The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

It would appear, at the very least, as though the Rangers have this whole “beating the Penguins” gimmick figured out.

Apparently all you have to do is hold Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to an assist and five combined shots. Also, get in their face and hit them. This is a novel approach, but it seems to be working. With tonight’s 3-2 shootout win, it became the seventh time in as many games that New York defeated Pittsburgh at Madison Square Garden in as many tries.

Neither star was left alone all night, especially by Colton Orr, who did his best to shadow Crosby and, in doing so, even helped draw a double minor for both tripping and unsportsmanlike conduct from Brooks Orpik on a blatant and very comical play. After Orr followed Crosby up the ice and drew a couple shoves, Orpik hooked his stick blade inside Orr’s knee and pulled. Orr went down like he stepped on a banana peel in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but at least they got a four-minute power play out of it.

The only time in regulation that either Sid or Geno did anything of note to help the Penguins was when Crosby picked off a puck inside the Rangers zone on a breakout (and boy, “own-zone turnovers” must’ve been a common phrase around the New York dressing room tonight), carried it around the net and make a perfect backhand pass through the slot to a hard-charging Mark Eaton, who put the Pens up 1-0. Other than that, you didn’t see too much of Sid, who came into the night with something ridiculous like nine points in his last three games.

A lot of credit has to be given to the pairings of Marc Staal and Michal Roszival and Wade Redden and Dan Girardi, who were out there for the majority of shifts by Malkin and Crosby, respectively. It wasn’t too often that either Pens star was skating into the zone unpressured, and for the amount of bitching from Ranger fans about a few of the aforementioned defensemen, they played like All Stars tonight and helped the Rangers secure a win that, in watching the game, you saw they didn’t really deserve.

The Rangers trailed 2-0 after a Jordan Staal tip-in midway through the second, but Nik Zherdev answered with one of his own a minute and a half or so later to cut New York’s deficit in half. Petr Prucha, in his first game back from injury and after refusing to accept a rehab stint in Hartford, scored the game-tying goal with about five minutes to go in regulation on a crafty dummy play where he let a puck go by him to Gomez, who shot wide, and went to the net to bang in the puck as it came off the end boards. Not a bad little greasy goal for the kid in his first game back, and you could tell the Rangers were happy he got it. It was his first since Jan. 31.

Once the game went to OT, it was all Henrik Lundqvist, who made 29 saves, and the defense holding back the floodgates as the Penguins mounted a TON of pressure but only managed two shots. But once the Rangers got the game to a shootout, it was a fait accompli. Zherdev, Markus Naslund and Freddy Sjostrom all scored, and only Kris Letang was the only one that could answer for the Pens. Poor Dany Sabourin was helpless.

Really, it was a night where the Rangers did all the little things right (except, as I mentioned, for not turning the puck over in their own zone). They played Crosby more physically than I’m used to seeing, they kept a lot of shots to the perimeter and perhaps most importantly when you play a team with Crosby and Malkin on the same power play unit, they didn’t take a lot of penalties. Those two were only on the ice together for six shifts in the game, and three came in overtime. If you keep them separated, you at least have a chance to beat the Penguins.

It also didn’t hurt that the Rangers dominated at the dot. Literally almost every time you looked up, the Rangers were winning a draw away from the Penguins. Only one Pittsburgh player had a faceoff percentage of 50 percent or more, and that was Max Talbot, who won 2 of 3 draws. Mike Zigomanis was 2 for 6, Jordan Staal was 9 for 19, Rusty Fedotenko and Tyler Kennedy were both 0 for 1, Malkin was 1 for 6 and Crosby was 6 for 15. In the attacking zone, the Pens as a team were 3 for 14. In the neutral zone, they were 6 for 16. And in the defensive zone, they were 10 for 22. Grand total: New York outdrew the Pens 33-19. Scott Gomez was the ONLY Ranger who lost an own-zone faceoff as he went 1 for 4. That’s taking care of the puck to an unreal extent.

But despite that, there’s still not a lot to be convinced about with the Rangers. Christ, this was their seventh shootout win of the year. If they played in the Western Conference, where it’s actually hard to win games, things wouldn’t seem this rosy on Broadway.

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Because I tend to not blog on the weekends, here is a feature that will run through the entire season. It aims to recap the weekend’s events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact about each team that played. And hell, there’s a ton of other crap for me to blather on about too. And yes, I’m totally ripping off just about every other blogger ever’s weekly column, but that’s something you’ll have to deal with on your own time.

Danger: This post contains language that some people might not like. This will be the only thing on the site that regularly does so.

