New York Rangers

Oh, to have Jaromir Jagr back with the Rangers. Admittedly for selfish reasons not entirely based upon Jagr’s on-ice performance, though, at 41, he can still contribute. But Jagr is still one of the great interviews in sports. “Ah,” Jagr said, smiling, when the Bruins room was opened this afternoon. “The New York media…You guys missed me.” Yes, Jags, yes we do. Both he and fellow former Ranger Wade Redden were at their stalls Saturday. Redden, who missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury, said he was ready to play just yet and was day to day. Bruins coach Claude Julien said Redden would be a game-time decision. Redden spoke about his time with Hartford (AHL), his feelings about spending two seasons in the minors because A) he was not performing at the level the Rangers needed and B) the Rangers could hide his $6.5 million annual salary cap hit in the minors - a loophole in the old Collective Bargaining Agreement. The Rangers bought out the final two years of Redden’s six-year, $39 million deal prior to this season under one of their amnesty buyouts allowed in the new CBA. And Jagr, well, he just spoke. And said some funny things. Like when it was all over when I asked him if he still was planning to play one season in the Czech Republic for Kladno after he was done in the NHL, to fulfill a promise he made to his father. Jagr just laughed. “One season?” He said. “I could be scoring in that league when I’m 50.” And he said some serious things. Quotes below… ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

Both the Rangers and Bruins conducted full practices today here at TD Garden as they prepare for Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinal series, Sunday afternoon at 3. The Bruins won Game 1, 3-2, in overtime on Thursday, giving both teams a rare two-day break. “We didn’t get this much during the season, this is more down time than we’ve had a in a while,” Rangers captain Ryan Callahan said. “I think it’s good after Game 1. It gives us a chance to look at some video, some things we need to improve on. It’s definitely a good break in between.” “I think it’s good and bad,” D Dan Girardi added. “We got rest but we’re thinking about the game we had. When you have a game like that, it’s good to get right back at it.” Both teams are likely to have the same lineups for Game 2, based on today’s practice. D Matt Gilroy was the only extra skater for the Rangers, who had the same lines and defensive pairs they played with in Game 1. Marc Staal, who was on the ice at TD Garden Friday during the Rangers’ optional practice, was not seen today. For the Bruins, D Wade Redden, who missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury, believed to be an upper-body injury, did practice but said afterwards he was not ready to rejoin the lineup as of today and Bruins coach Claude Julien said Redden would likely be a game-time decision. Julien also said D Dennis Seidenberg (lower body) was “doing better but I don’t anticipate him being ready for tomorrow.” The highlight of John Tortorella’s press conference came when he was asked why top-line left wing Carl Hagelin was not used on the power play. Remember, Tortorella is completely enamored with Hagelin’s game and speed. “Because he stinks on the power play,” Tortorella said. “I don’t know why. I wish I could play him on the power play. Every time I put him on, he stinks. I think he’s too quick. I think he’s a jitterbug and he screws it up. But, again, I may use him. I don’t know. I love him. I’m not trying to be a smart (aleck) but he stinks on the power play every time I put him on.” The natural follow-up, given that the Rangers’ power play is awful is what does Tortorella have to lose by using Hagelin. The power play is 2 for 31 in the postseason. “But the power play stinks, it’s true and that’s why he may get an opportunity,” Tortorella said. ====================================================== Follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/AGrossRecord Follow the Record Sports Staff at twitter.com/TheRecordSports

Mmmm….hockey stats. Yesterday, I used four stats to discuss how the Rangers are not a team that sits on a lead. Those four stats I introduced to the blog (note: These are not new stats, just new to being used on this blog) were Fenwick, Situational Corsi, CF%, and FF%. Since the Rangers are off today, now would be a good time to go into detail about each stat. Fenwick Fenwick is the easiest to describe, since it is a lot like Corsi. Corsi is the plus/minus of the number of shot attempts taken by a team that are missed, blocked, or on net. It is something we have used very often on the blog. Fenwick is almost the exact same thing as Corsi, but it removes blocked shots from the equation. The logic here is that it eliminates coaching strategy from the equation. Some coaches preach blocking shots, and others preach preventing shot attempts. Fenwick eliminates that variable. Personally, I prefer to use Corsi when analyzing players. That said, Fenwick is a bit more reliable when comparing players on different teams, since it does eliminate the coaching variable. Situational Corsi Situational Corsi is exactly what it sounds like, it is the Corsi of a team in specific game situations. The types of situations measured are tied, close (+/- 1 goal), up 1, down 1, up 2+, down 2+. These are used to illustrate how a team plays or adjusts their style based on the score. Generally you will see teams with lower situational Corsi when up more than two goals, which is expected. This correlates directly to higher situational Corsi when down two or more. CF% CF% (Corsi-For Percent) is the percentage of Corsi for a team. The formula is CF (Corsi-For, or the raw number of shot attempts for a team) / (CF + Corsi Against). The purpose of this stat is to determine the percentage of shot attempts taken by a team in the game. So if Team A takes 50 shot attempts, and Team B has 100 shot attempts, then Team A’s CF% is 50/(50+100) = 33.3%. They took 33% of all of the shots in the game. FF% FF% (Fenwick-For Percent) is exactly what you would think it is. It takes CF%, and just replaces Corsi with Fenwick. The same purpose applies as well. FF% is used to determine the percentage of shot attempts (not including blocked shots) for a team in a game. As always, be sure to read up on the Metrics We Use page, as this is an archive for all of our metrics definitions and purposes. Tweet

