I know Dave wrote an Around the Farm today but as my ego demands it from time to time I wanted to share my thoughts from the Whale win last night as well. Sometimes, a variety of opinions suggest different things. (p.s. I hadn’t yet read Dave’s write up as I wrote this)
As the Whale managed to beat the Flyers affiliate Phantoms 3-1 last night there was plenty of positives to take out of the game from both a Whale and a Rangers perspective. Here are a few thoughts should excite Rangers fans going forward;
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Carl Hagelin returning to Sweden to play with his hometown team helps him stay in hockey shape.
Carl Hagelin signing in his hometown for Södertälje SK of HockeyAllsvenskan (second tier league) is some of the best news to have happened in recent weeks for the Rangers. With the end of the lockout not to be seen on the NHL horizon the key thing for the Rangers future right now is likely to be the development of the prospects as well as the younger roster players at the NHL level. With Chris Kreider learning the pro game with the CT Whale in the AHL, perhaps the next brightest young thing on the Rangers roster is Hagelin.
While the SEL – and particularly the second tier where Södertälje currently reside –is not of the calibre of the NHL it does offer Hagelin several opportunities to improve his game. The first opportunity is the added ice time and games at the pro level. While Hagelin has made an excellent, immediate impact with the Rangers he is still a young player who has little pro experience and given the length of a NCAA college season, Hagelin can still benefit from as much game time as possible.
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The hype machine started at the beginning of last season and, ahead of the upcoming campaign, was cranked up even further with the immediate impact Chris Kreider made as an untested rookie in the NHL playoffs last spring. Then came the lockout.
With the AHL season set to commence on October 12th, and with the Connecticut Whale training camp roster announced, Chris Kreider’s presence down on the farm will be one of the major talking points among Rangers fans and hockey media whose attention will focus on the AHL during the NHL lockout.
There will be a danger of expecting too much from Kreider. Kreider has star potential at the NHL level and with a host of young talent pencilled in for the Whale roster Kreider will be one of those expected to lead the club offensively, despite a relatively modest level of experience. If Kreider can make an immediate transition and gel with his teammates then there is the potential of a 30 or even 40 goal season for the Whale but it should be of little concern if he begins the year slowly.
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Are we really still in August? Hands up who thinks the season starts on time. Anyone? No one? Ok, let’s just muse a little.
I read this about the CBA discussions on Wednesday: “The league’s Tuesday proposal didn’t address team revenue sharing”. I can’t imagine which owners must be the drivers behind this area; *cough* Ed Snider *cough*…
A reason for optimism regarding the Rangers future is the recent, sustained ability to find unwanted players around the league and make them useful roster parts. No one will miss John Mitchell or Steve Eminger and certainly no one will miss Erik Christensen going forward. Perhaps no one will notice next season when Stu Bickel mows through the press box buffet offerings but the Rangers continue to find players for almost little cost that contribute to the team. It’s not always about high draft picks or spectacular trades it’s about the hidden gems and unheralded players a team uncovers. Ask Dan Girardi.
Paging Michael Del Zotto…..
Just a thought: Is there a direct highway/passage/tunnel from Wisconsin University to Madison Square Garden?
If Carl Hagelin manages to work his way on to the top six next season is it because he’s stepped up in the face of the competition or because someone has underperformed? There appears to be brutal competition for elusive top six ice time, but I’m an optimist – if he gets legitimate ice time with the big boys it’s because he’s earned it.
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Although the Rangers are likely to benefit from a lockout –due to the injury to Marian Gaborik– there is still a solid chance that when the season starts, the club will still be without their top scorer from last season. Gaborik, who had shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum in June, is said to be out five or six months recovering from the surgery.
The acquisition of Rick Nash actually gives the Rangers tremendous flexibility when dealing with this injury. Nash is a rare forward that can play both wings, and play them at a high level. This gives the Rangers the ability to fill the spot opened up by Gaborik’s injury on either the left side or the right side.
