Good morning, boneheads!
Congratulations to Beezle! He won the contest last night. Two people ( Beezle and BobbyO ) predicted the score correctly, which I found pretty impressive considering most of the boneheads predicted their loss. So everyone who thought the Rangers would lose, eat your collective hearts out! 🙂
Beezle won by predicting Rangers shots 32 ( 33 ), BobbyO’s number was 29 ( 33 ).
Can both of you guys please email me at ilbster@yahoo.com
I hope you all listened to Kreider’s postgame interview last night. If not, go back to the end of previous post. Pretty impressive. That’s why we should all realize by now that they will not tank!
Waiting for Carp’s review in the Athletic.
UPDATE: Here is Carp’s game review
345 responses to “Rangers-4, Penguins-3 ( OT )”
Carp, Kovalchuk getting signed will either make Gorton look like a genius or make him look like Sather’s puppet. High risk/High reward gamble IMO.
Exactly Carp, any more than 2 years and they should steer clear due to the over 35 contract rules.
I’m still wondering about all the noise on Tavares……you know the old, no smoke without fire……
Pionk is lucky that he’s playing acceptable hockey or he’d be shocked to know that around here, he’d be called Punkie.
Norm, you forgot God and Muhammad.
Beez, I don’t watch Hartford at all so I won’t speculate about how much Pionk needed to be seasoned in the AHL. Maybe I’m off base but if he learned to be a steady two way over 5 months after playing hockey all his life then Hartford has one hell of a talent when it comes to grooming.
I don’t think it’s crazy to consider that he may have been able to round his game out on an NHL level this year allowing the team to better manage their cap and to try to attain some depth at center. Either way it’s in the past now so I’m not going to harp on it.
Is Punkie from Brewster?
Beezle – you are right, nobody knows whether AHL is the right place or not. We do know NYR has a veteran biased coach who has shown a tendency to not play the kids. Again, not sure how much autonomy AV has in player deployment/personnel decisions.
.
Tony D got a brief look in Oct which could have been better used for Pionk, but brass wanted to potentially save face on Step deal.
If the Coaches are so great in Hartford, may as well send Staal down there for a couple months.
How does Nash or Miller or McD or Grabner or Holden (maybe not Holden) have less value over the summer when all 30 teams are in the mix?
Coos into the Irish spirit a day early. I like it.
referring to last summer re Alex post
LOL oh boy, SN. It’s gonna be a long day. I can tell already.
If we are going to sign a RW free agent over the summer pass on Kovi and sign James Neal!
I don’t see how you give Kovalchuk enough money to buy a cup of lemonade from a 10 year old’s lemonade stand before you know for certain that Tavares has no interest in coming to NY. (ducks)
There’s a tendency here (not only here) to speculate that players who do well have overcome the coaching. Players who are slumping, on the other hand, are being “held back”.
We’ll find out if Putin hates the Rangers if Kovalchuk comes down with a chemical nerve-agent pinprick while waiting for a taxi in Midtown.
next season
Kreider – Taveres – Neal
Names – Zika – Butch
Spooner – Hayes – Heetle
Fast – Lias – Nieves
SN
Due to prorated salaries especially in case of Nash. Nowhere near 30 teams could have been in on him especially those on his acceptable list.
I already stated my displeasure on miller being included in the deal. That part was a mistake. As was using the Stepan money on Shatty.
Grabner was thought of (at least by some here) as a 1 year aberration until he proved otherwise.
McD was put in play after the team’s fortune went south as injuries, including his own, propped up.
Zucc sux
Skjei had a good playoff last year. His regular season was very up and down. He has regressed some this season. Put me down as a guy who is not convinced he is going to anything special.
It would be a big mistake to have Zucc on the team next year. If AV is back, he will be. Gorton needs to kill to,birds with one stone.
I know coos gets upset with poor grammer, and spelling, so I’ll fix it. Two birds, with one stone.
The more I consider it, the less I want Tavares.
I think that’s an inverse relationship ⬆️
Papa – he ain’t coming here and neither is Neal which is a good thing.
