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The Rangers need another Russian forward with Buchnevich, and here are some options
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Claus Anderson/Getty Images.
A few days ago, Jeff Gorton inked Russian prospect Pavel Buchnevich to his entry level contract, a three year deal with performance bonuses and a $925k cap hit. Buchnevich is poised to be an impact player pretty early into his NHL career, but he’s missing one thing; a mentor.
Just about every big name Russian NHL prospect has had another player on their team, also Russian, to help the transition to the NHL and serve as a translator on the ice and in the locker room. Most recently, Artemi Panarin had Artem Anisimov to help him with that, and guys like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin have all had a mentor from their homeland.
The Rangers are fortunate that Chris Kreider speaks fluent Russian, and that will certainly help ease Buchnevich’s transition onto the smaller ice and into North America. And we all know that chemistry between the speedy Kreider and Buch, an excellent passer and playmaker, would be absolutely fantastic. But to make the move as easy as possible, it would be wise for the team to go out and get a native Russian to mentor their newest player.
With that in mind, here are some options for the Rangers this offseason. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers collapse late and lose to Chicago; Brassard sets career high in goals
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
Facing their toughest test in a while, the Rangers (32-19-6) looked up to the task. But a late collapse on their penalty kill handed the win to the Blackhawks (38-18-5), who continue to climb up the standings in the Central Division.
The Blackhawks snapped the Rangers 10 game point streak at home, handing New York their first regulation loss at MSG since December 20th. Artemi Panarin scored his first career hat trick, and Corey Crawford made 31 saves to help guide Chicago to a win.
The first period was pretty quick and free flowing, with not a lot of stoppages. The Rangers had more chances, outshooting Chicago 10-6, but the Blackhawks did a great job keeping their shots to the outside. Read the rest of this entry
McDonagh back as the Rangers take on Chicago; Boyle and Staal still questionable
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
In the last game for the Rangers, the fists were flying early on as the Rangers looked to stand up for their downed captain. After that, Derick Brassard tied his career high of 19 goals, and Derek Stepan found the back of the net twice, including scoring his 100th career NHL goal. Henrik Lundqvist was superb when he had to be, and came within 10 seconds of a shutout.
The Rangers have played some pretty good teams in the past few weeks, but this is the first time they’ll be going up against one of the league’s elite teams since they played the Capitals on January 17th. After a slow start, Chicago has surged into second place in the Central Division, and third in the NHL with 79 points. Read the rest of this entry
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