With the New York Rangers falling 3-2 to the Boston Bruins on Thursday evening, the one thing that still lingers around are the three power play opportunities that went unanswered by the Rangers, prior to the winning goal. There were times during the regular season, and even against the Washington Capitals where the power play wasn't scoring, but it was still getting some good chances and decent looks. After watching the power play on Thursday night, it left me with headaches until at least the next morning. The Rangers literally couldn't set anything up in the offensive zone, let alone getting into the zone cleanly. That's one of the biggest issues that the Rangers are dealing with at the moment. Gaining the zone. On the odd chance that they do actually gain the zone, there is a whole lot of passing, and not a whole lot of shooting. There have been a bazillion different combinations, and nothing has seemed to stick. No matter what happens, John Tortorella will always fall back on his regulars. The Brad Richards', the Dan Girardi's, and the Ryan Callahan's. That's all fine and dandy up until those players aren't getting the job done anymore, and it's costing the Rangers some key chances during the playoffs. I've always been the type of person that feels the best players on the rink that night should be getting those type of opportunities. Not the ones that continually fail chance after chance, and nothing really changes. Only so much can be put on the coaching staff, and don't get me wrong, part of that blame still falls on them. But the other half of the equation has to do with the players, and whether or not they are actually executing. And up until this point, none of the guys on the power play are really getting that job done. Up until this point, the guys that have been impressing me the most have yet to see an ounce of power play time (with the exception of Derick Brassard, and Derek Stepan). Isn't it about time that John Tortorella and the coaching staff completely clean the slate, and go with the players that are giving the effort out there, and getting things done? Where are guys like Taylor Pyatt, Carl Hagelin, Derek Dorsett, John Moore, Ryan McDonagh, and even Anton Stralman? I know a lot of you guys will call me crazy for bringing up some of these names, but what is there to lose at this point? Nothing else has seemed to get anything going. At times during these last eight games, the Rangers third and fourth lines have been their best line on the ice, and generating the most chances. If that's clicking, why in the world wouldn't you roll with the hot hand(s)? Sure, it may not be the biggest names on the roster, but hey, it's working, right? It's time to fix the power play, and it's not always about the biggest names, but rather the names that are getting the job done. Thoughts?

The Rangers found out that it is difficult to win playoff games when their offense appears for less than 20 seconds on Thursday night as they fell to the Bruins 3-2.Despite the dearth of scoring chances, the disorganization of the defense, the goaltender's gaffes and the utter incompetence of the special teams, the Blueshirts made it to overtime against Boston. So that's something to build on.Not really going to expound too much on this atrocity, as Game 2 is just a day away.Late Hits:*Rene Rancourt can't sing. Oh, and clowns wear gold bowties.*You have to be utterly brainless to take a penalty in overtime of a playoff game ... and just when we were starting to like Dorsett. That being said, that was the third penalty drawn by Rich Peverley in the game. The former Thrasher is one of those hard hat guys you can count on come tough times, like Feds was for us last year.*Zdeno Chara was huge (har har). The Boston captain literally played half the game, wasn't on for either Ranger goal, opened the night's scoring and set up the game winner. Ranger captain Ryan Callahan? Had a secondary assist and wasn't much of a factor.*Del Zaster and Nash led the team in power play time with over three minutes each out of the 5:35 of man advantage time. The Rangers had just three shots make it on goal over that span, one each from Nash, John Moore and Brad Richard$. Yep.*Odd fact, there was just one Ranger who did not even attempt a shot: my tw-enemy Asham.*Bonus with this series being against Boston? A motivated Brian Boyle. Some of his best hockey of the season, but that isn't saying much.*Difference between Brad Marchand and former Ranger Sean Avery? Both are/were incredibly annoying, both have/had terrific speed and a decent touch around the net but Marchand has terrific chemistry with Patrice Bergeron, one of the most underrated players in the NHL. Avery didn't spend enough time on any single line to get any chemistry with anyone.*The Rangers had just two days off between series but they looked a bit rusty; that first period was brutal. They'd better have more jump early on Sunday...*PHW Three Stars:3-Derick Brassard - one assist.2-Zdeno Chara - one goal and one assist.1-Brad Marchand - one goal and one assist.Scotty Hockey Three Stars:3-Hank - Does he want all three goals against back? Surely. Was he under siege all night keeping the Rangers in a game they had no right to be? Absolutely.2-Chara - The man-mountain played 38 minutes and contributed on both sides of the ice. I'm sure he also managed to complete a triathlon, help an old lady across the street, save children from a burning orphanage and force Superman to kneel before Zod.1-The Posts - Half dozen or so saves by the iron.