I remember just a few weeks ago when everyone was talking about the New York Rangers being the team to beat in the East.

“Oh man,” fans of the Blueshirts were saying, “Look how good the Zherdev-Voros-Dubinski line is playing! Just wait until Naslund, Drury and Gomez come around! We’ll be UNSTOPPABLE then.”

But since the start of November, the Rangers are only 4-5-1 with two of those wins coming in shootouts? So what could have POSSIBLY happened to this top-three-in-the-league team to see them tank so badly?

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For years, everyone was passing Hugh Jessiman by. Eric Fehr, Shawn Belle, Tibor.

Well no more! The Rangers called up Jessiman, the only first-round pick in the 2003 entry draft to have never played an NHL game, earlier today. He’ll finally get his chance with the Blueshi… oh he got traded to Nashville. For future considerations. Ouch.

Jessiman, who is 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds, has split the four seasons he’s been out of college between the AHL and ECHL and has 57 goals and 62 assists in those four seasons. He has no points in six games this year and has apparently been pushing his agent for a trade because the Rangers aren’t giving him a chance.

Memo to Mr. Jessiman: The reason the Rangers, who aren’t exactly lighting the world on fire offensively, aren’t giving you a chance to play in the NHL is because you are not good at hockey. You have had ONE (1) good season in your entire hockey career, that being the 24-23-47 freshman season at Dartmouth that got you drafted No. 12 overall in the best draft in hockey history, ahead of guys like Mike Richards, Ryan Getzlaf and Zach Parise. You are injury-prone at worst and a mediocre player at best. That’s why you’ve never played an NHL game, and likely never will. You’re an answer to a trivia question, not someone that’s earned a shot in the best hockey league in the world.

Give the KHL a whirl or something. Hockey on this continent is a dead end for you.

(Yes, I am still bitter about Jessiman scoring a hat trick against my college that freshman year, thanks for bringing it up.)

In last night’s Avangard Omsk/Chekhov Vityaz game, Rangers first-round pick Alexei Cherepanov collided with a teammate on a change and was knocked unconscious. Later, his heart stopped and he had to be taken to the hospital.

According to the Alexander Ovechkin blog, which is a great source for Russian hockey news, the player he collided with was Jaromir Jagr, who was crying and screaming for Cherepanov to wake up. You may remember that the two had forged a tight relationship early in their Avangard time together. Jagr was Cherepanov’s boyhood hero.

The comments on the article paint a particularly grim picture, with one saying Cherepanov has died. Really hoping that’s not the case.

Update: Sports.ru is indeed saying that Cherepanov has passed away.

Jesus Christ.

I was watcing bits and pieces of the Rangers game last night online (don’t narc me out!) and there was one name I kept hearing constantly.

“Petr Nedved.”

Apparently, the 37-year-old scored a goal and generally looked impressive (albeit against Senators bench that, sans Spezza, Heatley, Gerber and Fischer, was not exactly rife with talent) in a 2-1 Rangers win to open the preseason last night. PETR NEDVED!

“Surely when I left I wasn’t expecting to be coming back,” said Nedved, the game’s first star. “It is so nice to be back in the National Hockey League. It’s just an exhibition game, but I was nervous before the game to the point that I didn’t know what to expect.”

He also picked up the game’s first star, and the announcers on homeriffic MSG could not stop raving about him.

Still, though, he’d need turn far more heads than this to make the team. If the Rangers think they can get similar production from a 22-year-old for a similar price, Nedved is on the first plane full of chickens and pigs back to Liberec.

Doesn’t sound like anyone’s ready to annoint him the King of Comebacks just yet.

“That’s his first game so I’m not going to draw any conclusions,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “Like a lot of others, he’s involved in a process and we’re smack dab in the middle of it. We’ll give him credit for a good game and get ready for the next one.

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s something that has to be consistent - at least the chances - and playing a good two-way game and being an influential player for all the right reasons.”

If the announcers on MSG last night were to have been believed, Nedved is still a “great skater” with a “great shot,” so making the team isn’t going to be a big deal.

But seriously, Petr Nedved?

An article in Sweden’s Aftonbladet sports section (there’s some moon language there) on Henrik Lundqvist’s upcoming campaign with the New York Rangers led with the revelation that he’s taking weekly cortisone shots to deal with pain in his knees, and then spent the rest of the article saying, “No, no! I’m fine! Really!”

(As always, forgive my clumsy translation).

