Blog Archives
Rangers should go after Brian Campbell in the offseason to help defensive woes
Bobby Bevilacqua
Brian Campbell with the Panthers. Photo courtesy of Steve Mitchell/US PRESSWIRE.
Just three days ago, the Florida Panthers announced that they had agreed to a one year deal with 24 year old defenseman Erik Gudbranson. On the surface, it didn’t seem like a big deal at all.
But signing Gudbranson means that the Panthers now have seven defensemen under contract (Ekblad, Gudbranson, Kampfer, Kindl, Kulikov, Matheson and Petrovic). The team is fully embracing the youth movement, going with a roster that is full of newer and younger players, and they’re keeping a select few veterans around.
One of the vets that now seems like a lock to leave Sunrise, Florida is defenseman Brian Campbell. “Soupy” has been one of the offensive leaders from the blue line in his five seasons with the Panthers, scoring 27 points or more in each season, and recording a career high 53 points (4-49-53) in the 2011-12 season. This past year Campbell scored six goals and 31 points in 82 games. Read the rest of this entry
Keep him or Dump him: New York Rangers edition
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
It’s been addressed many times before, but there’s going to be quite a lot of changes this offseason for the Rangers. Alain Vigneault addressed it on breakdown day, and some of the players alluded to it as well.
This team as it stands has a lot of problems. There was the rapid decline of some of the players, seemingly a lack of a full 60 minute effort from the players on a consistent basis, and what Vigneault described as a “puck-moving problem.” All of that, coupled with the defensive breakdowns, atrocious penalty kill and lack of line chemistry was all evident in the team’s five game series loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round.
Part of the change the Rangers will experience will come in the form of a new lineup. There are A LOT of upcoming free agents, both RFAs and UFAs, and not a lot of salary cap space to sign all of them. Some tough decisions will have to be made, and it could potentially help shape the next era of Rangers hockey – for better or for worse. Read the rest of this entry
The state of the Rangers: Gorton faces a crossroad this offseason
Pat Rice
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
The Rangers season came to a disappointing close, falling in the first round to the Pittsburgh Penguin in just five games. This is the earliest they were eliminated since 2011. The bad part is they were completely outclassed, losing by a combined score of 11-3 in the last two games, 19-6 in their four losses, and 21-10 for the series.
Pittsburgh had their way on the special team units, scoring on 8 of 21 power plays for a 38% success rate, while the Rangers were 2 of 19, just over 10%.
The Penguins were the better team. They had energy and execution, while the Rangers didn’t. This did not come as a surprise because Pittsburgh played very good hockey the second half of the season, while the Rangers have been inconsistent since Thanksgiving. The series was a combination of losing to a better team and the Rangers tank being empty. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers season comes to a close with 6-3 thrashing in Pittsburgh
Alexandra Russo
Photo courtesy of Getty Images.
Alain Vigneault said before the game that his team has been there before, and they’ve been successful by staying in the moment. Unfortunately, that success didn’t carry over to this season, as they lost this game, this series, and their season, by the final score of 6-3.
One of the things the Rangers said they needed is the strong presence and scoring of Rick Nash, and he opened up the scoring for his team 1:01 into Game 5. Brady Skjei made a fast pass to Dan Girardi, who took a shot from the point. That got deflected by Nash in front for the early Rangers’ lead.
But the Blueshirts didn’t stop there. They proceeded to harass Murray and were able to get quite a few quality opportunities. Specifically, they had an odd-man rush where Nash made a great pass to Girardi in front of the net, but Murray made a good save to prevent a bigger lead. Read the rest of this entry
Rangers head to Pittsburgh for Game 5 with their season on the line
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
Just like the last two seasons, the Rangers find themselves in a 3 games to 1 series deficit, dropping two straight games on home ice to the Penguins. Starting tonight at the CONSOL Energy Center, Alain Vigneault’s squad will be looking to make it three straight seasons with a come from behind series victory.
In 2014, the Rangers defeated the Penguins after being down 3-1, winning two on the road and Game 6 at MSG. Last year, the Rangers found themselves in the same hole to the Capitals, winning three straight games including a Game 7 overtime winner from Derek Stepan.
The only positive to take out of this is that the Rangers have been in this situation before, they tend to respond well to adversity, and they’ve knocked Pittsburgh out of the playoffs for two straight seasons. Other than that, it’s a tough mountain to climb. Read the rest of this entry
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