Goal Line Report

Questions for Blueshirt Fans

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/29/10 at 08:48 PM ET
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As we head into the month of August, I figured now was as good a time as any to ask my Ranger fan readers out there their thoughts on the following questions:

- Is the Alexander Frolov signing a good one or bad one? Why?

- Where do you see Frolov fitting into the lineup? Why?

- With the Frolov signing, could the team really go ahead and demote Wade Redden?

- How will Frolov signing be different from when the team signed Nikolai Zherdev in the off-season of 2008?

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 Tags: Alexander+Frolov, New+York+Rangers,

Scotty Wazz Drops in for Off-Season Hockey Talk

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/28/10 at 08:00 AM ET
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Scott Wasilewski (Wazz) of The Face-off Hockey Show and The Strangest One of All Hockey Blog was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to discuss some off-season hockey topics here at Kukla’s Korner.

Take it away, Wazz:

PH: Which free agent signings do you like? Why?
SW: The defensive pick-ups in the Atlantic are amazing. The Devils picking up Anton Volchenkov and Henrik Tallinder are pretty clutch, as both are stable defensively responsible players and should be able to make up for the losses the Devils had to endure. Which leads me to the pick-ups of Paul Martin and Zbynek Michalek by the Penguins, who are younger options to counteract the loss of Sergei Gonchar to Ottawa. Martin and Michalek should compliment and push Kris Letang to be tops on the defensive corps.

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 Tags: Free+Agency, NHL, Scott+Wasilewski, The+Face-Off+Hockey+Show, The+Strangest+One+of+All,

Power Play’s Scott Laughlin Drops By To Chat Off-Season Hockey

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/27/10 at 01:28 PM ET
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Recently, I was lucky enough to do an e-mail interview with Scott Laughlin of XM’s NHL Home Ice. Scott Laughlin hosts the Power Play and also used to host Hockey This Morning.

Scott was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to talk about NHL free-agency and the Illya Kovalchuk situation. Take it away, Scott:

PH: Which free agent signings do you like? Why?
SL: I like what Pittsburgh did in signing Paul Martin and the unheralded Zbynek Michalek. Even without Sergei Gonchar you could make the argument that they’re a much-stronger defensive team as compared to last season. Unfortunately, big bucks for the two defencemen has meant they don’t have enough left under the cap to upgrade on the wing. However, with Crosby, Malkin, and Staal they’ll find a way to score enough to win.

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 Tags: Free-Agency, NHL, NHL+Home+Ice, Scott+Laughlin,

The Curious Case of Alexander Frolov/UPDATE

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/27/10 at 08:43 AM ET
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UPDATE: As Paul posted previously, Alexander Frolov has signed a 1-year deal with the New York Rangers. The deal is worth $3 million. As I said in the post below, let’s see what he can do in one year.

According to many sports outlets last night, the New York Rangers are on the verge of signing UFA Alexander Frolov to a deal.

I’m not quite sure what to think if the Blueshirts sign him. Here are some positives:

- It is easy to see that Frolov has point-producing abilities. Starting from the 2005-06 season, he has had season totals of 54, 71, 67, 59 and 51 points. This would easily put him among the top three point-producers on the Blueshirts, which isn’t exactly hard to do.

- Frolov would help out the power play. The Rangers clearly need another sniper with the man-advantage and Frolov could become another player the team towards to besides Marian Gaborik.

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Setting a Role for Chris Drury

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/26/10 at 01:12 PM ET
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Back in the off-season of 2007, Glen Sather went out and signed the two-headed free-agent moster of Scott Gomez and Chris Drury.

At the time, they were the two most sought after free agents on the market and Sather did his part by throwing a boat load of cash and years (Gomez now spending it in Montreal) to the duo. Unfortunately, for the Blueshirts, both have come up short in their end of the deal, in particular Drury since Gomez is no longer a Blueshirt.

The reason why Drury is struggling on Broadway is because Sather signed him to be a scorer and point-producer. Sure, Drury had 37 goals one season (2006-07) in Buffalo but that is NOT who he is.

Drury is a guy that can help on special teams, in particular the penalty kill, score big goals, make key defensive plays and play well on both sides of the puck. These traits are good for a second, third or fourth liner.

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Too Much Waiting and Not Enough Doing By Sather

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/24/10 at 01:27 PM ET
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In the dog days of summer, many NHL general managers and their teams are waiting and looking.

Waiting and looking to sign a free agent, make a trade or do anything they can to make their team better. While that’s what most GM’s are doing this off-season, one has to wonder what New York Rangers’ GM Glen Sather is trying to do with his hockey team.

