Blue Notes

Isles will be disappointed. No pre season game at the Mausoluem. Those are more important to the Isles than regular season games against anyone else, LOL.

I am very glad about this.

The less chance for stupid fights to erupt and actually more of an opportunity to evaluate our players because there will be a lot of battles for jobs with this group of forwards that exists now, especially the 3rd and 4th lines.

Very good not to have to deal with typical Islander game nonsense,

Why do we need to play the Lightning not once, but twice before Prague? I think it's a disadvantage.

That is a crazy pre season schedule.....and agree w/dude in that is is most important that we evaluate the team first and foremost. It's gonna be quite different w/o Jags,Avery and Straka no longer in the line up....and quite an adjustment seeing so many new faces. For me, I am really gonna miss Avery and the passion he brought to the team.
On another front, now that Cablevision and the Dolans own Newsday, I wonder if we're gonna see more ink re: our Rangers from Steve?...thoughts anyone????

DUDE...I disagree that we haven't improved...we have improved, yes, and changed, yes!....we are lacking one thing which I keep posting and you indicated...the need for a hard hitting, crease clearing D'Man...that's it. I don't wanna hear re: Shanny or Sundin...these are not the issues that really need to be addressed. I still feel Sather has another move planned...for that D'Man we so badly need!

I don't understand why such pessimism from everyone. While you can argue about chemistry issues, this team is vastly improved from last year.

And this whole idea of a crease clearing defenseman. I really don't understand why it is such a big deal. I mean Brooks Orpik would have been great, but why is it that imperative? We didn't have one last year and we were near the top for least goals allowed, AGAIN. While Rozy is nowhere near a crease clearing defenseman, his physical play will increase this year, as he will be more healthy. Staal is a beast, plain and simple, and I feel he can fill that role with a year under his belt. Girardi is somewhat of a physical presence too. And then you have Mara and Kalinin who add a little grit. I think it is much better than last year, with Malik and Backman in the lineup. I just don't see the dire need for that defenseman, although I won't argue them picking one up.

Sather's top priority should have been to sign the man that helped the team have a record of 32 games OVER .500 when he was in the lineup and less than .500 when he was out. He failed miserably and you could see the writing on the wall last season that he did not care for Avery. His next priority should be to sign a hard hitting, keep the other forwards honest D-man (like Orpik but obviously too late now) and he hasn't done that either. At least Backwoman is gone.

They lost the intangibles of the team, which Avery brought with his grit, heart and soul, in your face, you're not going to push us around, don't worry I've got your back attitude, the teams confidence when he was in the lineup, AND his talent, which was underrated because the other teams hated him, which was also a plus for the Rangers.

In my opinion that's a lot harder to replace than the points lost with the departure of Jagr, Straka, and possibly Shanny as well. They are now a bland team again, with the personality of mud, and players will be able to push them around, take liberties, and no one will be there on a regular basis do something about it. Ok Colton Orr will fight the other team’s goon every couple of games. But overall they lose all that without Avery because this was and is a soft team again without him. That was worth an extra million a year. They sure have wasted millions on the has-beens over the years. You'd think for someone like this, a million a year would be pocket change to them.

Those Columbus guys better be EXTREMELY good, Gomez and Drury better have career years, Redden better make the PP A LOT better, some more kids better be able to step right in and help NOW like Duby and Callahan did, and Henrik better keep his head out of his rear-end ALL year or this team will be golfing early.

The Avery non-signing will leave its' ugly marks on this team in more ways than one. When will they learn how much your team really loses when you lose the guys whose contributions are a lot more than what show up in the box score?

Am I happy to see Avery go? Absolutely not!

Was it time for Avery to go? Absolutely!

He was absolutely the heart and soul of this team, but he was starting to wear out his welcome, and who knows what would have happened mid-season. I've heard from many sources that he is a very good 2 year signing. This is coming reporters who have inside knowledge of what goes on in the lockerroom. His good friend on the team, keeping him in check, was Jagr, and he's gone. From these same sources, people were getting sick of his antics. With them parting ways with Jagr, Straka, and maybe Shanny, they have given over the team to Gomez and Drury. With that happening, they had to cut ties with Avery and start fresh.