The players that are likely to play on the top six –alongside Nash, Brad Richards, and Derek Stepan– are the ones you would expect: Carl Hagelin, Ryan Callahan, and Chris Kreider. All three played on the top two lines in the playoffs, and are either decent offensive threats (Cally), or players with some great offensive potential (Kreider, Hagelin).
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No doubt about it, the Rangers have had some serious roster turnover this season, especially among the bottom six forwards. Gone are Brandon Prust, John Mitchell, Ruslan Fedotenko, Artem Anisimov, and Brandon Dubinsky. In are Arron Asham, Taylor Pyatt, Jeff Halpern, and possibly Michael Haley (at least to start the season while Marian Gaborik is out). While the Rangers will surely miss most of the departed, where they will miss them the most is on the penalty kill.
Fedotenko, Prust, and Dubinsky were all top penalty killers for this club last season, with Anisimov and Mitchell seeing some time there as well. Of those coming in, only Halpern has experience as a top penalty killer. Asham and Pyatt have played there in the past, but not much (if at all) last season. This leaves a hole that needs to be filled, and needs to be filled from those already on the roster.
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The Rangers top six (health allowing) looks a lot more intimidating these days, thanks to Rick Nash’s arrival. It’s amazing what one addition can do to change people’s perceptions. That said, the Rangers continue to be linked with Shane Doan and on the right deal he’d be another welcome upgrade but Doan is a mistake waiting to happen.
The arrival of a declining but still somewhat effective Doan on anything other than a short term deal is reckless spending that was the hallmark of the previous Glen Sather, before the Hall of Fame Sather re-appeared.
Assuming Doan leaves the Coyotes – still a big assumption – and rumours of his desire for four years are true, then buyers beware. Those demands stink of a desire for job security, of a pension plan rather than of a player yearning for a chance at an elusive Cup.
Those rumoured demands don’t appear to be the demands of a player whose priority is ambition/success. Of course, you cannot blame Doan for making such demands when numerous NHL general managers routinely throw crazy contracts at players; who wouldn’t want a piece of that action? However, Sather needs to let Vancouver or Pittsburgh (or whoever) be the team that gives Doan the crazy commitment. Why? Chris Kreider.
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As the season (hopefully) draws nearer, there are a lot of excited Ranger fans, and for good reason. Following the Rick Nash trade, the Rangers finally have scoring depth to match their bottom-six depth. If Mike Sauer can find a way to get healthy for the start of the season –having made tremendous progress– then the Rangers defense could be one of the best in the league. Throw in Henrik Lundqvist, and you have a Rangers organization that is strong and balanced from top to bottom.
But therein lies the expectations. On Twitter the other day, there were many people tweeting to me that they expect Ryan Callahan to hit 70 points this year. They expect Chris Kreider to hit 60 points this year. If these are the expectations for two players that likely won’t be seeing much time with more than one of the big three (Nash, Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards), then it scares me to think what the expectations are for those three. Based on the Cally expectations, are people expecting Nash, Gaborik, and Richards to each break 90 points? Perhaps 100 points?
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The hockey news flow has come to a grinding halt in mid-July, but on Thursday a couple of non-game related stories attracted the attention of the online fan community.
The first was extremely negative, as quotes emerged from an online radio show recorded on Tuesday in which New Jersey enforcer Cam Janssen made several disparaging remarks about gay people and also discussed his eagerness to injure opposing players. The second involved Rangers forward Chris Kreider, who had participated in a charity hockey game in Connecticut and spent an hour signing autographs and interacting with fans following the event.
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It’s hard not to view Chris Kreider as a superstar in waiting.
The 21-year old joined the Rangers in the playoffs after three seasons at Boston College and immediately delivered in an enormously pressure packed situation. Kreider tallied five goals in 18 games without so much as a training camp with Coach John Tortorella’s club and by the end of the postseason he had already become the team’s best scoring threat.
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