John Erskine and Brian Sutherby in the box at 9:01 the Rangers applied pressure in the Washington end. Michal Rozsival, cheating on the play, fed Scott Gomez behind the net who in turn returned the puck to Rozsival who by now was standing on the lip of the crease and knocked the pass from Gomez behind Kolzig for the insurance marker at 9:34. Chris Drury picked up his second point of the game on Rozsival’s third goal of the season.

The Rangers then killed off a four minute call to Fedor Tyutin to seal the deal.

It was another textbook display of goaltending by Henrik Lundqvist who quietly turned aside 31 shots for his fifth win of the season.

The Blueshirts could be in trouble as number two D-Man Marek Malik collided awkwardly into the boards and did not return to the game.

ST.RANGER PLAYER OF THE GAME as brought to you by rangerspress.com is Brendan Shanahan. BS could have been the ST.RANGER PLAYER OF THE GAME last time out against the Bolts if we knew he had scored his 1300^th point. But he is rewarded tonight for his 1301^st point.

Up next for the Rangers are Marty Brodeur (3-6-0 .885SA) and the New Jersey Devils (4-6-1) on Saturday night. The Blueshirts defeated the Diablos 2-0 in their first meeting of the year last week at MSG. The Diablos will be playing the back end of back-to-back games after hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs tomorrow night at The Rock.

ST.RANGER THINGS…Sean Avery did not dress against the Caps…thanks to an Andy Bathgate slapshot to the face Jacque Plante wore a mask for the first time in an NHL game this day in 1959 at MSG…Dubinsky, Orr and Hollweg were the surprise starting forwards against the Caps…3-1 record four games into a six game homestand…D-Man Jason Strudwick is still playing as a forward on the 4^th line…Staal’s assist was his first NHL point…Drury had a team high eight shots on goal…Marek Malik had a season high five blocked shots before he left the game…Only 12 more days until Marc Messier enters the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Until next time baby Blueshirts…puck on!

After coming alive against Tampa Bay last time out, the Rangers (4-6-1) face the Washington Capitals (5-6-0) at MSG tonight. The last time that the Capitals won in New York was in January, 2004. That’s six straight wins for the Blueshirts at home for those of you keeping score.

Washington will be a good test for the Blueshirts powerplay which has run hot and cold…mostly cold, this season. When we last saw the Caps in NYC the home team potted three powerplay goals in the first period en route to a 3-1 win. With two tallies with the man advantage against the Bolts earlier this week, we’ll see if the Rangers powerplay can maintain its momentum.

After a two point night against Tampa, Brendan Shanahan finds himself one point away from 1,300 on his career. Heading into tonight’s game, Number 14 is 629-670-1299. Shanahan has two powerplay goals for the Blueshirts on the year to tie with Scott Gomez for the team lead. Sadly, after 11 games, neither Shanahan nor Gomez has scored an even-strength goal.

Washington demolished Toronto 7-1 on the road in its last game. Al Ovechkin (8-7-15) picked up two goals and one-time Jagr centreman Michael Nylander (4-7-11) picked up three assists in the game. Olaf Kolzig (4-3 .922SA) stopped 32-33 shots against the Leafs. If not for Kolzig’s play in the Caps previous tilt against the Blueshirts the score of that game may have been 7-1 for the Rangers. Olie the Goalie gave his mates a chance to get back in the game with his stellar play as the Rangers fired a season high 41 shots at him.

Let’s see if the Rangers have long memories and if anyone will remind Caps defender Brian Pothier that he can’t take vicious swings with his stick at other people’s ankle as he did last time out against Ryan Hollweg.

The trio of Avery, Straka and Callahan are still out of the lineup. It will be a game time decision if Sean Avery does play tonight. In the Caps sickbay is former Ranger Tom Poti with a groin injury. Also out for the DCers is Steve Eminger, Al Semin, and team captain Chris Clark.

ST.RANGER THINGS…Rangers are 4-1 when they score first…0-5-1 when opponents score first…powerplay is ranked 22^nd in league…penalty kill is ranked 4^th … PK has given up one goal in the last 23 opportunities.

We’ll have an update later tonight. Until then, Puck On!

The New York Rangers (4-6-1) struck lightning in the third period scoring two powerplay goals to defeat Tampa Bay 3-1. With Chris Gratton in the box for cross-checking and captain Jaromir Jagr missing a couple of chicklets the Blueshirts scored on the ensuing powerplay.

Jagr took a cross ice feed from Michal Rozsival and put the Blueshirts up 2-1 at 10:45 beating Johan Holmqvist with a low hard shot. The Tampa netminder was screened by Brendan Shanahan on the play who had parked himself at the lip of the crease.