I didn't post the Dude comment at 14:00

please disregard, it's an Islander fan who is angry with me for posting on their exclusive blog

It's sad that fans of other teams (mainly isles) have to come onto this board and post false statements under other people's user names. They must be that insecure about their own team and probably themselves. If I were one of these people, I'd probably be better off focusing on my own team's shortcomings instead of trying to make there be some for a different team.

I have no problem with an Islander fan coming on here wanting to talk hockey and even debating our teams.

But when they come on and start doing that crap it's just utter silliness.

Same deal with me. Dude and I were having a discussion about Hank and DP with a couple of the regulars over there and apparently it's pissed the troll off.

Here comes the flood of e-mails from someone with nothing better to do.

ranjerks top four fowards

drury, gomer pile, zherdev and naslund

isles top 4

guerin, comrie, weight, okposo

its clear the chemistry favors the isles, guerin and weight can both be blind and find eachother. comrie played with guerin last year and okposo has the biggest upside of all. naslund 35 yrs old and a no trade, great move savior!!!! hasnt scored 60 points since the lockout. zherdev is a loner , gomez can only pass but the problem is to who?

should have kept jagr, shanny, avery and straka the decline is evident ranjerk fans

So thats why Guerin and Weight tore up the league last year......their blind

How can someone bash the Rangers for signing Naslund and bring up the fact that he is 35 and then in the same paragraph boast about how great Bill Guerin and Doug Weight will be when Guerin is 38 and Weight is 37?

Weight actually will turn 38 mid season

are ya kidding me with these lame posts?

Weight was so bad after he was traded to Anaheim he was a healthy scratch occassionally.

Between Sillinger, Guerin, Weight, Witt and Sutton, Isles be looking mighty old in some key areas.

Kevo, I remember reading all about how Avery can even grate on his own teammates, but don't really recall many incidients this year that would make him expendable. I can't let go of the 32 games over .500 thing. That's too much of a coincidence to ignore for "only" 1 million more a year.

Responding to blogs are good because they are up to date, but if you guys want to go on a site where it's hard for "imposters" to use your name try this one from topix.

http://www.topix.net/forum/source/newsday/TFHBMML2RU295F6D5

Since Newsday moved to a different forum last year there's only a few of us regulars left. It's dead now because of baseball season but you don't really have to concern yourselves with other garbage.
And you can post as much as you want.

reality - they tried for Orpik he signed with Pitt for less money than the Rangers offered. Pitt is much closer to the cup than we are. Just like guys want to sign with Detroit for same reason.

we are rebuilding. we will not be as good this year but hopefully in 2 or 3 years can contend. the guys who left including Avery were not going to be part of that equation. he was not worth 4 yrs and almost $ 16 million. 2 years tops. he walked to a better deal and a team closer to contention than we are in the upcoming season.

Reality Check,

if you really are a Rangers fan, you are going to eventually have to "let go" of our record with Avery, because it doesn't matter anymore, he isn't coming back and there just isn't any more reason to dwell on it anymore.

I think we should trade Jagr for Mario Lemiux. They played together once and it would be the right move!

Hey Ranger Fans,

Come down and check out my Atlantic Division Blog over at IslesNation. I understand it is an Islanders website and that I am an Islanders fan, but I write completely unbiased blogs, and I think you will appreciate them. Definitely take the time to come down and check them out, even leave a comment if you can. My latest blog on the Rangers focuses specifically on Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky.

http://www.islesnation.com/justin.htm

See You There,
Justin

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Posted by Brian | July 29, 2008 18:02 Please, all fans, especially Dude, stop going to Islanders Beat and causing trouble, using racist remarks about African Americans, and swearing. We are bringing an element here we rather not have here, correct!
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Thank you for saying something, Brian. The Isles blog gets littered with this ****talk on a daily basis, and its disgusting. There is absoluely no need for that kind of garbage and neither Isles fans OR Rangers fans deserve to read such ****. The losers who keep doing this are giving hockey fans everywhere a bad name.

