THE MANIC RANGER HAS MOVED!

The Manic Ranger blog has been moved to a Blogger account.

Please bookmark the new address.

http://themanicranger.blogspot.com/

The new blog will continue to offer the same quality information and analysis. It will be updated regularly.

-Ryan

Do The Rangers Need Sean Avery?

This Rangers team is a throwback to two years ago before they acquired Sean Avery. They’re a vanilla team with no rough edges, no attitude. Their play reflects their lack of personality as a team. They have yet to establish any sort of identity.They’re in a tailspin, everyone is seemingly reaching for answers, explanations and solutions of how to fix the problem. Is Sean Avery once again the answer to the Rangers troubles?

Avery’s problems in Dallas were well documented. The fact of the matter is, Brett Hull should never have brought him into that locker room. Despite his personal feelings about Sean Avery, he would never have been welcome in the Stars room. The Stars knew full well of Avery’s antics before he even arrived in the Lonestar state. Avery fought captain Brendan Morrow on numerous occasions. Even if Avery was a perfect gentleman, he most likely never would have been a good fit with the Stars.

Unlike the Stars, the Rangers were a perfect fit for Sean Avery. Most of players had never played against him since he was playing in LA.  They never actually had faced his antics, only heard of them.

But is Sean Avery right for this Rangers team?

Yes.

The Rangers need a guy whose going to play with an attitude. They need someone whose going to get under the opponents skin. Aaron Voros is suppose to be that player, but he’s no Sean Avery. He might not be readily welcome in the Rangers locker room, but right now they need a spark. Avery provided it once already for the Rangers and it would be a good bet to say he can do it again.

Another Poor Performance, Devils Burn Rangers

Flashes of individual efforts do not win games in the NHL. The Rangers were outplayed in every aspect of the game by a Devils team that played with a sense of urgency and intensity the Rangers didn’t seem to care to match. They were beaten to the majority of the loose pucks and were outworked at both ends of the ice for the large majority of the game. The Rangers seem to be caught in sinkhole of incompetance and indifference. They are a team desperate for a leader to emerge or they will continue to sink into the depths of mediocritiy.

There is a laundry list of things the Rangers did wrong tonight. But the most disheartening mistake they committed was they were outworked as a team. In that regard they were dominated by the blue collar Devils. Although there was some positive play by Lauri Korpikoski, Marc Staal and Nigel Dawes, they were totally outplayed. It was disheartening to see another poor performance of this magnitude by a team that looks to be spiraling down the drain.

Changes need to be made. Last nights game only gave credence to this idea. A trade of some kind is required. As an outsider it’s difficult to say for who since knowledge of which players might be readily available is limited. But some new blood needs to be brought into that locker room. Brendan Shanahan needs to be signed. If he hasn’t already thought about retiring, this team could use his leadership in the locker room and on the ice. The inhumane treatment of Petr Prucha needs to be stopped for the teams own good. A performing Petr Prucha would be a big pick me up for the team.

There have been no rumblings about Renney’s job security (except among Ranger fans) that would indicate he’s in any danger of being canned. But it’s becoming more and more evident that he’s wrong for this team.  From his incompetant coaching staff to his bogus line combinations. Everything he does of late seems to have a negative impact on the Rangers performance.

This team needs help.

Petr Prucha..

.. Once again being kicked to the curb.

Meanwhile, Colton Orr is battling the flu and was instructed to stay home by Renney, but is expected to try to play tonight. Should he be available, Aaron Voros will skate on a line with Brandon Dubinsky and Lauri Korpikoski, while Petr Prucha and Dan Fritshce would again be the scratches.

As a precaution in case Orr can’t go, Prucha will take part in warm-ups.

You wonder if Prucha has any sense of humor left at this point. I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t…

It’s a joke. What more is there to say? It seems like it would be common sense to give a Prucha a shot over Korpikoski (who has 17 shots on goal this season), Sjostrom or Voros. But apparently with Tom Renney everything has to be more difficult. I understand Prucha is undersized, but he plays with heart and skates hard game after game. Heart, that seems to be something the Rangers may be lacking..

In other news, Corey Potter has been recalled because Michal Rozsival is suffering from an undisclosed injury. Nice to see Potter be given a shot, but I wonder why he’s getting the role of 7th defenseman over Sanguinetti. The last time Potter was called up he looked lost, lets see how he does tonight.

The Forgotten Petr Prucha, Playing Against NJ?

The on-again, off-again Petr Prucha saga took another twist today with Prucha working in on a line with Brandon Dubinsky and Lauri Korpikoski. Should this happen, Fred Sjostrom would go back to the fourth line and Aaron Voros would be a healthy scratch for the first time.

 Tom Renney said he was only giving the combinations a look and wouldn’t commit to it for tomorrow, but this season it seems “a look” one day at practice has usually meant a reality the next night in a game. So stay tuned.

FINALLY!

