Goal Line Report

Team USA to win Medal with Goaltending?

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/05/09 at 11:12 AM ET
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From Sean Leahy at Puck Daddy:

For 2010, USA Hockey will have its deepest goaltending trio between Ryan Miller, Tim Thomas and Craig Anderson, who stamped his place on the roster with a red hot month of October. The battle now for the next three and a half months will be about which one will watch from the press box at GM Place and which two will dress.

Coming into this season the debate was between Miller and Thomas for the No. 1 job; but if Anderson continues to carry the Colorado Avalanche, how can his place in the argument be denied?

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 Tags: 2010+Winter+Olympics, Puck+Daddy, Team+USA,

Torts and Wilson like Cally for Team USA

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/05/09 at 07:49 AM ET
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From Dave Lozo at NHL.com:

“Ryan Callahan is a guy who blends in, especially in a short tournament,” Tortorella said. “When you have a versatile guy, that’s very important because there may be an injury along the way, and when you have someone who can do a lot of different things and play in different situations, that’s an important guy to have.”

Callahan’s style of play hasn’t gone unnoticed around the League, either.

Leafs coach Ron Wilson will coach the U.S. team in Vancouver, and he has been impressed with Callahan’s well-rounded, physical game. When asked what Callahan’s chances were of donning the red, white and blue in February, Wilson said “very good.”

“He’s the type of player that you need in your lineup because he can play in every single situation,” Wilson said. “He’s good defensively, he’s a great skater, he plays with a lot of intensity, a lot of pride. From a coach’s point of view, I’d love to have him on my team.”

Click here for more on New York Rangers’ assistant captain Ryan Callahan.

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An Interview with Tyler from Nhl Digest

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/05/09 at 07:41 AM ET
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Good morning folks. It is my pleasure to bring yet another e-mail interview to Kukla’s Korner readers - this time from Tyler McKinna of NHL Digest.

Tyler was kind enough to tell us about how he got into the game of hockey, who is favorite team/player was growing up, how he came up with and helped develop NHL Digest along with his thoughts on the current season.

PH: How did you first get into hockey?
TM: I started playing hockey at the age of 5. I grew up in a small town in Manitoba, Canada and there wasn’t much going on other than hockey in the winter...And, I just happened to live right across the street from the rink!

PH: Growing up, who was your favorite team? How about your favorite player?
TM: No question about it. From day one it has always been the Montreal Canadiens. Mats Naslund was my favorite player growing up. Why Mats with all of the storied Hall of Famers in the history of the Habs? Well, he just happened to be the leading scorer for the Canadiens when I first seriously started watching hockey and I admired his skill and ability for a player his size.

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Two Rangers Honored

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/04/09 at 10:02 AM ET
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Yesterday, two New York Rangers found out that they were going to be honored - one for his on-ice play and the other for his off-ice charitable contributions.

Michael Del Zotto was named the NHL’s Rookie of the Month for the month of October. Here is a brief description of what Del Zotto did this month:

Del Zotto edged Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly (2-9--11, +10 in 14 games), New York Islanders center John Tavares (4-6--10 in 13 games), Dallas Stars left wing Jamie Benn (3-7--10 in 14 games), Buffalo Sabres defenseman Tyler Myers (2-3--5, +7 in 11 games) and Philadelphia Flyers left wing James vanRiemsdyk (2-8--10 in nine games) for the award.

Del Zotto, 19, made his NHL debut in the Rangers’ season-opener at Pittsburgh Oct. 2, becoming the youngest defenseman to suit up for the club since 18-year-old Dave Maloney in December, 1974. He posted points in nine of 14 games, including the game-winning goal in the home opener, a 5-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators Oct. 3, and two-assist efforts in wins over the Los Angeles Kings (4-2, Oct. 14) and Phoenix Coyotes (5-2, Oct. 26). He also quarterbacked a Rangers power play that ranked seventh in the NHL with a 25.0% success rate (14 for 56).

You can read more about Del Zotto here.

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Not Enough

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/04/09 at 09:54 AM ET
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The New York Rangers’ offense is clearly struggling, as the 4-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks last night at GM Place would indicate.

They’re getting the pucks to the net but not many of them are of the quality scoring chance variety. Last night, Rangers’ star Marian Gaborik was not given much room to operate as Canuck players got in his way to block shots, check him out of position and throw him off his game.

As has been this case thus far in the early going, if the opponent can shutdown Gaborik, they’ll have a pretty good chance of beating the Blueshirts. If the Rangers want to get back to playing consistently good hockey, this will have to change in a hurry.

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What is Going on With Chris Drury?

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/03/09 at 11:41 PM ET
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When the New York Rangers signed Chris Drury as a free agent in the summer of 2007, Drury was coming off a season in which he scored 37 goals.

Unfortunately, Drury, who was named the team captain in 2008, has not come close to reaching the level he did in 2007 and has looked out of place offensively this season. Through the team’s first 15 games, the Trumbull, CT-native has just 5 points (2g, 3a).

Yes, he’s done a tremendous job with the defensive side of the game, especially on the penalty kill but offensively, he’s been practically non-existent. 