The goal inspired the Blueshirts who shortly thereafter enjoyed another powerplay. Shanahan, again in front of Holmqvist took the feed from Chris Drury at 13:29 to give the Rangers the breathing room they needed to coast home.

Tampa’s streak of allowing first period goals continued Monday night as Nigel Dawes scored on a beautiful deflection of a Paul Mara shot at 7:40.  Mara’s shot was going well wide of the net before Dawes deflected it past the startled Johan Holmqvist for his team leading third goal of the season.

The hit of the game came about eight minutes later when Fedor Tyutin levelled Craig MacDonald with an open ice hit in the Rangers zone. The hit separated MacDonald from his helmet and left glove and he headed off to the Bolts dressing room on the ensuing whistle for repairs with a busted lip. MacDonald returned in the second period sporting six new stitches.

Vincent Lecavalier tied the game on a penalty shot at 6:28 of the second period. Lecavalier completely undressed Henrik Lundqvist as he slid a backhand through the legs of the sliding netminder. It was the 12^th goal that the Blueshirts have given up in the second period. They have only allowed 22 goals against on the year.

On a night celebrating local youth hockey the Remedial Rangers looked like they would have a hard time scoring against a bunch of 11-year-old kids for most of the game. Thank goodness for the powerplay.

ST.RANGER PLAYER OF THE GAME as brought to you by rangerspress.com is Jaromir Jagr. Jagr’s powerplay marker tied him for the team lead in goals with Nigel Dawes. The captain also had an assist on Shanahan’s marker and showed some heart by playing through the pain of some broken teeth.

Up next for the Remedial Rangers are Al Ovechkin (6-7-13) and the Washington Capitals (4-6) on November 1. The Caps superstar winger looks good taking feeds from former Blueshirt Michael Nylander (4-4-8). There’s a winger here on Broadway who misses Nylander very much. The Capitals played the Leafs tonight in Toronto and were winning 7-1 in the third period. Ovechkin has added a couple of goals to his listed totals and Nylander has added a few more assists.

ST.RANGER THINGS…Dave Scatchard has been released following a tryout with Hartford…Lundqvist’s penalty shot save percentage falls to .600…Brandon Dubinsky led the way with five hits…Jagr had a team high six shots on goal.

Until next time baby Blueshirts…puck on!

What happens when you have a team that can’t score (Rangers) and a team that can’t win on the road (Tampa) get together for a little Monday Night Hockey?

Well if you are a fan of the Blueshirts (3-6-1) you hope that the Lightning roadshow continues to sputter. The Bolts have given up first period goals in each of their three road losses this season. The Rangers can only hope that streak continues tonight as they are a woeful 0-5-1 when the opponent scores first.

But the caveat for the Rangers – the lowest scoring team in the league with 16 goals – is that they can’t put the puck behind the opposing goalie. The Blueshirts goal total for the year coming into tonight’s game is seven more than Vinnie Prospal of the Bolts who leads his side with nine goals and 12 points.

Tampa is 5-3-1 on the year with all their wins coming at home. Their five game home win streak ended Saturday night as Buffalo eked out a 4-3 OT win. After getting into fights in the Bolts two previous games Vincent Lecavalier (5-6-11) let tough guy Andre Roy drop the gloves in the Buffalo game. It may have been the wrong time for Lecavalier to end his mean streak as he ended the night with a powerplay marker and an assist. The only thing missing on his CV for the evening was a fight to collect the coveted Gordie Howe Hat Trick.

Dan Boyle is expected to make his first start of the season tonight for the Lightning. The Bolts have no other significant injuries and once again the Rangers are without the services of Sean Avery, Marty Straka and Ryan Callahan.

We’ll have a summary following the game.

Puck on!

Scoring continues to be a problem as the New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 at home at Madison Square Garden Saturday night. 

Fans were nervous going into the second period as the Rangers got off 11 shots in the first and none of them were scoring threats.  Then early in the second period Jaromir Jagr tried to alleviate everyone’s concerns as he scored to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. 

Just over five minutes into the period Michal Rozsival intercepted a pass at center ice and made a nice pass off the boards to Jagr on the right side.  As Jagr skated into the zone he took a hard wrist shot from the right face-off circle.  The shot beat Maple Leaf goalie Vesa Toskala who could not see because he was being screened by defenseman Hal Gill.

Coming off of two shutouts in his past three games, Henrik Lundqvist looked strong again early.  Just after Jagr put his team ahead and with the Rangers on a power play Lundqvist made a terrific stop on a Boyd Devereaux breakaway.  Devereaux received a very long pass from deep in the defensive zone to center ice then muscled his way past a Ranger’s defenseman only to be turned away by Lundqvist.

