Archive for Corey Potter
Sloppy Sloppy Sloppy
Posted by: | CommentsSloppy. That’s the only way you can describe the game against the Penguins yesterday afternoon. In a pivotal, must win game, the Rangers turned in one of their sloppiest performances under John Tortorella. Were there bright spots? Sure, his name was Ryan Callahan, who again played very well, and scored his 20th of the season.
Michael Sauer saw about 4 minutes of ice time all game, as he regressed from his solid performance against Minnesota into a mistake prone rookie. You can’t fault him, after all, he is just that, a rookie. After his poor performance, the Rangers called up Corey Potter, and sent Sauer back down to Hartford.
As for the standings, the Rangers still sit in 7th place with 87 points, holding a 1 point advantage over Montreal, but now Montreal has the game in hand. The bad news? They hold just a 2 point lead over Florida. The magic number still sits at 10, after the Rangers loss and the Panthers dominating performance over Dallas. I still believe that 94 points will get the Rangers into the playoffs, so they will need 7 points in their final 6 games to ensure a playoff spot.
I’m sitting in the world’s worst airport Laguardia, going to Atlanta for work for the week. It’s going to be 70 degrees there all week, I’m looking forward to that.
Game 58: Rangers at St. Louis
Posted by: | CommentsUsually I begin these game threads with something along the lines of ‘looking to rebound’ or ‘looking to keep the winning going’. I decided that’s not the case. I am fed up with the lackadaisical play of this team. None of us think the team is top in the conference, but we as fans deserve better than the effort we have been seeing over the past few weeks.
A few notes, Paul Mara didn’t make the trip to St. Louis. Considering the description of the injury so far, I would guess either dislocated or separated shoulder, which would put him out for a long time, probably the remainder of the regular season. Dmitri Kalinin is skating in his place, his first game since injuring his back, and Corey Potter did not make the trip.
The Blues have only lost once in regulation in the past 7 games. They allow a lot of goals, so maybe, just maybe, the Rangers can put more than 2 in the net tonight.
Game time is 7pm on Vs. tonight. Sorry, but I won’t be live blogging the game.
Update: I forgot to add that Renney’s job is likely on the line tonight and Wednesday against the Islanders. Two wins secure his job for the time being.
As for Sather, no word on if Dolan has watched a game this year.
Avery Clears, to be Assigned to Hartford
Posted by: | CommentsSean Avery has cleared waivers and will likely be sent to Hartford. He will then, as per Rick Carpiniello, be placed on re-entry waivers and claimed by the Rangers (assuming none of the teams below them claim him). The interesting bit here is that the Stars appear to be receiving no compensation for Avery. Personally, I was hoping the Rangers would send a higher priced player to them in exchange for taking Avery off their hands.
Just to clarify things, I am not against Avery for the remainder of this year. His situation here has worked out in the past, and the locker room clearly needs something to shake things up. He isn’t the scoring winger that they so desperately need, but he would definitely add a certain toughness that Aaron Voros has failed to bring.
What I am against is Avery for the next THREE years. Avery is but a bandaid on the bullet wound that is the problem with this team. As much as I respect Mr. Renney for taking this team from laughing stock to the playoffs for what will be the 4th year in a row, his time has run out. And considering how much a lot of us want this change, do you really want to handcuff a new coach with Avery for three more years?
Update 1:30pm: Corey Potter has been sent back to Hartford. Not unexpected.
Hundqvist & Mara sick, and not because of the offense
Posted by: | CommentsAs Dave alluded too earlier, Corey Potter is back with the club, but not to serve as the 7th D-man. Steve Zipay notes that the flu has made it’s rounds in the locker room, and neither Henrik Lundqvist or Paul Mara skated this morning. With Dmitri Kalinin’s back still acting up and uncertainty surrounding Mara’s available for tomorrow night’s game in Dallas, Potter’s presence was more necessity than luxury.
Jane McManus also reported on some (surprise!) new line combos, as Aaron Voros skated with Scott Gomez and Markus Nasund this morning. The Betts-Orr-Sjostrom and Drury-Dubinsky-Zherdev units are still in tact, while Nigel Dawes was skating with Lauri Korpikosi and Ryan Callahan. Petr Prucha will again be a healthy scratch. I’m sure Dave’s thrilled.
