Ranger’s Malik Odd Man Out

New York Ranger’s defenseman Marek Malik has returned from a November rib injury to realize he has lost his spot as a first pair defenseman.

Once Malik was cleared to play he was kept out of the lineup because the defense was “clicking”, but now he’s being kept out because he isn’t the best option.

Malik’s position on the team changed when he went down with a rib injury and Marc Staal was switched to the first pair with Michal Rozsival. Suddenly Staal was averaging over 20 minutes of ice time a night and began to thrive.

Malik returned and Staal’s ice time went back down, but recently Malik has been getting scratched and Staal has been getting more time. This week Malik was a healthy scratch against the Atlanta Thrashers and New Jersey Devils and Staal played over 20 minutes in each game with Rosival.

Malik is likely to see some time on the third pair with either Paul Mara or Jason Strudwick, but this is a bad match up. Malik is a big defenseman which works to his advantage, but is certainly the slowest blue-liner and opposing teams would be able to exploit that further if he were matched up with another big slow defender.

The website hockey buzz has the Ranger’s connected to a deal which would send Malik, Petr Prucha, and Wolfpack goalie Al Montoya to Colorado in exchange for John-Michael Liles and Marek Svatos. Although that rumor has not been mentioned by either team’s general managers.

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For Rangers Defense Wins

The Rangers have won five games in a row and face the New York Islanders tonight, the only team to beat them in three weeks.

As a team they have scored the third fewest goals in the NHL, but have been able to win due to a commitment to defense which has seen contributions by everyone from Henrik Lundqvist to a pair of back checking 600-goal scorers.

Lately it has become more obvious that the once perceived weakness of the Rangers, their blue-line, is becoming an area of strength.

Coming into this season most of the talk surrounding the Rangers was focused on the idea that new centers Chris Drury and Scott Gomez would lead an offensive juggernaut to the Stanley Cup. As they sputtered early focus changed to fixing the defense with bigger more offensive players like Sheldon Souray and Ed Jovanovski who might be able to jumpstart the offense. Instead what has taken over the Rangers is their group of young mobile defensemen who play strong fundamental hockey.

"I think we've got guys that are certainly unheralded and maybe have yet to make their mark in a significant way in the league," Head Coach Tom Renney said to the NY Daily News. "That doesn't mean they're not good defensemen.”

The rise of 20-year old rookie Marc Staal, who replaced Marek Malik as a first pair defenseman, has coincided with a less vocalized call for a trade. Also, each time Fedor Tyutin hip-checks an opponent or Dan Girardi makes a poised breakout pass it’s becoming more obvious that this is going to be the road to the Stanley Cup.

"Manhandling guys is history. The skills you have to have now to play defense in this league are skating ability, being positionally sound, poise with the puck and hockey sense,” Phoenix director of player personnel and former NHL defenseman Tom Kurvers told the Daily News. “Their guys have that."

Lundqvist is as stellar as ever in net, but the team’s goals against average has dropped from 2.57 last season to just 1.79 this year even as they have failed to add that big name, pre-lockout style defenseman so many have called for. In fact is has been the removal of guys who were once all-stars like Sandis Ozolinsh and Darius Kasparaitis that has lead to players like Michal Rosival to flourish and come into their own as top defensemen capable to leading the team.

Only just now are the Rangers finding their grove offensively, scoring four goals in four of their last five games, but it is their crop of young defensemen, Staal, Girardi, and Tyutin, along with capable veterans like Rosival and Paul Mara who are helping them win now. This group has the ability to do the little things like staying mobile and focusing on making good first passes, not just moving guys out of the front of the net and holding the puck along the boards.

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Drury Leads Rangers

The New York Rangers beat the Florida Panthers 5-2 last night scoring four goals in the third period after getting off to a slow start.

Chris Drury scored the game winning goal and had two more assists as quickly begun earning his big $35 million contract.

The Rangers got their season off quickly when Michal Rosival scored a goal 37 seconds in, but then seemingly took the next two periods off.

"The first 10 minutes I thought we were OK, the second 10 minutes of the first period we were not very good, and in the second period, for me, there was only one team on the ice and it wasn't the New York Rangers," Tom Renney told the NY Post.

The Rangers left the ice after the second period and the fans let the team hear their disappointment with a chorus of boos.

It didn’t take long for the team to turn things around and after Petr Prucha tied it Drury did what he does best, scored a big goal. His first goal would eventually become the game winner and he would add a second assist on Martin Straka’s goal late in the game.

Dispite the slow start the first line played very strong. Between the three players on the top-line, Drury, Jaromir Jagr, and Straka, they scored a total of six points (2 goals 4 assists).

As the Rangers left the ice after the game ended fans at the Garden cheered, “"We want the Cup!"

Overall the game was a positive one. The team from Broadway played poorly through the first two periods, but had enough talent to put the Panthers away in the final frame. The weakest link on the team is going to be the defense and Marek Malik and Rosival were impressive. Marc Staal usually looked like a guy who had never played in the NHL before, but managed to make a few strong plays to show the promise scouts talk about.

As usual Henrik Lundqvist played a strong game. He only allowed two goals one of which only scored when rookie Brandon Dubinsky impeded his motion to stop a puck to his left. The King was impressive keeping the Rangers in the game until they got it together enough to score some goals.

Aside from Drury the most impressive part of last night’s victory was the contributions the team received from the third-line of Prucha, Ryan Callahan, and Dubinsky. Prucha tied the game and Callahan was impressive putting them ahead 4-2. If that line can continue to pitch in this team is going to be very strong throughout the season.