Prucha has done nothing to deserve his treatment as the perennial healthy scratch on the Rangers.  Every “opportunity” he has had and I use that word very lightly, Prucha either has played well or really hasn’t done anything to deserve being in a shirt and tie the following game. It’s clear that Renney plays favorites. Freddy Sjostrom has been a mainstay so far this season and although I admire his work ethic, he really doesn’t add anything to the team besides some skill in the shootout, that can be replaced by Prucha.

Renney’s handling of Prucha has been disgusting and unwarranted. His idea of giving Prucha a chance to play and prove himself, is one, maybe two games and regardless of how he plays he’s in the press box the following night. Prucha is a player whose confidence has been shattered, in part to his own inability to score recently and the mistreatment by Renney. He needs to be given a true shot, a REAL shot at making an impact on this team.

I don’t think it’s warranted to give ice time to a player based on a past seasons performances. But when Prucha’s competition are players who are inferior, mainly Freddy Sjostrom, it should be given notice. Prucha scored 30 goals his rookie season and 22 his second year. Most of these goals were scored on the power play. His performance dramatically dropped off when Shanahan was acquired and he took Prucha’s spot on the power play. Regardless, Sjostrom has never shown scoring ability like that in the NHL.

A successful Petr Prucha is vital to the Rangers success.  The Rangers power play is ranked 27th in the NHL. The remarkable thing about this is that there are three teams who are actually worse on the man advantage than the Rangers are. Shocking! Why not put Prucha on the power play again, whats the worse that can happen? He had a knack for scoring on the man advantage, the extra space allowed him to show his skills. Let him regain his confidence. He has more upside than Sjostrom or Dan Fritsche who haven’t shown much of anything. If Prucha starts scoring again, he would be a huge pick up for the team.

Deadline Deals That Could Be Made

The Rangers have   of wholes that need to be filled before the trade deadline. In my opinion the first thing on their wish list should be Jay Bouwmeester. Its sad that the three guys on their back line who are being paid the most, Kalinen, Redden, and Rozsival, are their three weakest and most unreliable defenseman. One of them needs to go for the Rangers to have a chance. I’m not sure why Bobby Sanguinetti or Corey Potter aren’t being given a chance over Redden and Kalinen at this point. Kalinen has done NOTHING for the team and is one of those guys who next year will end up playing in Europe because he cant get an NHL job. Maybe a nice fix to the defensive problems would be to sit him or Redden in the press box for a game or two and let Sanguinetti or Kalinen have a shot at it.

Of course the Rangers also need a scoring winger and the obvious candidates are Marian Gaborik and Ilya Kovalchuk. Of course before the deadline I want the Rangers to sign Shanahan to play with Dubinsky, but I’ll have a seperate post for that. I think the Rangers would love to take a shot at Kovalchuk. He’s the pure scoring winger the Rangers dont have and desperately need. The price tag for him I think would be too large since he still has a year on his contract. To this point, Atlanta’s GM hasn’t made him available, but I would expect he would at least field some offers.

The price tag for Gaborik I expect would be lower, the two sides seem like they can’t wait for this divorce to happen. He’s notoriously injury prone and has missed a large chunk of the season already with that mysterious groin injury. Maybe the Rangers can swap Rozsival and Dawes along with a draft pick for him? I would like that trade, Minnesota probably wouldn’t but who asked them.

Regardless of who becomes available and who the Rangers want to trade for, they need to make some cap clearing moves sooner rather than later. A trade that would have sent Rozsival to Dallas fell through shortly before Sundin took the money and headed out west. I don’t think that Rozsival will be a Ranger after the deadline. He doesnt have a NTC and he’s the player with the largest contract that the Rangers would be able to generate interest in. If the Rangers aren’t going to play Petr Prucha, he needs to be given a shot somewhere else. Hes played three times in the last 20 games. And what for? Renney cannot sit there and tell me that Freddy Sjostrom is a more viable option to play with Dubinsky. But that’s for another time.

Just for the record, these trades are all speculation based on my own knowledge of what I think the Rangers need and what will probably be available..

The Rangers Need A Change

First off, I would like to apologize for not updating the site. I plan on updating regularly from now on..

Regardless of the Rangers record, things need to change. Their record is nothing more than a smokescreen, a figment of the imagination. I generally do not want to be negative about the Rangers, but I just can’t help myself at this point in the season. ESPECIALLY after watching that disaster against Washington the other night. The third period was trully the Alexander Ovechkin show and as much as I enjoy watching him play, it was excrutiating to watch the Rangers collapse and look indifferent.

