Through the first half of the season, the Rangers have been cruising in first place and are currently riding a hot streak. A big fear of fans and coaches is that a team gains too much confidence when playing well and starts to take weaker-seeming teams for granted. Coach John Tortorella is not going to let that happen to the New York Rangers this year.
Totorella Has Coached The Blue Shirts To The Top of the East
Last night’s Rangers-Islanders tilt at Nassau Coliseum (my first visit of the season) was a snapshot of two teams headed in opposite directions. The Rangers came in riding a hot streak (6 straight wins, second place in the division), while the Isles sorely needed a win (9 losses in their past 10 games, last place in the conference). It was an intense game, as always, and that intensity boiled over to the stands (a fistfight next to my section needed a few guards to be broken up before the 1st period was over – always good times).
(Christopher Pasatieri/Getty Images)
Later tonight, the New York Rangers and Soon-to-be-Kansas-City Islanders will square off at Nassau Coliseum for the first time in the 2011-2012 season. It has long been a storied and intense rivalry, regardless of where either team is in the standings — a level of intensity that can sometimes cause some bizarre moments to occur. Let’s go back 5 seasons and take a look at 2 games, both played at the Coliseum, 1 month apart, that became more infamous for reasons beside the final score.
And the rivalry renews...(Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The New York Rangers opened the 2011-12 NHL season overseas in lovely Scandinavia with games in Stockholm, Sweden, against the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. While the end result may not have been what we were hoping for, there are plenty of positives as well as things than can be fixed and improved upon.
More after the jump.
Jonathan Nackstrand/Getty Images
The New York Rangers have announced that Ryan Callahan has been named the 26th captain in the team’s history. Callahan will be taking over the captain’s role from Connecticut’s own Chris Drury, who was bought out and subsequently retired this past offseason. Callahan becomes the first “home-grown” prospect to be named captain since Brian Leetch was given the honor back in the 1999-2000 season.
Although there was speculation that newly-acquired center Brad Richards was in the running to be the next captain, to me the correct choice was always Callahan. He does everything you would expect a captain to do, and always has – he plays the game the way a leader should, does whatever is needed to win, and is well respected by his teammates as well as around the NHL.
After the jump, I’ll tell you why Callahan was the right choice to don the “C” on his sweater.
NYRzone.com
The whale of this year’s free agency class is officially off the market.
Brad Richards, the highly-coveted 31-year old center, has chosen to play for the New York Rangers, agreeing to a nine-year deal worth $60 million. The deal has an annual salary cap hit of $6.67 million and is heavily front-loaded – Richards will reportedly earn $20 million within the next 12 months.
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As of noon today the NHL free agency period is officially open, and it is expected to be a wild spending spree. With the salary cap rising to $64.3 million, seems every team has some money to spend. High payroll teams with not a lot of salary coming off the books (Pittsburgh, for example) suddenly have some extra space to work with, and some teams on the other end of the budget spectrum (Florida, best example) will be forced to sign free agents just to get to the $48.3 million cap floor. With a salary cap the highest it’s ever been, add in the fact that the talent of this year’s free-agent class isn’t nearly as deep as some recent years. Suddenly, this year’s free agency period is one of the more interesting of the last few years.
This year’s class features zero game-changing players, save for one: Dallas Stars center Brad Richards. Richards is the one gem of this year’s unrestricted free agent class, which features some familiar names, but no one close to the elite talent of Richards. By far the most intriguing storyline of this offseason’s free agency period is where Richards will be playing hockey come next October.
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Don’t they just love to get your hopes up? The Rangers were emotionally eliminated on Wednesday, but made golf reservations on Saturday. The Knicks were emotionally eliminated last Tuesday, but were swept away yesterday. Neither team impressed me much during the course of the season. The Rangers dealt with inconsistent play all season long and the Knicks played literally no defense and gave up after leaving Boston on Tuesday night. Both teams need a few parts in this off-season, but I’ll ask the NYSOS audience one question- what were you expecting with these teams?
'It's Been Real'
Were either of these teams championship caliber? Absolutely not.
I’m not going to lie. After I saw the Rangers were up 3-0 after the second period, I just laughed to myself and couldn’t wait to hear all of the pundits announce that the New York Rangers were back, the Washington Capitals were going to choke, again, etc. etc. Twitter was blowing up with the Ranger faithful tweeting ‘Can You Hear Us!’, Jersey Shore nobodies were Tweeting, pretending that NHLing was more important than GTLing. I just decided to watch the rest of the Yankee-Blue Jay game and flip over to Versus (which I’ve never watched before until tonight) and watch the Rangers celebrate. When I flipped over, the TV scoreboard read ‘Overtime’. I had to make sure I was watching the right game. Alas, there was the beautiful Madison Square Garden, the Blue Shirt skating around the ice, and the Rangers-Capitals tied at 3?! This couldn’t be right. The Rangers were 29-0 when leading after two periods this season. The Garden was rocking after two periods. The Rangers HAD to pull this out right?
Jason Chimera With The Game Winner
Three goals in the second period gave the Rangers a substantial 3-0 lead heading into the final frame of regulation. The Garden was rocking as only the Garden could, with chants of “Boouudreeaauu” and “CAN YOU HEAR US?!”, in response to Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau’s comments that the fans at MSG weren’t as loud as the fans at Verizon Center.
The Capitals and their coach were clearly rattled. The Rangers were 29-0-0 this season when leading after two periods. The series was all but tied up at 2-2, with the momentum swinging back to the Rangers as they headed into Washington for Game 5.
Or so we all dreamt.
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