Henrik Lundqvist’s sore knees started at the end of last NHL season — and during the finals was growing in pain. The damage, in the ligaments, also gave him major problems during the World Cup in Canada this spring. The hope was that a long, quiet summer holidays would eliminate the problems.

But apparently, it has not been.

“It has not healed well as I had hoped,” revealed “Henke” when we met only three weeks before the season at the New York Rangers’ training facility north of Manhattan.

That’s bad news, especially because he’s taking cortisone to get over it rather than missing any time. The problem’s only going to get worse down the road. Lundqvist, though, says the knee always gives him trouble around this time (in the preseason!?).

A doctor named Björn Waldebäck treated Lundqvist during the World Cup. He told Aftonbladet that he believe’s Hank’s butterfly style is part of the problem here.

“Goalies now often go up and down several thousand times in one season. Of course, it is stressful for ligaments in the knees. A thought I have is that long-time goalkeepers can have more problems with the knees because the angles and thus burden is greater, but there is nothing I have for evidence,” says Björn Waldebäck.

If Lundqvist’s knee doesn’t hold up as well as he’d hoped, or if he gets injured, the Rangers are in a LOT of trouble and have no backup plan. They traded Al Montoya to the Coyotes at the deadline and their only other backup of note is Steve Valiquette. How fast can Miikka Wiikman get to the U.S.?

The article makes an interesting note, too. Lundqvist is one of only five Rangers remaining from the 2005-06 team. The others are Petr Prucha, Michal Roszival, Blair Betts and Marek Malik. That’s a LOT of turnover in just three seasons. They are also paying $20.1 million dollars to the trio of Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Markus Naslund this year.

A few weeks ago now, I explored the fantastic travel package that the Pittsburgh Penguins were offering their fans. It was something like $3,000 PLUS airfare.

At least the Rangers are including the flights as they screw you.

For $3,625, you get the following:

Roundtrip air from New York, NY (JFK) to Prague, Czech Republic. Departs JFK on Thursday, October 2nd; Returns on Monday, October 6th

Departing from JFK is a preference, not guaranteed. This flight could depart from Newark, NJ (EWR)

Three night accommodations at the Hilton Prague Old Town Hotel

Check in Friday, October 3rd and check out Monday, October 6th

Reserved upper level tickets to the Rangers vs. Lightning game on Saturday 10/4

Reserved upper level tickets to the Rangers vs. Lightning game on Sunday 10/5

Roundtrip deluxe game transfers

Exclusive access to the Rangers’ morning practice on Saturday with Rangers alumni

Prague Castle Tour on Sunday morning

Roundtrip deluxe airport transfers in Prague with porterage

Daily breakfast at the hotel

Official Rangers Deluxe Gift Bag

Premiere Corporate Events staff pre-planning and on-site to assist

Passport required for international travel

All taxes and porterage fees included

Limited number of lower level ticket upgrades available

The Rangers have partnered with Premiere Corporate Events to bring you this once in a lifetime experience.

If nothing else, this at least seems like a better deal because airfare is included

Once again, let’s break this down (remember 1 US Dollar= 17.5 Czech Kuronas).

• Round-trip flight from New York City to Prague on Delta with a stopover: $848 plus fees, taxes, etc. from Priceline.
• Hotel from Friday to Monday: $259.87 per night, or $849.76.
  
• Reserved upper level tickets to both games: Games are sold out, but people I’m assuming are reputable ticket brokers have them as low as the admittedly steep price of $148 a pop.
• A ride to from the airport: $50?
• A ride to the rink: Call it $60. I figured $15 both ways for both nights if it’s on the high side.
• Castle Tour: If you were going by yourself, it’d be $25.70 for the long tour and an English-speaking tour guide.
• Morning skate with Rangers alum: A morning skate costs $6 where I go. But the inclusion of Jeff Beukeboom and Darren Turcotte makes it “Priceless.”
• Breakfast: Assume $60, just like in Sweden.
• Deluxe gift bag: Assume a $50 value, even though it won’t be that much.

That leaves us with a grand total of $2,097.46.

Total markup: $1,527.54, or 72.8 percent. What a steal.

At least the Rangers also offer a package without airfare that costs $2,525. Even if you use the $848 airfare, you still get out cheaper than the deluxe package.

It’s not Penguins-grade price gauging, which was almost 100 percent PLUS airfare, but it’s close.

Once again, I implore you: stay home.

"I got interest from WHO?"

Brendan Shanahan, who’s 39 but scored 23 goals last year for the Rangers, is still without a contract. No shock there. He’s 39.