I have been a huge advocate for Tom Renney, I appreciate everything he’s done for the team. Three consecutive playoff appearances after the lockout, impressive and noteworthy. However, I begin to wonder how much of that success was attributed to his coaching or Jaromir Jagr’s record setting season following the lockout and the emergence of the King himself, Henrik Lundqvist. I have come to the conclusion that Renney although was apart of that, cannot be given all the credit and at this point is hurting the Rangers. His line combinations are laughable. How can he justify playing Chris Drury with Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan flanking him? I am a huge Ryan Callahan fan, I think hes earned those minutes and that opportunity. But Nigel Dawes?  It’s a waste of Drury. At the very least he needs to move Naslund to play alongside Drury and I would like to see Callahan play with Gomez and Zherdev. It’s hard to justify firing a coach with Renney’s record, but in my opinion if the Rangers dont at the very least advance to the semi-finals, he needs to be let go. They need a different coach, one who in between   periods during a game like the one against the Capitals, will unleash hell on the team and wake them up.

They need a coach with a definite, strong voice. Maybe John Tortorella is the right answer, can’t be sure, but I do know that this is a different Rangers team. They have now clear leadership, no voice in the locker room. Chris Drury is a class act, an example of a professional athlete should behave and an example of how the game should be played, but he’s not the right leader for this team. Which brings me to my next point..

The Rangers need to sign Brendan Shanahan. For all the skeptics out there, let me ask you a question. Whose going to score more goals this season? Lauri Korpikoski, Nigel Dawes, Aaron Voros, Dan Fritsche, Petr Prucha OR Brendan Shanahan? The question practically answers itself. Shanny would have exploded after the game last night, hes a throwback veteran who would have had no problem standing up in the center of the room and saying what needs to be said. He can play on the third line with Dubinsky, which would give him a veteran to play with and maybe will help him move on from his sophomore slump. Why Sather didn’t sign him at the very latest, after training camp, is beyond me. Instead he collected a surplus of third line players, who are clogging up cap space and giving next to nothing in return. Well done Glen, well done.

Let Prucha Play

The Rangers are struggling to find the right combination with Naslund and Drury. Lauri Korpikoski has been given a chance as has Patrick Rissmiller who has since been put on waivers (why he was signed in the first place still boggles my mind). Why not give Petr Prucha a real shot at making an impact on the team and developing chemistry with those two for a few games. And yes give him a few games to work things out and get his game back. Not one game and then put him in the press box for a week. Prucha could be an invaluable asset to the team if he can return to his 30 goal form he showed when he was a rookie.

Prucha would fit nicely alongside Drury and Gomez. He has speed, he works hard in the tough parts of the ice and he has the ability to finish. Why is he sitting in the press box when a guy like Rissmiller is getting playing time with Drury and Naslund. Last night against the Stars, Rissmiller did nothing but get in the way of those two. If Renney isn’t going to play Prucha, they should trade him to a team that will. It’s not fair to have him become more and more demoralized dressing in street clothes every night for really no reason at all. In the three games hes dressed he hasnt played poorly. He made some things happen and had some chances but just didn’t finish. If your going to scratch a player for not being able to finish the play, why not bench Naslund or Drury? If you wouldn’t bench them for that reason then it makes zero sense to bench Prucha.

I hope to see Prucha dressed for Fridays game against the Jackets. Not buried on the fourth line either, playing quality minutes and be given a real opportunity. T

Renney Mixes Things Up

Tom Renney looks like he’ll be jumbling his lines for tomorrow in Columbus, most notably by putting Nikolai Zherdev with Chris Drury and Markus Naslund.

Here’s what was practicing together today:

Dawes-Gomez-Callahan

Naslund-Drury-Zherdev

Voros-Dubinsky-Fritsche

Sjostrom-Betts-Orr

In order for the Rangers to have a successful season they need Naslund and Drury to pick things up and become a real scoring threat. I’m not sure that moving Zherdev on their line is going to solve their problems. I also don’t think that having Ryan Callahan and Nigel Dawes on the first line is going to keep any sustained offense throughout the season. I like both players, especially Callahan but I just can’t see the team being successful for an extended period of time with both of them on the first line.

I think that Renney at some point is going to move Zherdev alongside Gomez and put Callahan with Dubinsky and Voros. I would prefer Renney to give Prucha a shot with Drury and Naslund but being that it looks like  Prucha ONCE AGAIN is not going to be dressed, I dont see that happening in the near future.

Shanahan Up For Grabs, Korpikoski Sent To Hartford

One of the last prominent free agents in the NHL is available for hire, as the New York Post reports that veteran winger Brendan Shanahan has informed his agent to explore playing options other than the New York Rangers.

“I’ve told (agent) Rick (Curran) that I can no longer wait and that it’s time to move on,” Shanahan, told The Post.

“Until now, Rick has been under instructions to tell inquiring teams that my focus was on re-signing with the Rangers, and that I was not accepting any other offers. That has changed.”

Its not suprising that Shanahan has finally said hes exploring other options but with the Rangers waiving Patrick Rissmiller last week and sending Lauri Korpikoski and his $1.1M cap hit to Hartford, maybe they’re clearing the cap space needed for Shanahan? A 600 goal scorer on the third line couldnt hurt on any team. It can give Brandon Dubinsky a proven goal scorer to play alongside.