The player we will miss most is Sean Avery, a fact of the matter, is that ourrecord with Avery in the lineup was 42-18-0, and without him we were 6-15-1. Numbers dont lie. Justin. please give your site ad a rest, its pathetic.

The absolute worst thing about the entire structure of these blogs is that people can post using any name they want to use. You guys have no idea if its actually "Dude" or "Brian" or whoever posting anywhere, it could be some stupid loser using those names. Heck, I used to see insults posted here on the Rangers blogs under MY name and it certainly wasnt me doing it! More than anything else, the problem here is that Newsday inexplicably insists on using this flawed structure where there is no accountability and people can pretend to be others. The security code addition helps get rid of spam, but it does nothing to stop misrepresentation and harassment. I know it frustrates the writers, and they have to hear it from people. I wish that Newsday would use the structure here more like the one that they use on their news articles- where people register a name and then stick with it.

If everybody just sticks to the plan of ignoring the obvious troll and impostor posts then they will soon stop. This happens every summer and it is probably the same one or two people getting the whole board off track. When was the last time you saw a "canuck fan" on here? The answer is NEVER. It is either an Isle fan or a really bored ranger fan posing as a Canuck Fan to somehow lend credence to his argument that Naslund will suck.

As far as all the posts about how the rangers will be soft because we lost Avery...please stop already. Who exactly did Avery deter from taking the same old liberties with Jagr & Prucha etc.? It certainly wasn't Chris Neil who still elbowed Prucha every chance he got. It sure wasn't Hatcher who hit Jagr high every chance he got. I loved what Avery brought to each game, but to some how say that he protected our skill guys is a joke. Not too mention the team in general is much tougher than last year...

Redden sticks up for himself
Rissmiller sticks up for himself
Voros will stick up for the whole team (and he is very young, so who knows how much he will grow in fighting skills...keep that in mind when you watch those youtube clips of him losing to the heavyweights. Compare that to the beatings Dubinsky took against far lesser fighters.)
Fritche is supposedly pretty tough.
Kalinen can play with an edge
Staal will be more comfortable and play "bigger"
Calahan sticks up for himself
Jamtin if he makes the team plays with grit
Denisov (sp?) will fight (if he makes the team)
and then there is ORR who is in the top 5 enforcers IMHO.

add to that the loss of Backman, Malik and Tyutin.

Case closed...this seasons team will all around be a tougher team to play against then Jagr & Co.

I would be interested in some opinions on an idea I had. There are rumors of Parrish being bought out or waived by Minnesota. I fully understand he has some injury issues over the past two years. But if you look at his stats from the previous seasons it looks like he is a solid 30 G 30 A guy. Is he worth the risk at only about $2.5 per year or less if he is claimed off waivers? If healthy I was thinking he could fill the role of a needed top line winger. I look at him as a Ryder kind of situation where a new coach and new team could get him going again. Thought/ Opinions?

I agree that Snewsday needs to come up with a better secure system...but no matter how you look at it, this crap is still gonna happen...just to a lesser degree. I'm sorry to see Avery gone, but he is so we just have to move forward....as far as crease clearing D'man....no matter what anyone say's, we still need one, simple as that. I would stay away from Parrish (too injury prone as of late) and just concentrate on the latter. And to RagTimeTroll: Our one Cup confirms yet again, that WE..the NY Rangers still own NY Metro Hockey, and that your 4 cups are no longer meaningful...I know it's a lot to swallow, but it's the truth and a fact of life......I'm just keeping it real buddie so you "try" and do the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Joke, it's not just a matter of protecting the skilled players with Avery. The team this past year with and without Avery in the lineup was like night and day and the won-loss record proves it. The joke is how Sather and some fans choose to ignore that. Some guys make the other guys around him play bigger. It's an ATTITUDE and a gritty style of play that becomes contagious. No Avery, no attitude. Will others step in to replace that? I hope you're right.

LI Joe, yeah I know, Orpik gave Pitt a home town discount. But it would still be great to have someone to make opposing forwards think twice about cruising in from the blueline or hanging around in front of the net.