But what is shocking is that teams seem to be lining up around the block for him. The list, according to noted bastion of journalistic excellence Sportsnet, includes five teams.

The most interesting of which might be the opportunity for the 39-year-old winger to move west and join the Ducks. It is believed that Anaheim general manager Brian Burke reached out last week to Shanahan, the Rangers’ third-leading goal-scorer with 23 last season behind 25-goal-scoring co-leaders Jaromir Jagr and Chris Drury.

This, of course, ignores the Ducks’ salary situation, which is already $3.24 million over the cap, and that’s not counting Teemu Selanne’s salary. Shanahan, who’s 39, had a cap number of $5.3 million last year (actual salary of $2.5 million), and any pay cut he would take to play in Anaheim would be, um, substantial. I’m really not sure why Burke thinks he needs Brendan Shanahan, who by the way is 39, of all people to score goals for him either.

For the record, Philly is still over the cap, and both the Rangers and Devils are within $715,000 and $1.3 million of it, respectively. So those possibilities make all the sense in the world as well.

Shanahan, 39, and I agree upon who can we blame for all this, though. You guessed it!

“I don’t know if everything is on hold because of Mats [Sundin],” Shanahan said. “It seems like his situation has frozen teams around the league.”

REMEMBER 1994 EVERYONE?

For a long time, the only two red, white, and blue banner in the rafters at Madison Square Garden bore the number 1, that of goaltender Ed Giacomin, Rod Gilbert’s No. 7.

Giacomin was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. The Blueshirts retired his number on March 15 of the same year. He was often spectacular for the New York Rangers in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was a six-time All-Star and won the Vezina in 1971.

Gilbert’s number was retired in 1979 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame three years later. He scored almost a point a game in his 1,065-game career and never played for anyone else.

For 15 years, Giacomin and Gilbert stood alone. In 2004, they were joined by another Ranger great, Mike Richter. Then in 2006 came Mark Messier’s No. 11. Earlier this year, it was Brian Leetch’s No. 2. Legitimate Hall of Famers, all.

And now, the Rangers have announced, they will retire the numbers of three more Broadway Blue greats beginning in February. No. 9, which belonged to both Adam Graves and Andy Bathgate, and Harry Howell’s No. 3.

Adam Graves, really? The guy who had 616 points in 1152 career games? The guy who broke .75 points per game just twice in his career? The guy who’s only 10th all-time on the Rangers’ points list behind STEVE VICKERS? They’re REALLY stretching their definition of “great” if it includes Adam Graves.

At this point, the Rangers might as well retire the number of everyone who played on the 1994 team. That’d be fine with Bettman, too, as the NHL seems to have an inexplicable love affair with everything about that team. Try watching the NHL Network for an hour and see how many times Messier is doing his best Michael J Fox impression waiting for Bettman to say, “Captain Mark Messier, somethingsomethingsomething!”

Hint: Not less than five.

Meanwhile, the Rangers can retire all the numbers they want. I’m holding out for Jeff Beukeboom Night.

Imagine this guy telling you to do sprints

A lot of things can be said about Jaromir Jagr, and now “future coach” seems to be among them.

Since signing with Avangard Omsk, he has taken Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov under his wing, as he did with Rangers rookie Brandon Dubinsky last year. Cherepanov, who scored a hat trick in Omsk’s first preseason game (preseason hockey in August!), said that Jagr has been incredibly helpful so far.

- Do you communicate with him often?

- Yes, sometimes I ask him about the NHL. Jaromir knows that I have been invited there, and once said: “You want to play in the NHL - train more.” After these words I began to work even harder. By the way, after each practice Jaromir works extra with me: shows me all kinds of techniques, teaches me how to shoot, tells me how and on what I still need to work. In a way he is one of my coaches.

This must be very surreal for Cherepanov, who grew up idolizing Jagr. The young forward still admits he’s a bit starstruck to have Jagr on his team, giving him advice.

- Last season, you said more than once that Jagr is your idol and that you dreamed of playing on one team with him. Today your dream has come true…

- You can’t even imagine what emotions are now overflowing in me. A dream is a dream, but at the same time, even I could not imagine that we would play together for the Omsk club!

- Most likely, you now wait for the chance to play with him on one line?

- I think that such a thing is possible! Anyway, now I dream of scoring off a pass from Jagr.

- Has it been possible to get the autograph of the Czech?

- Not yet, but after all, the whole season is still ahead.

And one quote that should be worrisome for Rangers fans: “And then when I learned that my idol would play in Omsk, I generally forgot about the NHL for awhile.”

Uh oh.