Inverse relationship…kinda like Kovalchuk and success for the teams he’s played on in the NHL.
And just to cut off a few people so they can save the wear and tear on their fingers- I’m already aware that in 11-12 season the Devils went tot he SCF…..
Gorton will not fire Bazooka Joe he doesn’t have the seeds to do so! We will be stuck with another year of musical doghouse chairs! If he was going to fire him he would have done it already.
I’m not going to believe that Taveras is not coming here until I hear from Eric.
Tavares is overrated, I’m hoping the islanders sign him to a 10+ per year contract so they can continue to be mediocre.
@SN – not to give AV too much cover, but I think playing vets over kids probably applies to 90% of NHL coaches. Unless the team is already majority kids there is a bias for vets to get the big (or at least important) minutes.
Maybe Gorton can package Skjei to the oilers for Draisaitl.
Zucc needs to take his 11 goals and his blind 20+ wish passes pee game to any other team next year.
The Ideas of March
yea, grabner is tearing it up with the devils, he finally got his 1st point the other day.
Per, not pee
Fire AV at season end!!!
I would be extremely disappointed if AV is still the coach of the rangers next year.
If want to win a game, you can bet I have reliable vets in there , especially late. Anybody stupid or erratic will sit. I give AV the benefit of the doubt on that.
more good news! Another 3-4″ last night and its still snowing (lightly)! Avy and sluff warnings now too. Amazing the change in 10 days.
Young Pro’s come up to the big time in every sport these days inadequately coached and ill-prepared. Maybe it’s always been so, but to me,. not so embarrassingly unprepared as in the current times.
Coaches put the players on the ice who they think will most likely beat the other team. More than occasionally, though, they need to sit talented players to let them know what compete level is required, even if it might cost the team that night. Benched players who will go one to succeed are those who understand that they just cost their team.
Once upon a time in a season long long ago, Torts was criticized for demoting/not playing Chris Kreider…It’s more about the players in question we wish to see. Not dumping on one particular coach or another.
Even AV’s ‘enforcers’ are disciplined. I’ll give him that, too.
Coos you going over to the Kilt for some beer braised corned beef tomorrow?
If Tuesday Weld married the old actor Frederick March III, she’d be Tuesday March the Third. I already told you that.
James – Couple few people coming over tomorrow to put some Walter’s mustard on the corned beef and listen to some Clancy Brothers… 🙂
For as much as we joke around here about Walter’s, I’ve been having a serious craving lately. It’s been like 2+ years since I had a chance to stop in.
Hey aren’t the Clancy brothers the ones who wrote that book Patriot Games?
Beezle – where are you located? I thought the Garden State??
Walter’s sells its mustard on the side.
I have come to seize her berry, not to praise it.
Clancy was an insurance agent who wrote after work and finally hit it big.
When I was a whippersnapper, I had a retail store with my old man. and one March 17, he told me he felt ill and had to go home to bed. An hour later, I hear him on the radio (WVOX) at Dudley’s, Wayne Davis’s joint, singing Danny Boy and being interviewed by O’Shaughnessy. Dysfunctional family.
@SN: I may sometimes be toxic (thought nothing to compare to E3) but no, never lived in NJ. I still have a place in southern Westchester but am now at the secure northern bunker. Snow, multiple acres and no traffic lights. Other than a Stanley Cup, what more is there?
Cooscoos
and if Wednesday Adams married him she would be Wednesday March the third
Beezle – was trying to get up to Southern VT this weekend but doesn’t look like it will happen. Pow pow city is the word. Possibly next weekend…
And if Robinson Crusoe’s servant married him, he’d be Friday March the third.
well said, Beezle!
Coos that’s one of those classic new ro stories
Georgi playing tomorrow
Gorgeous: “I can be young, rich and famous in NY or turn out to be a penniless dud. Please, Jesus!”