KEVO a very factual post. Sather offered Avery 4 years @$3mil per, so he wouldn't sign here? If he didn't want him , he wouldn't have made that offer & said he wanted him back. That's your proof of what a problem he was. Of course some one will spin he was just helping him get more from Dallas, or there was no offer, and Avery didn't feel the love. Check your sources.

Joke,

I think Mark Parrish should be considered highly.

We only have 3 players over 30 as it is, lots of youth, I think Parrish still has a lot left in the tank.

WE would just need to make a trade to make it happen space wise and spots wise on the first 3 lines.

Reality Check,

I can't argue with the win/ loss record re: Avery in the line-up...but I have seen plenty of people use malik's +/- to argue that he should be in the line-up. Stats can sometimes be very misleading. I would again just have to point out how the entire team this year will be tougher and not just because of one player but because of a whole environment change in the locker room. Jagr was the captain and lead by avoiding the high traffic areas etc. With him and his crew gone, I think that Drury can now lead by example and the new team will follow. Plus, I am not sure that anybody on the rangers played tougher because Avery was there. I have heard Renney use that argument for having Orr on the bench, but not Avery.

A question for everyone who is demanding this "crease clearing d-man"...who do you have in mind and how would you propose that the Rangers acquire him? And I don't mean something like "We should have signed Orpik." My thought is that there are a few of those types of guys out there and they are already taken. So why I would love to see Orpik or Bouwmeester in Broadway Blue, I just don't see how Sather was supposed to make this happen. From my point of view, the two options were Orpik and Stuart and they both resigned with their teams for apparent discounts and, depending on the source, Sather made a play for Orpik for more than what he signed for with Pitt.

"Joke | July 30, 2008 00:04 If everybody just sticks to the plan of ignoring the obvious troll and impostor posts then they will soon stop. This happens every summer and it is probably the same one or two people getting the whole board off track. When was the last time you saw a "canuck fan" on here? The answer is NEVER. It is either an Isle fan or a really bored ranger fan posing as a Canuck Fan to somehow lend credence to his argument that Naslund will suck.

As far as all the posts about how the rangers will be soft because we lost Avery...please stop already. Who exactly did Avery deter from taking the same old liberties with Jagr & Prucha etc.? It certainly wasn't Chris Neil who still elbowed Prucha every chance he got. It sure wasn't Hatcher who hit Jagr high every chance he got. I loved what Avery brought to each game, but to some how say that he protected our skill guys is a joke. Not too mention the team in general is much tougher than last year...

Redden sticks up for himself
Rissmiller sticks up for himself
Voros will stick up for the whole team (and he is very young, so who knows how much he will grow in fighting skills...keep that in mind when you watch those youtube clips of him losing to the heavyweights. Compare that to the beatings Dubinsky took against far lesser fighters.)
Fritche is supposedly pretty tough.
Kalinen can play with an edge
Staal will be more comfortable and play "bigger"
Calahan sticks up for himself
Jamtin if he makes the team plays with grit
Denisov (sp?) will fight (if he makes the team)
and then there is ORR who is in the top 5 enforcers IMHO.

add to that the loss of Backman, Malik and Tyutin.

Case closed...this seasons team will all around be a tougher team to play against then Jagr & Co."

good post, Joke.

Dubinsky, Staal, Girardi, Mara, Byers, Callahan, Redden, Kalinin, Voros, Rissmiller, Fritsche, Rozsival, etc. can all stand up for themselves. I don't think we really have much use for pure goon like Orr anymore. I like Orr, but we are better off without him and just call up a rookie or use Rissmiller as an extra.

I think that Norn Cohens article referring to Islanders fans as "Face Painters" with an attitude could bee seen as a bit racial against Native Americans, of which I am half.

How in the world can people say we've improved ? Now, god knows how the team will actually perform, but take a look at the roster from last year

Jagr, Dubinsky, Straka
Shanny, Gomez, Avery
Dawes, Drury, Callahan
Orr, Betts, Hollweg

today we have

Naslund, Gomez, Zherdev
Dawes, Drury, Callahan
Dubinsky centering the 3rd line with what wingers ?
4th line... take your pick (although I hope its better than last years horrid 4th line)

No way is this years team better on paper.