Hundqvist & Mara sick, and not because of the offense
Posted by: | CommentsAs Dave alluded too earlier, Corey Potter is back with the club, but not to serve as the 7th D-man. Steve Zipay notes that the flu has made it’s rounds in the locker room, and neither Henrik Lundqvist or Paul Mara skated this morning. With Dmitri Kalinin’s back still acting up and uncertainty surrounding Mara’s available for tomorrow night’s game in Dallas, Potter’s presence was more necessity than luxury.
Jane McManus also reported on some (surprise!) new line combos, as Aaron Voros skated with Scott Gomez and Markus Nasund this morning. The Betts-Orr-Sjostrom and Drury-Dubinsky-Zherdev units are still in tact, while Nigel Dawes was skating with Lauri Korpikosi and Ryan Callahan. Petr Prucha will again be a healthy scratch. I’m sure Dave’s thrilled.
Hundqvist & Mara sick, and not because of the offense
Posted by: | CommentsAs Dave alluded too earlier, Corey Potter is back with the club, but not to serve as the 7th D-man. Steve Zipay notes that the flu has made it’s rounds in the locker room, and neither Henrik Lundqvist or Paul Mara skated this morning. With Dmitri Kalinin’s back still acting up and uncertainty surrounding Mara’s available for tomorrow night’s game in Dallas, Potter’s presence was more necessity than luxury.
Jane McManus also reported on some (surprise!) new line combos, as Aaron Voros skated with Scott Gomez and Markus Nasund this morning. The Betts-Orr-Sjostrom and Drury-Dubinsky-Zherdev units are still in tact, while Nigel Dawes was skating with Lauri Korpikosi and Ryan Callahan. Petr Prucha will again be a healthy scratch. I’m sure Dave’s thrilled.
Renney Explains the Prucha Situation
Posted by: | CommentsSo Rick Carpiniello caught up with Tom Renney the other day and asked about the Petr Prucha situation. He had this to say:
Renney feels that Prucha — who, as we know is not afraid to play a physical game for a smallish player — wears down. And wears down significantly, to the point where it affects his skating.
“With a guy like Pruch, it’s a matter of him getting in and being able to sustain it,” Renney said. “He’s not a big guy. For our needs, at least, a guy like Petr is good for a while and then it seems to dry up on him. Then I can get him back in again. The bottom line is it’s his size. It’s getting banged around, and then because of that, not being able to sustain what he can deliver over the period of more than four or five games. And that’s the dilemma that I have.
“And it’s too bad,” Renney said, “because he’s a helluva guy.”
I don’t get it, earlier in the season Renney said that Prucha was the best conditioned Ranger on the roster. But yet he wears down after a few games? Maybe I’m missing something, but that seems extremely contradictory.
But let’s give Renney the benefit of the doubt, and say Pru does wear out a little faster than you would expect. Does that mean that he should play 7 games, then sit out for 10? How about play 5, and rotate in Voros when you need some size in the lineup?
I don’t buy his excuse for the Prucha treatment. But then again, if you read this blog often, this shouldn’t surprise you.
Update 2:15pm: Corey Potter has been called up. I’m guessing he will make the trip as the 7th defenseman, with Kalinin still hurt.
Odds and Ends
Posted by: | Comments- The Islanders just can’t get lucky. Mike Sillinger is now out for the year. They lost another tradeable asset to help rebuild. It’s unknown what Sillinger could have gone for, considering he played an entire 7 games all year, but something is better than nothing. This just creates more time for us to laugh at the Islanders for their ridiculous team right now. They remind me of the Kansas City Royals.
- Henrik Zetterberg re-upped with the Wings, which shouldn’t really shock anyone. His deal is 12 years, $72 million, which is just a $6 million cap hit (still less than Wade Redden). That deal is great for the Wings. With Michael Cammalleri poised to make Jarome Iginla money ($7 million/year), Zetterberg would surely have received more money from any other team. This does pose an issue for the Wings though, bringing their cap number to roughly $48 million for next year, with Marian Hossa and Johan Franzen set to become UFAs. My guess is that Hossa goes for greener pastures and Franzen stays in Detroit. If Franzen winds up as a free agent, how much will Sather be kicking himself for signing Markus Naslund to two years (or Redden to 6, but I digress)?
- The Vinny Lecavalier to Montreal rumors have all but died for this season. That’s pretty good news for all Ranger fans. The Blueshirts can’t even beat the Habs now, without Lecavalier, can you imagine what it would be like with Vinny in Montreal?
- As for Dan Fritsche, he has cleared waivers. I’m guessing he will go to Hartford, and Potter will be called up for the game in Boston on Saturday.