So Georgiev is playing tomorrow. Cue the “Hank’s washed” and “See, we don’t need to pay a lot for a goalie” takes. Gotta love NYR fans… I did get a laugh at AV saying today in his presser that the reason they are winning is “goaltending.” Throwing a little shade at Hank for throwing shade at him via Brooks. Very Machiavellian…
I have a strong feeling that Hank will have a thing or two to say about our defensive scheme at break-up interviews.
https://www.nhl.com/rangers/news/rangers-pionk-gaining-confidence-as-offensive-numbers-pile-up/c-297001130
on pionk
also on the 2 goalies not named henrik
another example of mistreating a reporter
James, I don’t see how it’s a risk to sign Kovalchuk short-term … or how it reflects on Gorton vis a vis Sather … or if he should even care about that because Slats is so far removed from running this team, and nobody knows it better than Gorton.
Sire Father!!
Did a Q&A with Kreider today. probably running Monday.
In the meantime, here’s a good Q&A with Kreider
https://nypost.com/2014/05/15/serbys-qa-with-chris-kreider/
Serby!
Rob thank you for the Kreider interview. That rocked! Loved his takes on his teammates. Carp, really looking forward to yours and seeing what has changed over the past few years with him. He’s an impressive young man.
Unless there’s something of which I’m unaware, I think the now mature THE could captain this group.
agree, coos.
He is, Sittoo.
at the very least Kreider should have an A.
They might go with 4 or 5 A’s and no C next year.
Matt Calamia
Verified account
@MattCalamia
The Blues are wearing their white jersey at home, meaning — obviously — #NYR will be in blue.
Doing that would seem like a cop out, or a tacit admission that there are no natural captains on the roster.
https://www.vividseats.com/nhl-hockey/rangers-playoff-tickets.html
Rob
some teams do it
Toronto currently
I think Edmonton a couple of years ago
during the Jagr era the Rangers for a year or 2 since he didn’t want it
once you give the C out it’s an insult to take it away from a guy
Per ESPN Kovalchuk wants to play for several years and a chance to win a Cup. I take several to mean maybe 3, and little chance for a cup in NY. He’s going elsewhere, I hope.
Don’t think Brooks hyping of Kovulchukeecheese is any reflection on his \belief-unbelief/ about Rangers signing him. It’s just his m.o. to write about star players and the Rangers chances of getting them. It’s an easy column to write when he hasn’t found anything better (from trolling various Ranger sites) and he doesn’t have to do any, you know, reporting. Just check any of the myriad of past speculations he did about Lindros, or Jagr, or Stamkos, or Bure, or whoever was the flavor of the month as to trade/UFA speculation. I quite expect a Taveres to the Rangers series of columns before July.
but Kovalchuk is very much on their radar … so he’s not just throwing crap against the wall.
i think it would be smart to wait and see who emerges as the captain, even if takes more than a year. plus, it might be a new coach who needs to get to know his personnel before he determines who the captain really is. No need to have a C until they have the right C.
By the way, they’ve appointed the right captain three captains in a row, IMO. (ducks).
BTW, for all the crap-disturbing Larry does, he breaks more stories than all the rest of the NYR beat reporters combined. Fact.
That’s because of the Bonehead influence, I’m sure he visits the Hav occasionally ugotz!
I wouldn’t be against Kovalchuk signing but my concern is he is 35. At that age skills diminish and players are more prone to injury, IMO definitely something to consider!
Yeah but Carp, you’re now (once again) a beat reporter so I doubt that accomplishment will hold up for long and the other beat reporters are????, the now retired Zipay (who despite being on the Dolan’s payroll, could never be considered to have inside info, and the other guy on the Post, Cyrgalis, who is probably contractually obligated to give first crack at any story to Brooks, and oh yeah, the guy at the News that no one, ever, reads. It’s certainly not the days when Diamos and Dellapina were around and newspapers actually employed professionals.
Tiger Woods the betting favorite for the upcoming Masters? A ha ha ho ho. What fools these suckers be.
Torts re: Brooksie. – “I don’t read his stuff.”
He sure got royally bent out of shape plenty of times at a guy he never read.