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Rangers Hope To End Cup Drought

The New York Rangers begin their quest for the Stanley Cup as they open up the season in Madison Square Garden and they face-off against the Florida Panthers tonight.

When the Rangers take the ice the “obvious” line combos – Gomez/Jagr/Straka and Drury/Shanahan/Avery – will not be taking the ice together, but that is fine Scott Gomez.

“To Start it off, I like to pass it and (Brendan Shanahan) likes to shoot it,” said Gomez in the NY Daily News.

Just because Gomez and Jaromir Jagr are not skating together to start the season doesn’t mean the pair won’t be together soon. “We’re likely to be making changes on the fly in a number of areas as we get into the season and see what works and what doesn’t,” Rangers coach Tom Renney told the NY Post.

The biggest question that remains unanswered is exactly how will Jagr adapt to not having the playmaker Michael Nylander there to feed him the puck? Chris Drury is not exactly the same type of player as Nylander was. He is more likely to shoot the puck than Nylander who often skated around for long periods of time waiting to setup Jagr.

“I anticipate it will be a little different with Chris rather than (Nylander),” Renney said to the Post. “I think Chris will change the dynamic in that sense.”

That is why Renney initially said it was obvious to pair Jagr up with Gomez who is known as one of the best passers in the NHL. Although I don’t think anyone is worried about the talented top line.

“I think that right now, that line with Chris and Jags and Straka looks like it could be really dangerous,” Gomez said to the Daily News.

As for the power-play, it looks like Renney won’t be breaking up his even strength lines. The top man-advantage line skating during practice was Jagr, Drury, and Petr Prucha with Martin Straka and Michal Rozsival at the points. The second power-play line gives a bit of a different look with Gomez, Shanahan, and Sean Avery up front and Fedor Tyutin and Dan Girardi at the points.

“Our best success last year came when we had two units with distinct looks that received an equitable amount of time,” said Renney to the Post.

The rest of the lineup is set as well. The third line which skated together Tuesday was rookie Brandon Dubinsky centering Ryan Callahan and Prucha and the third line will be a combination of Blair Betts, Colton Orr, Marcel Hossa, and Ryan Hollweg with one of them getting scratched.

The defense is mostly familiar faces with Rosival and Marek Malik as the first pair, Tyutin and Girardi as the second pair, and rookie Marc Staal will make his NHL debut tonight playing with Paul Mara as the third pair. Thomas Pock will be a healthy scratch and could possibly start tonight if Mara is held out of the line-up.

Of course Henrik Lundqvist will be between the pipes for the Rangers tonight. He is coming off of back-to-back 30 win seasons and he finished as a Vezina Trophy finalist in each of those seasons. Last year he got off to a slow start with a 3.57 GAA in October, but rebounded and was one of the best goalies in the NHL down the stretch with a 1.80 GAA after the all-star break.

The team is hoping things start off more smoothly than last season which didn’t go well early and didn’t start winning until the February 5 trade which brought Avery over from Los Angeles. From that point on they finished the season 17-6-6 maddening opponents all the way to the second round of the playoffs. With acquisitions of two of the biggest free-agents on the market in Gomez and Drury they hope to go a lot farther this season.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with talking about how we believe that we're good enough to win the Stanley Cup,” Avery said to the Post. “As long as we back it up on the ice each and every game."

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Center Stage on Broadway

Do you believe in magic? Well Rangers fans probably do after The Rangers somehow managed to fit the salaries of two of the biggest free-agents under cap-constraints.

After failing all spring to come to terms with Michael Nylander the Rangers started off the summer of free agency with a bang, a big bang. The blue-shirts went out and signed both Chris Drury and Scott Gomez to long-term deals Sunday doing what many in the sport thought was impossible.

With Drury and Gomez now on the team the Rangers will enjoy a core of players which should make them competitive immediately and for years to come. At least immediately the Rangers will boast an offense which also has Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka, Brendan Shanahan, and Sean Avery which means scoring on the power-play should be the least of their concerns.

What will concern the Rangers the rest of the summer is going to be how they can fit the rest of the restricted free agents and Shanahan under the cap. The Rangers gave Chris Drury a five-year $35.25 million deal and Scott Gomez a seven-year $51.5 million deal. That puts them at a $38 million already spent on a payroll than cannot exceed $50.3 million. This leaves them with about $12 million to spend on Henrik Lundqvist, Shanahan, Petr Prucha, Sean Avery, and Marcel Hossa.

Next year the coach Tom Renney will likely send out a first line of Jagr-Gomez-Straka. Gomez would be paired with Jagr likely because of his ability to get the puck to the captain as opposed to Drury’s propensity to score goals, which would make him a good line-mate for Jagr on the power-play. That would leave Drury to be paired up with Shanahan and Avery, Prucha, or Hossa on a second line which certainly should be able to light-up the garden. Combine the offensive fire-power the Rangers now possess with Lundqvist and a blue-line crew who will add the OHL’s Most Outstanding Defenseman for the 06/07 season Marc Staal and you should get a team ready to go deep into the playoffs.

While it is hard to imagine them fitting all those players on the roster with such little cap-space left GM Glen Sather doesn’t think so. Slats said in the NY Daily News, “We think we can keep everybody we have right now.”

The Rangers did see some subtraction to their roster as the Nashville Predators signed forward Jed Ortmeyer to a two-year $1.5 million deal announced yesterday. This is of course in addition to the loose of Nylander who was determined to give free-agency a shot.

As always my work can be read at Hot Stove New York