The good feelings from Jagr putting the team up and Lundqvist making a highlight reel save didn’t last long, less than three minutes later Pavel Kubina scored his first of the season to tie the game 1-1.  The Rangers had their chances to keep the goal from happening but were not able to control rebounds or clear the puck from the zone and after moving the puck around from deep into the zone to Tomas Kaberle on the left point then to Kubina on the right point, Kubina just blasted a shot from the blue-line and the puck was deflected by a player in front of the net before going past Lundqvist.

The goal was the first even strength goal given up by Henrik Lundqvist in over a week dating back to the loss in Atlanta against the Trashers on October 18.

The Maple Leafs took a 2-1 lead with just under five minutes left to go in the second period when Lundqvist botched a play behind the net.  After the Leafs dumped the puck into the zone he went behind the net to pass the puck to a Ranger defenseman, but turned it over to Devereaux who was aggressively fore-checking.  Devereaux was then able to make a smooth pass in front of the net to Johnny Pohl who got off a textbook one-timer slap shot for the goal. 

Now the Rangers were down 2-1 and needed to keep the score right there.  Instead they allowed a third goal just 1:20 after the second.  This time it was Nik Antropov who was able to score when he received a centering pass from Kaberle right in front of the net and just pushed it past Lundqvist to put the Leafs up 3-1.

In the third period, with the fans booing loudly and often, the Rangers had a number of chances but were not able to get any shots past Toskala.  The scoring was not over though as the Leafs added one more goal with about 15 seconds left when Chad Kilger took advantage of an empty net to put his team up 4-1.

Despite Lundqvist giving up three goals in this game the offense was definitely to blame for this loss.  The Rangers out shot Toronto and had better chances, but were never able to capitalize.  This is only the third time in 10 games that Lundqvist allowed three goals or more and top offensive players, Jagr, Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Brendan Shanahan, have merely six goals combined over that span.  Through 10 games last season the quartet had 25 goals between them.

Rob Abruzzese’s articles can also be read @ Hot Stove NY and In The Dirt. 

With all the scoring they would need to win this game coming in the second period the Toronto Maple Leafs (5-4-3) sat back in the third and cruised to their fifth victory of the year.

The Remedial Rangers (3-6-1) squandered a powerplay at 1:34 of the third that would have moved them within striking distance of a tie. Shortly thereafter Jaromir Jagr missed a glorious opportunity when he failed to put the biscuit into the yawning cage.

Coach Tom Renney juggled his lines in the third hoping to ignite some offense. At one point Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Jagr were all on the ice at the same time and the Rangers weren’t on the powerplay. On the night the Blueshirts were 0-3 with the man advantage. Gomez, Brendan Shanahan and Nigel Dawes started on the first powerplay unit back in the first period.

Chad Kilger iced the game for the Leafs with an empty net goal at 19:44.

The Blueshirts outshot the Leafs 33-22 and have outshot their opponents in nine of 10 games this year.

ST.RANGER PLAYER OF THE GAME as brought to you by rangerspress.com is Michal Rozsival. On a night when the brightest stars didn’t shine, the Rangers D-man had two blocked shots to go along with his assist on Jagr’s goal. Rozsival also led the Rangers D with more than 24 minutes of ice time.

Up next for the Remedial Rangers is Vinnie “Boom Boom” Lecavalier. (4-5-9) and the Tampa Bay Lightning (5-3). The Lightning have yet to win on the road this year. Lecavalier not known for his toughness has been involved in two scraps so far this year.

ST.RANGER THINGS…Fedor Tyutin lead the way with four hits…Scott Gomez had a team high six shots on goal…Jagr led all forwards with 23+ minutes of ice time

A special ST.RANGER shoutout to Eric of the Hockey Night in Canada crew. Let’s rip this town son.

Until next time baby Blueshirts…puck on!

The Rangers second period woes continued on Saturday night as the Leafs scored three unanswered goals to take a 3-1 lead. Of the 19 goals the Rangers have allowed this year 11 of them have been scored in the second period.

Jaromir Jagr had scored early in the second period to give the New York Rangers a shortlived 1-0 lead. The Blueshirts captain used Leafs defenseman Hal Gill as a screen to snap a low shot inside the post at 5:44. Michal Rozsival picked up the only assist on Jagr’s second goal of the year.

Pavel Kubina tied the game at 8:35 with his first goal of the year. Kubina’s marker atoned for an earlier hooking call that had his mates play shorthanded after the Rangers had taken the lead.

The Leafs took the lead at 15:46 on John Pohl’s first goal and extended the lead on Nik Antropov’s eighth marker of the year at 17:06.

The Rangers, 3-0 when scoring first this year, will need a big third period to keep that streak alive.