The results are unofficial, because I always wait 24 hours to see if anybody has any protests about my tabulations. But, according to my calculations, Mike S is our first-round contest winner, the only entry with all eight first-round series winners correct. Nine others had seven of the eight series winners correct, including our friend Doodie Machetto, whose only miss was on his beloved Rangers (don’t feel bad, I picked the Capitals, too). The others with seven first-round winners were Evan, Jared R, Michael Raffo, Moses JD, Daddy, Colin, Admiral Akbar and Lyova—who always seems to be in or near the winner’s circle in our events. So we went to the first tiebreaker, which was total series exactly correct. Michael Raffo thus is our second-place winner with four exact predictions. Four others had two series exactly right, and nobody won the third tiebreaker, which was the score of the Rangers-Capitals clincher. So third place goes to Lyova, who on the fourth tiebreaker, Rangers shots in the clinching first-round game, nailed it with 27. I’m giving you guys 24 hours … until 5 a.m. Sunday … to let me know if you have any disagreements or gripes with the results, via email: rcarpini@lohud.com. If I don’t hear any convincing arguments by email by 5 a.m. Sunday, I will declare Mike S, Michael Raffo and Lyova our three winners. Thanks to everybody who played. *********************************************** Don’t know if  you guys saw any of John Tortorella’s presser in Boston yesterday. Here’s a classic clip, though … click here. Photo from politico.com. The post And the winner is … (unofficially) Mike S picked all eight first-round series winners correctly appeared first on Rangers Report Blog.

Josh Nicholls scores (CHL/WHL/Derek Mortensen) Appearances can be very deceiving as witnessed in the opening game of the 2013 Memorial Cup between the hosts the Saskatoon Blades and the OHL Champions the London Knights. Really the only reasons why London only won 3-2 have to do with a terrible power play of the London Knights and Saskatoon goalie Andrey Markov. London dominated the game when at full strength but turned into the New York Rangers when on the power play going 1 for 6 including a 52 second 5 on 3 where they missed a golden opportunity to blow the game wide open. Markov along with New York Ranger prospect Josh Nicholls (2013 UFA) made the game look respectable as Markov rightfully earned the game's first star keeping his team in the game despite London outplaying them. Nicholls made the Rangers look very good for signing him as he scored both Saskatoon goals off some nice efforts. The first goal scored by Nicholls came on a rebound where Nicholls was "right place, right time" as he was sitting at the London doorstep with a wide open net to cash in the rebound of a Michael Ferland shot. Nicholls scored the opening goal of the series at 7:55 of the 1st period. The goal gave Saskatoon a 1-0 lead that they held until London first tied the score at 12:55 mark and then took the lead at the 18:21 mark. The Knights took the lead into the first intermission and held it until Nicholls tied the score off a breakaway when he got in beyond the London blueline, took the shot and then banged in his own rebound tying the game at 15:21. Tommy Hughes (2013 UFA) was one of the London defensemen who were beaten on this play. Hughes was the 2nd London defender back on the play but to be fair he wasn't the one who let Nicholls beat him back. Hughes was 2nd pair for London but other than Nicholls goal wasn't bad but wasn't special and London will need a much better effort from their entire blueline when they face Portland and Halifax in back to back nights. London's Dale Hunter hardly uses his 3rd pair of defenders so London is going to face problems trying to match the speed that Portland and Halifax bring. London scored the game winning goal in the 3rd period on their 5th power play of the game. Saskatoon just didn't have enough in the tank to score the tying goal. The 3rd Ranger prospect playing was Shane McColgan (2011 5th) of Saskatoon but the only play where McColgan was noticed was not a play he will like seeing on TV. McColgan got just flat out wiped out by London's Max Domi (yes son of Tie) with a very clean hit. Here is the replay courtesy of Prospect Park friend Neate Sager. It was a play in the 3rd period and Domi caught him clean so one can't complain about it. McColgan was helped off the ice by a trainer and did return to play, Sager's Buzzing the Net blog awarded their 2nd star of the game to Josh Nicholls. Saturday night night's game between Portland and Halifax is in danger of being over-hyped but I for one am very much looking forward to seeing 4 of the best prospects in junior hockey in action. London next plays Portland on Monday while Saskatoon faces Halifax on Sunday.