Sittoo, to AV’s Machiavellian comments regarding goaltending, there’s only one problem with your theory, though it may be correct: the number one reason they won the last two games is…goaltending. That’s not a knock on Hank–it’s a kudos to Georgie-boy.
Kovie is big, fast, plays with an edge and can score. Martin Brodeaur called him the best teammate he’s ever played with.
WTF is not to like?
Kreider goes from “no brains or hockey sense” (I always thought that was hysteria bs) to “let’s give him the C”.
People on this blog are as consistent as a Clinton campaign promise.
With Chris Kuc, another professional journalist bites the dust. In this case, the guy is the WhiteSox (former Blackhawks) beat reporter who gets canned while at Spring training and is on his own to get himself back home, and word is there was no severance package. What a brutal profession sportswriting has become. So happy our man Carp landed in a good place.
Only the best people believe my lies, only the best.
But her emails!
Norm, I am in total agreement. Just made me laugh. When Hank stood on his head with back to back 50 save wins, followed up with a stellar losing effort vs Winnipeg, the Coach did not single out goaltending quite so much. I think there is a bit of a back and forth going on between the two of them which is playing out in the media. I think Georgi has been terrific and I am thrilled he is playing vs the Blues.
Norm, I would add that the team as a whole has played better over the last couple of games. A far cry from the Vancouver, Calgary, and Tampa games.
Kovie is big, was fast, played with an edge and could score. Five years ago. Now he’s 35, wants to sign for 3-4 years minimum. With 6-7 mil cap hit until he’s 39. WTF, is your memory shot or don’t you remember Nash, St Louis, Richards, Redden, Gomez, Holik, Messier II, Lindros and a whole bunch of lesser lights that Sather picked up at the curb?
You have know idea what he’s looking for in a contract, Slatsgo.
I can guess what Sather is willing to give him. 3-4 years minimum. With 6-7 mil cap hit until he’s 39.
Well, guess all you want. But direct from Carp……Sather doesn’t make those calls anymore.
I’m willing to wait and see. And like it or not, Sather is still there and his influence still has an effect on the Rangers future.
affect
Afliction
Face it, dude. The Slatsgo shtick is DOA
Downside of signing Kovalchuk on a short term deal? They become a bubble team the next season or two and either just make or just miss the playoffs, resulting in 1st round picks in the teens. Until they find a real 1st line center they aren’t going to be a real threat to win a cup and unless there is another 2003 type draft, we aren’t gonna find one of those so late in the draft. No sure thing they’d find a real #1 in the draft absent signing Kovalchuk, but I’d say its almost a sure thing they aren’t going to win a cup in the next year or two if they sign Kovalchuk (without somehow otherwise addressing #1 center and top pair D), so what’s the real point besides another new jersey to sell in the team store and online? In some ways it would be similar to the Jagr years, but think Jagr was in far better shape physically than Kovy is and we’d be without guys like Nylander/Straka.
—
So there is a very straight forward and not all that unlikely negative result of signing Kovalchuk to a short term deal.
And papa bear never gets it juuuust right.
Geez Pete. Should they put an “out to lunch” sign in the window until they’re able to draft a Crosby or Malkin? Why not just fold the franchise?
Oh that hurt, Olga.
“effect” was correct.
And Sather has no influence according to Carp, or such is my understanding.
Yeah but it kills his shtick, Norm.
Sather has no influence? Believe what you want, Sather is not there for his health.
Sather is still there, Carp is the one that’s gone.
Respect, Slatsko, but it would appear you’re the one believing what he wants. I’m certainly more inclined to take Carp’s word, given he is in a position where he does not have to conjecture as much as we do.
Maybe so, Norm. A man must believe what he has to believe. And I believe I’ll have another beer.
Azzlanders know how to tank
SN- Islanders and Detroit. Detroit has won 1 of their last 10 games.
Ok- I got it backwards. Islanders won 1 in last 10. Detroit’s won 2 of last 10.
Red Wings winning tank. Isles keep picking up Bettman points.
[editor: please remove Stormy post. Thank you.]
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