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A Blast from the Not so Distant Past

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/03/09 at 10:57 PM ET
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Andrew Gross over at Ranger Rants has a great blog/transcript with former New York Ranger head coach and now Edmonton Oilers associate coach Tom Renney:

On taking the job as Quinn’s associate coach:
“He hired me for my first coaching job in Vancouver in 1996 as the GM of the Canucks and as soon as he (Oilers GM Steve Tambellini) said it, I said, ‘OK, this could work.’ I said, ‘Steve, listen, I’m going to need a little time to think this through. Tell me about your program.’ When I finished with Steve, I thought there probably isn’t another guy in the league that I could do this with and feel good about it. And I don’t mean that with any disrespect to anybody else. But I’m a head coach. And yet Pat is the type of guy, he gives the horse the bit. He’s given me a lot of freedom, lots of opportunity, lots of voice with all those types of things. He is the head coach and there are no two ways about that I certainly don’t blur the lines. But it’s one of those situations I think to myself that this will definitely work.
“I consider myself a hockey leader of sorts. I think I can help anybody win given the opportunity to contribute to my strengths. When I landed in Edmonton for my press conference, there were two voice mail messages to come to head coaching interviews. But I knew this is where I wanted to goo, the look of it all, the longevity of it, the whole setup. I said this is going to add years to my NHL career.”

On what he learned from his Rangers’ tenure:
“First of all, it’s all good. If you’re going to fall, fall forward and I think I always do that. The big thing for me is recognizing, again, the pulse of your team. I certainly had a voice of where we were going and how we were going about it and I certainly appreciate it. The big thing is tapping into the room, your people, keeping your finger on the pulse of what’s going on with those guys but, at the end of the day, making sure you continue to draw the line. Democracy doesn’t work in a crisis, not to suggest that we were in one. But at some point, you’ve got to step up. I think I did a decent job of that.
“I think I learned that I’m a pretty good coach. I think I learned I can adapt. I can put a game plan on the ice given whatever the talent might look like. Whereas, coming out of Vancouver, I came out of there wondering, ‘Am I right for this?’ I was certainly disheartened, disappointed. Pat was fired before I was and he was the GM. I didn’t feel real good about that. I didn’t have that feeling this time. I honestly felt like I could turn it around and why would I feel that way? If you don’t feel that way, don’t do that job. Coming out of Vancouver I felt, ‘Ehhh, I missed the mark a little bit.”

Click here for more on a truly decent human being and an above average hockey coach. 

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 Tags: Edmonton+Oilers, New+York+Rangers, Tom+Renney,

An Interview with Jamie Shalley of XM NHL Home Ice

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/03/09 at 02:45 PM ET
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Good afternoon folks. I was lucky enough to be able to do an e-mail interview with Jamie Shalley of XM NHL Home Ice.

For all subscribers out there, you can hear his voice on the “Around the Rink Updates”, as host of “Ice Cap” and filling in on various programs. Shalley was kind of enough to take time out of his busy schedule to tell us how he became a fan of the sport, how he got into the game on the media side of things as well as his two cents on what’s going on around the league this season.

PH: How did you first get into hockey?
JS: I would say that hockey got into me!  Growing up in Thunder Bay, Ontario, it is part of your life from when you’re old enough to stand. I recall countless pick-up games in my driveway, on the street in front of my house, and on outdoor rinks. I would go to watch games as a kid at the Fort William Gardens pretty much every weekend, watching our senior league team, the Twins, and the junior Flyers, who played in the USHL at that time.

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Taboo

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/03/09 at 10:21 AM ET
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From Justin Bourne of USA Today:

The lack of a homosexual presence in hockey must mean one of two things: either homosexual men don’t play the game or they don’t feel comfortable admitting it — in which case I, and my brethren, were offending some teammates with our close-mindedness, and furthering what must have been unsettled feelings of fear and general exclusion.

For us as a culture, that means another two things. That either we need scientists doing research on professional hockey players ASAP, because apparently there’s a link between our sport and sexuality. Or, much more realistically, we need to alter the culture of hockey, because homosexuals are being forced to play entire careers masquerading as people they’re not.

As many times as I used these slurs, I heard it back tenfold. As well as I fit in behind the doors of a dressing room, I had pursuits that made me seem different. I kept a journal while I played. I’m into piano music and reading. In the hockey world, that’s your basic formula for eliciting more comments about sexual orientation than acting in “Rent.” It’s always the first shot fired.

Hockey culture is something I’ve known and loved, but I’m not oblivious to the disconnect between how players and coaches act behind that dressing room door and how society expects them to act in public. Since we have to change something about how we act and what we say when we leave the team room, we’re probably acting improperly in the first place. And during my playing days, I was aware that was the case.

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 Tags: Justin+Bourne, NHL,

Why So Many Injuries?

by Patrick Hoffman on 11/02/09 at 01:10 PM ET
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From Jim Cerny at Rink Rap:

So why so many injuries?

Caps owner Ted Leonsis shared a theory with the guys on Hockey This Morning over at XM Home Ice earlier today.

“The schedule is responsible for these injuries,” stated Leonsis. “We just played four games in less than six days. We had two sets of three games in four nights one right after the other. It’s too much. We have to take a really hard look at this. We are talking about very big men, and a very violent, fast game. Too many games in too few days is a problem.”

Good points. But what is the alternative? Play fewer games? Expand the season to include more days off, and, as a result, play the Stanley Cup Finals closer to the month of July? Do not participate in the Olympics?

The answer is that there is no real clear answer. But what is obvious is that the league needs to take a close look at the injury issue. It’s not good when any group of players is getting hurt on a regular basis, no matter the sport.

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 Tags: Jim+Cerny, Rink+Rap,

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