Yes, he went out and signed/re-signed players such as Marty Biron, Derek Boogaard, Vinny Prospal, Erik Christensen, Vinny Prospal and Daniel Girardi. While that’s great, with the exception of the somewhat questionable Boogaard signing, one has to wonder what’s next for Sather.

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 Tags: Daniel+Girardi, Derek+Boogaard, Erik+Christensen, Glen+Sather, Marc+Staal, Marty+Biron, New+York+Rangers, Vinny+Prospal, Vinny+Prospal, Wade+Redden,

Should the Rangers Go After Brad Richards?

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/23/10 at 05:46 PM ET
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Last season, it was obvious that the New York Rangers lacked a true No. 1 center and in the end, it hurt them.

The team had Brandon Dubinsky, Erik Christensen and others try to play with Marian Gaborik and while there was some chemistry here and there, there wasn’t enough to scare teams or produce points consistently. In fact, you can say that the team’s best No.1 center in the last five seasons was former Blueshirt Michael Nylander.

One number one center that has been floating around Rangerland is Brad Richards. Richards is a proven point producer who last season, scored 91 points (24 goals and 67 assists) in 80 games with the Dallas Stars. The season before that, he had 48 points in 56 games so as you can tell, Richards is good for about a point a game.

If the Blueshirts found a way to get him, he’d be a lock to play with Marian Gaborik. Gaborik would have himself a pure No. 1 center and someone that can feed him the puck or he can feed the puck to. They would certainly become a dangerous combinatio n and right now, the Rangers need all the offense they can get.

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 Tags: Brad+Richards, Dallas+Stars, John+Tortorella, Marian+Gaborik, Michael+Nylander, New+York+Rangers, Tampa+Bay+Lightning,

What if Don Maloney was the Rangers’ GM?

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/23/10 at 01:00 PM ET
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Once upon a time, current Phoenix Coyotes General Manager was the Assistant GM to Glen Sather in New York with the Rangers. Maloney did a terrific job in drafting current Ranger players such as Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, and Henrik Lundqvist. These three players have reached various levels of success on Broadway and its because Maloney believed that they could.

This past season, Maloney won the GM of the year award and with good reason as his Phoenix Coyotes had a terrific season. The Coyotes went 50-25-7, good for 107 points and a fourth place finish in the powerful Western Conference.

Of course, the New York Rangers finished ninth in the Eastern Conference, going 38-33-11 and losing the final regular season game to the Philadelphia Flyers, costing the team a chance to make the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Should this come as a surprise given the way the Blueshirts played this season? No, but it’s still amazing that there is such a noticeable difference between the Coyotes and the Rangers.

With that in mind, one has to wonder what the Blueshirts would be like if Don Maloney was at the helm rather than Sather. If this were the case, I believe that things would be very different in Rangerland:

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 Tags: Chris+Kreider, Dave+Tippett, Derek+Stepan, Don+Maloney, Dylan+McIlrath, Evgeny+Grachev, Glen+Sather, John+Tortorella, New+York+Rangers, Phoenix+Coyotes,

Looking for Fans Reactions To a Few Questions I have

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/23/10 at 08:00 AM ET
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Good morning folks. The dog days of summer really are here and as such, I want to help keep hockey on your minds.

As such, I would like to get your thoughts on the following questions:

- Will Kovalchuk still end up being a New Jersey Devil? Why or why not?

- Was the NHL right to reject the Kovalchuk contract? Why or why not?

- Does this whole Kovalchuk saga prove that the league could be headed for a lockout in the next few seasons? Why or why not?

- How will the Chicago Blackhawks be next season after losing several key players due to salary cap problems? Why?

- Where will UFA goaltender Marty Turco end up signing? Why? How about UFA netminder Jose Theodore?

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 Tags: Chicago+Blackhawks, Illya+Kovalchuk, Jose+Theodore, Marty+Turco, Michael+Leighton, New+Jersey+Devils, NHL, Philadelphia+Flyers, Steve+Yzerman, Tampa+Bay+Lightning,

Sather Needs to Stay True to His Word

by Patrick Hoffman on 07/22/10 at 08:57 PM ET
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Earlier today, our fearless leader posted a quote from New York Rangers’ General Manager Glen Sather that basically said that he wants the organization to develop its own players and insert them into the lineup on a regular basis.

Well, this is something that Sather has been saying for awhile as well as something that Blueshirt fans have been clamoring for for years. However, the team has yet to really implement this kind of system and this is why Ranger fans will continue to doubt Sather when it comes to the club’s young players.

Yes, it’s been incredibly refreshing on how open Sather has been this off-season as he’s talked about the team’s wants and needs, its prospects, the draft, etc. Again though, it would appear that Sather is banging the same drum and producing the same tune, which could lead to unhappy fans.

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 Tags: Glen+Sather, New+York+Rangers,

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