New York Rangers

Tonight's Game The Rangers face-off against the Boston Bruins tonight at TD Garden (5:30 p.m.), in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Semifinal series. The Blueshirts trail in the series, 3-1, following a 4-3 overtime win in Game 4 on Thursday at...

A source confirms exclusively to Us Weekly that supermodel Anne Vyalitsyna is dating New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey! The pair first met, briefly, at a New York Rangers Game — and the 24-year-old athlete can credit Twitter for helping him land a date.via Anne V Dating Matt Harvey: Supermodel, Mets Player Affectionate in Picture – UsMagazine.com.The post Supermodel Anne V reportedly dating Matt Harvey appeared first on The Mets Police.Related posts:Must Read: The excellence of Matt Harvey and the misery of the Mets – GrantlandHow Matt Harvey Became the Most Exciting Pitcher in Baseball – Allen Barra – The AtlanticMets’ Matt Harvey seems to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated

Down 2-0 with a little more than 32 minutes left to play, and facing elimination, the New York Rangers playoff run was at a crossroads. They could follow the example of the Washington Capitals who folded like a cheap suit in Game 7. Or, the Blueshirts could decide to fight back and play with a desperation, urgency and resiliency that has been lacking in this series. If they were to choose the latter option, they were going to need a break. Well, one break coming up, courtesy of Tuukka Rask who certainly will not be winning Dancing With the Stars any time soon. Just 58 seconds after Rangers nemesis Torey Krug scored his third goal of the series, Carl Hagelin’s backhander trickled past the prone Bruins goaltender after Rask stumbled and fell to the ice. “Probably the ugliest goal I have ever seen,” Henrik Lundqvist commented to Larry Brooks of the NY Post. “It turned it around for us, and that’s hockey. ‘‘We need to be more focused, I need to be more focused,’’ Rask explained to Ira Podell of the AP. ‘‘I just took a step to the side in what I think probably was a skate mark or something. I lost my balance and the rest is history. ‘‘We gave them a couple of gifts and it cost us the game.’’ The other “gift” was Derek Stepan’s goal 75 seconds into the third period to tie the game as he picked Zdeno Chara’s pocket and stuffed home the tying goal. After the game Chara said he didn’t know Stepan was near him – which is understandable given that FrankenChara (copyrighted by my wife Roe) is like eight feet tall on skates and probably thought Stepan was a gnat buzzing around his head. “It certainly gave us life,” Stepan stated after the game. “It’s a timely goal at the right time.” The Rangers resiliency was tested again as Boston scored two seconds after Ryan McDonagh’s borderline call for Goalie Interference expired as the Bruins scored after Henrik Lundqvist made a flurry of stops late in the Boston power play. However, less than two minutes later a month of Sundays hit the calendar, pigs started to fly and cats and dogs were living in harmony as the Rangers power play woke up from its doldrums to tie the game midway through the third period. Credit Brian Engblom for pointing out the two things the Rangers did right, for a change, on their power play and the big mistake the Bruins committed. For one of the few times on a man advantage, the Blueshirts were able to gain the Bruins zone while carrying the puck. Combine that with some puck movement and player movement and you have Brian Boyle’s power play goal. The one main point Engblom pointed out was how the Bruins got caught watching the puck and no one was looking at the weak side and that allowed Boyle to skate into position in the slot. For the rare time, it was Boston that got burned puck-watching – not the Rangers. I hope John Tortorella puts the following quote up on the bulletin board in the TD Garden prior to Game 5 as a reminder of what the Rangers need to do on Saturday. “When we get a power play we need to be determined enough to go out and make a difference,” Boyle said to Dan Rosen of NHL.com. “We need to do it. It has to work. The games we lost, if we get a power-play goal it’s a different game.” The King rallied his teammates with a pre-game speech and then went out and backed it up – especially in overtime as he counted key stops on Patrice Bergeron, Jaromir Jagr and Brad Marchand among his 37 saves. “I told the guys before the game there was no way we were losing this game,” Lundqvist said. “We want to keep playing. We owe it to ourselves, to our fans. All our focus today was just on this game. Now we move our focus to the next game and the first period of that game. We will see how far that takes us.” All of Lundqvist’s talk and play would mean nothing without Chris Kreider’s overtime winner. Again, puck and player movement played a key following a huge faceoff win by Deric

