Highlights of the huge 4-3 win over the Flyers on Friday night. This sets up a one game showdown on Sunday for the final playoff seed in the East.
Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia Flyers’
Apr
10
2010
Rangers 4 Flyers 3
Apr
04
2010
Rangers 4 Panthers 1
The Blueshirts used a four goal third period and another strong performance by Henrik Lundqvist to defeat the Florida Panthers and pull into a tie with Philadelphia for the 8th seed in the Eastern Conference.
Mar
14
2010
Rangers 3 Flyers 1
Sean Avery channelled his inner Peter Frampton today and “came alive” against a very tough Flyers team, scoring 2 goals and making his presence felt all over the ice during a 3-1 Blueshirts victory.
Mar
13
2010
Rangers 5 Thrashers 2
The Rangers snapped their losing streak tonight by beating the Thrashers 5-2.
John Tortorella speaks to the media following the much needed victory.
The Rangers return to action on Sunday in a tough division matchup against the Flyers at 3 PM.
Jan
21
2010
Flyers 2 Rangers 0
For the second straight meeting, The Flyers shut out the Rangers in a game marred by many scrums following a fight between Philly’s Daniel Carcillo and the Rangers’ Marian Gaborik. The Blueshirts never really got any offensive momentum going and were never able to solve the Flyers’ strong forecheck.
John Tortorella addresses the media following his team’s loss and gets into a war of words with New York Post columnist Larry Brooks.
Jan
19
2010
Rangers 8 Lightning 2
Aaron Voros joins the party with his first goal of the season.
All the Rangers coaches were hoping for following their impressive 6-2 win over the Canadiens on Sunday was a repeat of the effort the team gave during that victory. Not only did they receive the same effort but the players took it to another level as they jumped on the Lightning early and controlled play from start to finish during a dominant 8-2 dismantling of the visiting Tampa Bay club.
After a fight between Aaron Voros and Tampa’s Zenon Konopka off the game’s opening faceoff really got the crowd going, Brandon Dubinsky continued his inspired play of late and got the scoring started when he cleaned up a rebound in front of Antero Nittymaki to give the Blueshirts a 1-0 lead. The Rangers controlled play for the rest of the period with their strong forechecking and used tallies by Vinny Prospal and the resurgent Chris Drury to take a 3-1 lead after one period.
Dan Girardi and Enver Lisin would extend the lead to 5-1 in the second period and chase Nittymaki from between the pipes. Alex Tanguay would score on the power play late in the period to keep the Lightning withing striking distance but Henrik Lundqvist would shut the door the rest of the way.
Marc Staal, Aaron Voros (on the power play) and Christopher Higgins would put a nice bow on the blowout with third period tallies and gave the Rangers their second straight game with at least 6 goals. It still may be too early to call the Rangers’ season long offensive struggles solved but these two performances are definitely a promising step in the right direction.
Thumbs Up- Brian Boyle, Sean Avery and Erik Christensen were amongst the few Rangers who didn’t score a goal tonight but continued their energetic play that has been the catalyst on many of the offensive opportunities the team has cashed in on over the last two contests. Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury once again excelled on the penalty kill. Vinny Prospal seems to have fully recovered from his injury and was a factor tonight with a goal and an assist.
Thumbs Down- It was hard to find any negatives with tonight’s performance but the only thing that stood out to me was Artem Anisimov’s inability to get anything going offensively. I’m sure if he keeps up the work ethic he has shown so far during the first half of the year, he will find a way to break through but this is a situation that might bear watching especially if Evgeny Grachev should begin to put up numbers in Hartford.
Three Stars- 3-Henrik Lundqvist- “The King” was very strong early when the game was still anybody’s contest. His big saves during the first period gave the Rangers the confidence to continue to attack offensively. Another impressive performance from Lundqvist, who is finally getting the support he deserves from his forwards.
2- Aaron Voros- The toughest thing to do is come to the arena each night knowing that you might not be in the lineup the next game, even if you have a good outing that night. Aaron Voros has had to deal with this situation and be ready to contribute when called upon all season and up to this point his results have been hit and miss. Tonight, it was a big hit for Voros as he got the crowd involved early with a fight, was a physical presence throughout, drew a late penalty by being smart and even contributed a garbage time goal (after being rewarded with power play time by John Tortorella for his drawing the man advantage). This was Voros’ best game since early last season and i’m willing to wager he has earned another start in the Blueshirts’ next contest.
1- Marian Gaborik- For most of the year, Gaborik has been the Rangers focal point on offense and only consistent goal scorer. Tonight, he was the team’s playmaker with assists on 4 of the Rangers first 6 goals. Gaborik has to love this new found offensive output from his teammates as it takes the pressure off him to have to carry the club each time they hit the ice. He showed this evening that he is just as comfortable being a support player as being the team’s biggest star.
The Rangers will try to continue their explosive run when they visit the Flyers in Philadelphia on Thursday at 7 PM.
Nov
05
2009
Rangers Scouting Forsberg (Updated)
Forsberg playing for Team Sweden
According to the NY Post, Rangers GM Glen Sather has told Larry Brooks that the team is interested in uber-talented yet oft-injured center Peter Forsberg and will be among the handful of clubs scouting Forsberg as he begins play today in the Karjala Cup tournament in Sweden and Finland. The 36 year old Forsberg was arguably the greatest player in the world for six or seven seasons from the mid 1990’s through early 2000’s, but has not played in the NHL since joining the Avalanche for the final nine games of 2007-08. He hasn’t made it through a full season since the lockout. He played only three games last year in Sweden before being forced to get more repair work on his foot. Joining the Rangers in having interest in the center are the Philadelphia Flyers, Washington Capitals, Montreal Canadies and the Colorado Avalanche as well as various KHL teams.
