Flames @ Rangers
Madison Square Garden,
7:00 p.m. Monday
Rangers record: 11-9-1
Flames record: 8-10-1
The Rangers will host the Calgary Flames tomorrow night but
unfortunately Olli Jokinen is serving a suspension so the team will have to
cancel plans for a video tribute on Jokinen’s time with the club.
The Flames are off to a rough start this season and have
been particularly bad lately, prompting some to speculate about whether Calgary could trade
Captain Jarome Iginla. It’s probably a little premature for that,
but Calgary made an attempt to shake things up
this week by sending defenseman Ian White and Brett Sutter to Carolina for Anton Babchuk and Tom
Kostopoulos. The team just hasn’t had much direction lately and is
heading in the road of a full rebuild. Calgary
lost to Detroit today in overtime but beat Chicago soundly on
Friday; prior to that they’d lost three in a row. The team isn’t
strong in any area; they’re 15th in goals scored, 21st in goals against, 19th
on the power play and 11th on the penalty kill. After a tough start
to the season Iginla has caught fire lately and has five goals in his last two
games. He’s still the team’s most important player, but his best
days appear to be behind him. The Flames don’t have another star up
front, but Niklas Hagman, Alex Tanguay, Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross all
have six goals or more and Brendan Morrison and Matt Stajan are decent
playmaking centers. The once crazy deep Flames defense hasn’t been
as good this season but White may have been the biggest problem and was already
-10. Jay Bouwmeester, Robyn Regeher, Mark Giordano, Corey Sarich and
Babchuk are still as good as anyone on paper, but they haven’t always played up
to their billing. Miikka Kiprusoff was fantastic last year but his
numbers have taken a hit this season along with the rest of the
team. After Kiprusoff started today it’s very possible that Henrik
Karlsson will get the start against the Blueshirts. His numbers are
awful because of one atrocious start but Karlsson has only three games of
experience so it’s tough to say how he’d fair tomorrow.
It was an up and down weekend for the Rangers as they were
clobbered by Colorado on Friday and then took
out their frustrations on Minnesota
last night. Outside of Friday’s embarrassment, the Rangers have been
playing very solid hockey since Marian Gaborik’s return with four wins in the last
six games. Henrik Lundqvist will be back in net in all likelihood
for New York,
and he really needs a strong showing to restore some of his own confidence and
that of Coach John Tortorella. Lundqvist hasn’t looked right lately
and was pulled on Friday night. Biron got the start on Saturday,
which Tortorella said was the original plan, but Hank, always tough on himself,
has to be upset with his play lately. The Rangers defense has been
playing very well lately in the absence of Michal Rozsival. Dan Girardi,
Mike Sauer, Steve Eminger and Marc Staal have all been steady, and even Matt
Gilroy has been involved recently. The biggest question for the team
right now is the play of Michael Del Zotto who was directly responsible for
three Colorado
goals Friday. He was better yesterday, but even the notoriously
confident DZ has to be a little rattled right now, and like Lundqvist, would
benefit from a few solid efforts in a row. Up front, the Rangers
offense has been as expected with Marian Gaborik back in the
lineup. Whoever plays with him produces, and the unexpected
secondary attack from Artem Anisimov, Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan
Fedotenko etc. keeps on chipping in.
The Flames are simply not a very good team right
now. If the Rangers play their game and play hard, this should be a
relatively easy two points. Of course, this is a home game so the
Rangers may inexplicably struggle. But assuming they play as they
have over the last couple weeks, this one should have a positive result.
- The Brad Richards rumors have started up (again). Take
a look at some
analysis by Canyon of Blueshirts, who breaks it down pretty well.
