Per Pat Leonard, Marc Staal, Ryane Clowe, and Darroll Powe are all out for tonight’s Game Seven in Washington. Powe and Clowe didn’t even travel with the team for the game tonight. With these three out, expect the same lineup as Game Six. It’s worth noting that the Rangers have not dressed their top lineup at all during the postseason.
Per Dan Rosen, Ryane Clowe said there is a “good chance” he plays tonight. Clowe, who hasn’t skated in the playoffs, will likely take the place of the injured Darroll Powe. Powe appeared to suffer a concussion in the Game Three victory, as he left in the first period and did not return. Powe, who suffered a concussion earlier this season, is likely done for the playoffs if this news is true.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
In case you missed it, the Rangers re-signed Mats Zuccarello, who will likely join the club within the week. Zuccarello will bring some stability and scoring to the bottom-six, something that is desperately needed. The addition of Zuccarello will lead to some lineup changes. When all the pieces fall into place, the odd-man out is not who you might think it is.
It’s been very clear that the organization wants offensive talent to play alongside J.T. Miller on the third line, so it’s a logical assumption that these two will see some ice time together. Since Zuccarello is rather flexible and can play either wing, that opens up a few options for the Rangers. If Torts wants to try Miller at center, then the Rangers can try either Marian Gaborik (RW) or Chris Kreider (LW). Each line will have a lot of skill and speed, but the downside is that the trio will be defensively inept. The rest of the top-six remains the same.
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Depth has been a discussion point around here since before the lockout, to the point where we have too many posts to link to when we bring it up again. Despite an injury to Arron Asham, the Rangers have more useful depth this year than they have had in years past. They have a fourth line capable of eating 10-12 minutes of ice time per game when healthy, with some of that coming on the penalty kill. Depth is critical for a team like the Rangers, who will need all four lines to make a deep Cup run.
Despite all this, the Rangers fourth line barely saw seven minutes of ice time each. Eliminating Stu Bickel from the equation, as he’s only in because Asham is out, it makes you wonder why there is no trust from the coaching staff. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a post bashing anyone –as you all know, we love Torts here and aren’t afraid to show it– but it’s still worth asking why these guys don’t get ice time.
Per Pat Loenard, Michael Del Zotto (lower body), Dan Girardi (foot), and Darroll Powe (concussion) are all on the ice today for practice. Del Zotto missed Saturday’s game, and Powe had been out since his incidental contact with Matt Hendricks. Girardi didn’t even miss a game. Still convinced he’s an alien.
Ryan McDonagh, Rick Nash, and Arron Asham are not at practice.
Last night, Darroll Powe suffered a very unfortunate injury when he collided with Matt Hendricks early in the second period. The collision left both players shaken up, but Powe landed awkwardly on his head and was clearly knocked unconscious for a brief period. From the video, you can tell that once Powe came to, he was glassy-eyed and unable to skate under his own power. Although this is unconfirmed, that likely means he suffered a concussion.
While the injury may seem like one that the Rangers can readily handle, let’s remember that the depth on the fourth line was a serious issue before the Rangers dealt Mike Rupp for Powe. This deals a relatively big blow to the Rangers depth and their penalty killing, as Powe had been one of the Rangers most used penalty killers upon his arrival in New York.
It was only a matter of time before we heard the bad news on Darroll Powe, who took a nasty fall yesterday after a collision with Matt Hendricks. Powe has been placed on IR (note: not LTIR) and the Rangers have recalled Brandon Mashinter from Connecticut to replace him on the roster.
It will be interesting to see how coach John Tortorella deploys Mashinter –likely on the fourth line in place of Powe– while also handling Chris Kreider, who is still with the club. Many assumed Kreider would get out of the press box, but that may not be the case.
During the second period, Ranger forward Darroll Powe collided with Matt Hendricks of the Caps, after which Powe appeared to be knocked out cold and was helped off the ice. Neither player saw each other, and it’s just an unfortunate accident. Powe also appeared to land on his head and appeared woozy and glassy-eyed while down on the ice.
I doubt Powe will return for the rest of tonight’s game.
Taylor Pyatt has been the one exception to an almost universal rule
Countless factors go into individual player evaluations, but one quality continues to dictate how the Rangers construct their roster: speed.
It’s not exactly a new revelation, the altered NHL demands that players possess speed and skill as the league has phased out the plodding physical specimens that were impact players in the 1990s. But few franchises have put as strong an emphasis on skating ability as New York. Just look at three of the team’s most recent first-round picks: Chris Kreider, JT Miller and Brady Skjei. What do all have in common? Tremendous skating ability.
There’s simply no room on Broadway, especially under coach John Tortorella, for players that can’t outskate the opposition.
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This morning, Suit gave us a good qualitative analysis of what the Rangers got in trading Mike Rupp for Darroll Powe and Nick Palmieri. As he mentioned in the post, I like to do the quantitative analysis of these moves. For the sake of this post, we are going to focus on Powe, as Palmieri hasn’t seen enough NHL time over the past few seasons to have accurate metrics. I am also going to use last year’s metrics, as eight games is far too few to have an accurate reading on this year (numbers courtesy of behindthenet.ca).
Rupp for the Rangers was more of a character guy in the locker room than an on ice presence. Sure, he dropped the gloves and stuck up for his teammates, but he really only played five minutes per game. When Rupp was deployed, he was used against the bottom of the barrel (team-worst -.162 QoC), but still managed to have a team worst -14.3 RCorsi. Some of this is effected by his 43.2% Ozone start (after a whistle), but to have the team-worst numbers in both quality of competition faced and puck possession isn’t exactly an endearing place to be.