“Yes, we have interest in Forsberg,” GM Glen Sather said. “From the reports we’ve been getting, the foot is much better than it was a year ago. We’ll scout him at the tournament and see what, if anything develops. But I’ve always liked Peter and I’ve always been interested in finding a way to bring him to New York, if possible.” As for the chances of him playing in the NHL and possibly in New York, Sather said “I’d have to say a lot of that would probably depend on money.” The Rangers only have approximately $685,000 in cap space right now so Sather would have to be creative to afford Forsberg but at least he is doing his due dilligence on a player that when healthy is a difference maker for any team.
If Forsberg is healthy, he could be the perfect player to center Marian Gaborik on Broadway but the odds of him taking less money to play in New York are slim. The only thing the Rangers have going for them is the other teams mentioned have tough cap situations as well. This may be a longshot but it’s something to keep an eye on for the future.
UPDATE (6:35 PM)- RDS is reporting that Forsberg has signed a contract with Russian club AK Bars Kazan of the KHL. I guess he took the money and ran with it on this deal.
UPDATE (8 PM)- TSN is reporting that the RDS report is false and no decision will be made on Forsberg’s future until after the Tournament.
Oct
07
2009
Rangers News Roundup: Avery Still Out, Drury,Torts and Brashear Speak
Some quick notes from Rangers land today:
-Sean Avery ruled himself out of Thursday night’s matchup against the Capitals in D.C. It looks like the probable date for his return is sunday’s game at home against the Anaheim Ducks. Avery told reporters earlier today that his sprained right knee is “still not 100%” and he hopes to “give it a few more days” before returning to action.
-Rangers’ captain Chris Drury is one teammate looking forward to Avery’s return to the lineup. “He’s such a good skater, he’s such a good athlete” Drury said of Avery. “In this system, he’s going to create a lot of havoc for the other teams. When he and the rest of us nail this whole total system that Torts is teaching us, I think he’s really going to flourish. He’s going to do well at it. One of Sean’s biggest assets is he gets up in the play and finishes his checks with the best of them.”
-Thursday night’s contest will be Donald Brashear’s first against his former team and the burly enforcer (who still has yet to have won over many of the fans here in New York could go along way towards doing just that by running Alex Ovechkin the way he used to Jaromir Jagr when he was a member of the Caps) spoke on his feelings about playing against his old teammates.
In former Rangers news, Philadelphia center Blair Betts suffered a separated shoulder during last night’s Flyers victory over the capitals and is expected to miss at least a month. Betts suffered his broken orbital bone last season against Washington. Maybe Betts should be a healthy scratch once he returns and his team plays the Caps.
-Coach Tortorella spoke to the media following today’s practice. He touched on the play of the fourth line during monday’s victory over the Devils and the playof his two rookies on D, Gilroy and Del Zotto, so far this young season.
Oct
06
2009
Rangers 3 Devils 2
Anyone who thought the new faces on both sides would lead to a kinder, gentler rivalry between the Rangers and Devils was in for a rude awakening last night as the two teams treated fans to a battle full of physical play, post whistle animosity and as expected, exciting moments on both ends.
In a game that began with the Blueshirts looking like they were still on cloud nine from their impressive spanking of Ottawa saturday night at home, The Devils controlled play early, running the Rangers all over the Prudential Center ice and quickly grabbing a 1-0 lead on a goal by Rob Neidermayer. Coach Torts looked like his head was about to explode when he called a timeout less than a minute later and let his team know that this kind of effort was unacceptable on this or any night. The Rangers and rookie Michael Del Zotto heard Torts loud and clear and tied the score shortly thereafter on the power play (no that’s not a typo…the power play actually scored a goal). The Rangers would get another power play tally from Ales Kotalik late in the first that evened the score at 2-2 following an earlier goal by Devils’ emerging star Travis Zajac.
The second period was pretty even in terms of carrying the play and scoring chances for both teams until the other rookie on the Rangers’ blueline Matt Gilroy scored his first career goal off a pass from Marian Gaborik and gave the Rangers a lead they would not relinquish, thanks to the stellar play of Henrik Lundqvist in the third period.
Both Del Zotto and Gilroy acquitted themselves well in this contest and while both have some things to work on defensively, they have shown that the offensive skills they bring to the team will make an impact often throughout this season. It’s still too early to know whether Del Zotto will remain with the team past his 9 game deadline but with each performance like last night’s his chances of sticking around improve.
Once again, the line of Brandon Dubinsky, Vinny Prospal and Gaborik was the best on the ice for both teams and Prospal stepped up with two assists including one on Gilroy’s game winner. The biggest question is which of the other lines will be affected once Sean Avery returns. The most likely to see a change is the third line as Enver Lisin might be the odd man out due to his defensive shortcomings. We will have to wait and see how that situation shakes out.
The Rangers got the victory in what was an uneven performance and hopefully learned a lesson about how this team can not afford to be overconfident at all during this season. The Eastern Conference and especially the Atlantic Division (Pittsburgh and the Flyers have been very impressive so far) look very strong early on and no team can afford to give away points by laying an egg in a division game. Let’s hope coach Torts’ message during his early timeout last night is something the Rangers’ players, from top to bottom, do not forget anytime soon.