A very well-attended optional skate today that only included players who dressed for Thursday night’s 4-3 overtime win in Game 4 against the Bruins as the Rangers avoided a sweep. Chris Kreider was given a maintenance day off bit Kris Newbury, Micheal Haley and Roman Hamrlik continued to skate with the varsity with the assumption that they’ll remain in the lineup for Saturday’s Game 5 at Boston’s TD Garden. The Rangers’ practice squad, the “Black Aces” skated separately. Brad Richards, Ryane Clowe and Darroll Powe skated with that group. However, defenseman Anton Stralman was not on the ice, though he did an off-ice workout. Still, that likely means he will not be in the Game 5 lineup. A few interesting factoids provided by the NHL this morning regarding the Rangers’ Game 4 win: - The 4-3 OT win was franchise’s fifth OT win when facing elimination. Last time was Mat-teau Mat-teau Mat-teau against the Devils in Game 7 of the 1994 Eastern Conference final. - Kreider has six goals in 25 playoff games as a Ranger, including three winners. In 23 regular season games, Kreider has two goals and no winners. - Henrik Lundqvist is 5?0 with a 0.98 goals-against average, a .966 save percentage and two shutouts in his last five home playoff games with the Rangers facing elimination. Over the past two seasons, the Rangers are 6-1 in elimination games: Two wins against the Senators when facing a 3-2 deficit in the first round of the 2012 playoffs, a win in Game 7 against the Capitals last year in the conference final, two wins over the Capitals when trailing in the series 3-2 in this year’s first round and now the Game 4 win over the Bruins. The only blemish was their Game 6 overtime loss to the Devils in last year’s conference final. “I don’t know,” captain Ryan Callahan said when asked why the Rangers can elevate their game that way. “I guess it’s just a sense of desperation and I think it shows the character we have in this room and a willingness to go out there and work and battle and not give in.” Added John Tortorella: “I don’t think our team gives. We’ve done some good things there. I go back to the first series, just winning two in a row to win that series. That’s something, you try to hang your hat on I guess. I’m not a real big believer in it, I think every game is a different situation. But our team doesn’t give. Listen we were ugly the first part of (Game 4), we end up finding ourselves after a flukey game. I think we played better. Bottom line is, all is forgiven, you don’t go back and dissect it, you won a game to keep yourself alive and that’s what we have to look to now. Just win a game, it’s in Boston.” ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

After the Rangers overtime win last night, coach John Tortorella held his usual post-game press conference. This one was a lot different than his previous press conferences, as the coach was very candid and very passionate about his defense of Brad Richards. You can watch the video above for the full interview, but the Richards excerpt is below: “I think it’s important to spend a couple of minutes on that out of respect to Brad. By no means is this a situation where I take him out where I’m blaming him. I’m playing Brad on the fourth line, he’s playing seven or eight minutes, it’s not good for him, it doesn’t work playing Brad Richards that way. I also feel some other guys have played better so that’s where he is right now in our lineup. It just doesn’t work, I’m not playing him the proper way but I can’t put him on the other lines becausre I think the other lines have stepped up. I look at the fourth line, I’m looking to get some kind of life, some sort of identity on that fourth line and that’s where Brad comes out. You get some fresh legs some enthusiasm. “I’m sure people will pick it apart. I want to make sure you know, Brad Richards is a hell of a hockey player. He’s had struggles here. It continues, me putting him in that role does not help him. So I’d rather have him out and identify how we’re going to run our fourth line. So don’t put words in my mouth, it’s not blamng Brad Richards, I’ve already heard enough of that crap already as far as this is concerned. He’s a hell of a hockey player that’s having a hell of a time so I need to make decision for what I feel is right for this team to win tonight’s game. This is a Conn Smythe winner, a guy I’ve grown up with, a guy as a love as a person and a player but I have to make that decision regarding this so kiss my [backside] if you want to write something different, it’s not about blaming that guy. I don’t want anbybody to pile on him. This is my decision and I make it for the hockey club.” Torts and Richards have a great history together, and Richards passed up more money to come to New York and play under John Tortorella. When it comes to winning, Torts will do anything to win, and we now know that includes benching his alternate captain. It came with the territory when Richards signed here, and now he’s experiencing it. Torts’ logic in benching Richards was that he was being mis-used because of his struggles, and that part is absolutely true. He was getting dominated by the Bruins’ fourth line because Richards is not the type of player to be on the fourth line. When the top-nine were outperforming him, it was only a matter of time before he was in the press box. The utter dominance of the Bs fourth line exascerbated the situation. No matter what comes of this –expect him to continue sitting– it should be noted that this was purely a hockey move. Torts did what he needed to do, and he deserves credit for making a tough decision. What happens in the future with Richards (note: likely to be bought out) will also be hockey moves. Tweet

Here is Rangers coach John Tortorella’s post-practice press conference from Friday. He had some interesting things to say about the team’s Game 4 effort, about Ryan McDonagh and Chris Kreider, among other topics. Video by Rick Carpiniello. The post John Tortorella post-practice press conference video appeared first on Rangers Report Blog.

The post More post-practice interviews: Callahan, Hagelin, Brassard appeared first on Rangers Report Blog.

The video of the John Tortorella presser will be up shortly. He had some interesting things to say about Ryan McDonagh and Chris Kreider. Also, the news: Brad Richards skated with the Black Aces today. Chris Kreider, apparently still feeling that injury above his left eye, did not skate. The post Post-practice interviews: Tortorella, Lundqvist appeared first on Rangers Report Blog.

Tweet