The Return of Potter?
Posted by: | Comments
With Dan Fritsche officially waived and probably on his way to Hartford in a few hours, you have to wonder what Sather and company have planned for the extra cap room. Are they going to use it to potentially make a trade for a missing piece? Possibly. I would certainly hope that Sather is at least kicking the tires on Keith Tkachuk, Nik Antropov, Denis Gauthier, and others mentioned here in previous posts. Sather’s most recent trade history has been pretty decent (Zherdev, Avery, Sykora), so let’s hope he can pull a rabbit out of his hat again.
We could also, finally, see a seventh defenseman called up. That defenseman would in all likelihood be Corey Potter. We have long wanted a seventh defenseman here, it will at least light a fire under the under achieving defense. But if Potter gets called up, who sits? There’s the obvious person, Dmitri Kalinin, who forgot how to take the body. The seventh defensemen creates some competition. And competition breeds improvement.
Or maybe both? Would that be too much to ask?
Game 39: Rangers vs. Isles
Posted by: | CommentsThe Boys in Blue have four days off after tonight’s game, so you know they want to go into the New Year break on a one game winning streak opposed to a four game losing streak. The Isles have lost 10 of their last 11 (yikes), but have franchise netminder Rick DiPietro back after a knee procedure cost him 27 games. He hasn’t started against the Rangers since Nov. 27th of last year. Of course I wrote all this before learning that DiPietro won’t play tonight due to a bum groin. That dude is the Carl Pavano of hockey.
Michal Rozsival is back in the lineup, and Corey Potter was shipped back to Hartford. Aaron Voros is a healthy scratch, with Petr Prucha taking his spot in the lineup. Here’s the forward lines for tonight’s game:
Korpikoski – Gomez – Naslund
Dawes – Drury – Callahan
Prucha – Dubinsky – Zherdev
Orr – Betts – Sjostrom
I’ll provide updates periodically throughout the game. Enjoy.
Update (7:10pm): I just saw this on ESPN; Claude Lemieux is making a comeback? Ugh. Oh, and the game is on Versus tonight, in case you’re staring at MSG trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Update (7:18pm): Quality fight right there. Versus is terrible, as usual.
Update (7:23pm): Another good scrap right there. Good hit by Dawes on Okposo, Comrie stood up for the rook. Hillary Duff is going to have to take care of her boyfriend later, Dawes landed a few good ones.
Update (7:35pm): Brutal. Just brutal. Nice giveaway deep in the zone by Kalinin. Drury’s -4 in the last four periods.
Update (8:15pm): Hey look, it’s Scott Gomez. In all seriousness, that was some killer puck movement right there. Nice job using the point men, brilliant pass by Zherdev.
Update (8:33pm): This has been one physical game. Every player is finishing every check. I love it.
Update (8:36pm): Nice deflection by Okposo there. It hurt even more coming with 12 seconds left in the period.
Update (8:55pm): Ouch. Ryan Callahan just plowed Trent Hunter into the boards, but the penalty box door opened and Hunter went face first into the edge of the partition. It was a clean hit, but Hunter’s down. Both trainers and the MSG medical crew are out on the ice.
Update (8:58pm): They brought the stretcher out, but Hunter skated off under his own power. Looks like he just had the wind knocked out of him.
Update (9:00pm): Note to Tom Renney: PLAY PETR PRUCHA!!! Nice job driving to the net by Dubie, nicer job by Prucha sticking with the play. We’re tied at deuces.
Update (9:01pm): And there’s another one. Rozy from bad angle, through the wickets.
Update (9:02pm): Good grief. Blake Comeau all by his lonesome in front of the net, now we’re tied at three.
Update (9:11pm): Amazing what happens when you win a faceoff, eh Scotty? Naslund tips in Gomez’s feed out front after a faceoff win in the zone. 4-2 good guys. Wade Redden & Dmitri Kalinin are getting the Marek Malik treatment.
Update (9:23pm): Dawes just netted one, but I missed the goal and Versus hasn’t bothered to show a replay. Chants of PE-TR PRU-CHA are raining down from the heavens. And by the heavens I mean the blue seats.
Update (9:29pm): Comrie just chopped one in with 18.7 seconds left. They always have to make it unnecessarily interesting.
Update (9:32pm): Game over, Rangers win 5-4. Rangers win. THAAAAAAAA RANGERS WIN!!!
Mike Axisa writes for River Ave. Blues and can be reached here.