On D, we got Redden and rid of Backman, who was probably gonna be waived on in the minors anyway. We picked up injury-boy Kalinen and traded Tyutin. The D should be slightly better, but its still not a group that inspires fear or HITS !!!!!

Oh, 6 games in 8 days seems screwed up.

Effigy go away. You don't make any sense. It was already discussed a 100 times. If you don't get it still, then it is your problem.

bklynblue, with Sather going with that extra 1 or 2 million for Redden and re-signing Rozy at a price he could have gotten him less at, and $1 million each to Voros and Rissmiller (3rd and 4th liners), he obviously doled out his fair share of unnecessary money. If he wanted Avery bakc, he would have given him $4 million. What's the difference between 3 and 4 million when you spend a million each on 4th liners. He didn't want to give into him, and he also didn't want to give him the 4 years he wanted. Obviously, he wasn't a priority to sign, because of the reason I established.

And Joke, I agree with you 100%. There aren't many D-men out there to overspend on when they could be marginal at best. Whether or not Sather made a play at Orpik, he was the only one I wanted to see. I'm happy to see what our guys now can do. Also, stats could be very, very misleading. Not saying it is true because they did play very well with Avery in the lineup, but it was 22 games that they played without Avery (that's what someone posted). How do we not know that a few of those games is when Hank went through a rough spell, or we played a better team, or we played great and just didn't finish. It's misleading to go by only 22 games (if that's true).

I really don't see why Callahan can't do the same little things as Avery. He definitely plays with an edge and doesn't back down from anybody. I just think that losing Avery hurt, but it really is not that big of a deal.

Also on paper Last year, Rangers were slated making it to the finals with San Jose. Both knocked out in the 2nd round. On paper doesn't mean anything, cause the islanders definatly got 15 more points then they should have on paper.

If on paper mattered we would have won all the cups since the 96-97 season until the lockout. Simply put naming names doesn't mean a thing.

Sather/Renney realised that we have a very small team and adding size was a good idea. Avery leaving is a good thing. Especially after he came out of the closet.

Seems the regular gang is around today... hello all.

This year is what the youth movement guys have been waiting for.
Dubinsky, Callahan, Dawes, Staal, Girardi all with positions and roles to play. All with the firm responsibility to excel in a season where the face of the team is changing. Korpikoski, Byers, and a few others are also going to be fighting for positions on those third and fourth lines. Through in Fritsche, Voros and Rismiller and yourself a pretty good looking team.
Oh, they're not the big time names from last year, we're growing our own.
Staal will be your crease clearing defensemen... but maybe not until next season.
Hank.
I think Sather and his gang are hoping Callahan, Dawes or Prucha can fill in the second line role with a 30 goal season.
I think he's banking on Fritsche and Dubinsky to bring the same growth and aggressive goal scoring we lacked (sometimes) on the third line.
The 4th line is were Renney is having a field day. We all know he loves to start with the checking line. Will he add firepower or more muscle. Voros or Byers, Moore or Korpikoski? Betts or Rissmiller?

On paper, no we look nothing like last season. Not as strong in goal scoring and not as strong on the special team. (on paper)
BUT, if I may add, it's clear we're solved our PP problem. Our Defense has jumped up a few pegs and the overall youth (potential) has risen drastically.
Especially if Girardi, Dubinsky and Staal excel.
This team is heading in a good direction. Avery debate is open for all time. He was a great Ranger and we all loved it. But it seems to me through the papers that Avery wanted out of the Rangers a long time ago.
You know something though, we had a few kids surrounding Avery last season. I'd like to think they might have learned something from the man, right? *Cally* *Orr* cough cough cough

Effigy,

Why do you keep bringing up Tyutin and his hits like he was Scott Stevens in a Ranger jersey???

Jesus, the guy was average at best. He is gone, deal with it.
Do you want a Tyutin jersey to cuddle with at night?

I cannot continue to harp on what he had last year as opposed to what we have this year.

We didn't win the Cup last year, so what we had wasn't good enough.

And, you know what, there were many times last year where the team we had didn't even look good enough to make the playoffs.

Why don't we wait and see Zherdev play in a Ranger uniform before we decide that the Tyutin trade was such a disaster, what ya think Effigy?

I have seen so many people bring up Straka and Shanahan lately like we are going to miss them so much.

Are you kidding me?

They both looked very old and very brittle last year, it's about time we give an unknown younger option the minutes those guys got.

Straka, Shanahan, Malik, Jagr, Backman, Strudwick, Hollweg and hopefully Betts and Sjostrom are addition by subtraction.

You know, the Hockey News is a hockey publication who I feel knows what they are talking about.

Before July 1st, they wrote an article ranking the top UFA's at each position.

They actually ranked Kalinin over Orpik.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/16847-The-Hockey-Newss-top-unrestricted-free-agents.html

The Hockey News is way over rated since McKensie left, and Dude, its funny how you sang the praises all year of several departed Rangers, being right all the time sometimes comes filled with lies.

maybe it's just me, but could it possibly be Bettman making the schedule as tough as possible on us? He does have a vendetta out because of the lawsuit thing. Look at how many games we have scheduled in October compared to Tampa. The team is gonna be run ragged right after coming back from the Europe trip. Sorry if I sound paranoid, but I really can't stand Bettman.

When considering their record of 32 games over .500 with Avery.
I don't hear anyone mentioning the other 19 players that were on the ice the same games. Avery had passion and I enjoyed him but we don't know what his lockeroom persona was. In addition he dissapeared in both series in Pittsburgh and Buffulo and had some weird injuries. Will his absence be that noticable?

you love him so much.

Busey, in this thread I didnt mention anything about Tyutin other than we got rid of him. Thats all.

Dude, I'd love it if Zherdev turns out to be a fantastic player. Straka didnt look brittle, but did miss the net and passed instead of shoot on a zillion occasions. Shanny was invisible for most of the year and playoffs.

Joke,

Yes, stats CAN be misleading....with all sports. Look at Steve Trachsel with the Mets a couple years ago. 15 wins and he stunk. Again, I hope you're right about the team being tougher. I have been one of those that wanted kids over vets. Looks like I got my wish. And I would say that kids don't like to take a lot of crap, so maybe this team will be a young, gritty, and feisty group.

Regarding Jagr as Captain, I never wanted the 'C" on his jersey. Shanny was the real captain the last two years anyway. I don't think they need him on the team this year, but maybe the league, since it made the Avery rule, can make a Shanny rule. Rangers can dress 19 skaters so Shanny can stay on the bench but be used for shootouts. In the future, I think Callahan, even with less than a full season of games played in the NHL, may have what it takes to wear the "C" one day. Maybe Dubi also.

Didn't mean to imply that Sather messed up by not getting Orpik. Only said it would have been nice to have someone like that. And you are correct, nothing really out there. As big as Malik was, his lack of physical play reminded me of Willie Huber.

I don't honestly know the two guys from the Columbus trade. Rangers played Columbus, what twice in the last 3 years so I never really saw them play. Plus, here in Arizona, where I moved in 2003, not to many people to talk hockey with. But I still have my season tix to the Garden since 1977 ($4 a seat back then if i remember correctly, row 2 in the blues).

The Shanny rule isn't a bad idea, however, I think Shanny has it in his mind he is much more valuable of a player than just a designated shootout guy and he wants to play and play a lot of minutes.

Shanahan is a bad idea in every way possible. He stinks beyond what words can describe, except for the PK.

The You Tube video showing Shanahans birthday party with Crosby and Ovechkin bringing him a lit Birthday Cake,while both were in their skivvies was the highlight of my season last year. Men that way really give me quivvers. Shanny is my God.

rangers9 - the only yr the Rangers were best on paper that they did not win was 91-92 when they won presidents cup for best record in league.

especially since 96-97 the Rangers were far from best team on paper unless you think of those players as in their primes not like a 40 yr old Messier or Shanny of 38 yrs old or even Jagr of 35,