They played a so called hockey game at the Garden last night that should have been a thriller. It was the opposite. After all it was an original six game. Montreal is leading the North East. The Rangers were coming off a great win over the Caps. Montreal had won four straight. So it's natural that we get a barn burner. Right? Wrong.
Without Nash, two young guys got back in. Kreider and recently acquired Brandon Mashinter, a fighter. Mashinter got all of 5:55 of ice time. Meanwhile old friend Prust got 16:26 one assist, two shots, four hits and was a plus three. He was also quick with a quip when it was mentioned to him that coach disagreeable called him, "just another hockey player", Prust replied that "Tortorella is just another hockey coach." You think that maybe there was a reason Prust signed with Montreal.
So Nash was out and we don't know why. Mr. personality, aka as disagreeable, snapped to a reporter, "none of your business." I'm told the news conference was all of sixty seconds. I don't know. I don't watch the news conferences any more. Politics and sports, they are all B.S. But more important is the Nash situation. Remember last year we had the Gaborik situation where he was rapped in the press by the coach and all the while he was injured as we here suspected.
Does Nash have a concussion? He is banged up? Remember, Girardi was banged up and now he plays. Is he stilled banged up? We will never know. But we should know about Nash and all the other players. But we never will with an owner that is not to be found, a GM who is in hiding and a most disagreeable uncouth person who poses as a coach.
Canadiens call up D-man who had legal issue
44 minutes ago
"He's just another player in a canadiens sweater". Really John? How about he put up with your bull shit for 2 years, gave this team everything he had and because Torts is a bitter little wench he pops off with that horse shit. Grow up John. It's so, so old. No one likes playing for you, whether you claim to "bring the best out of players" or not. Richards came to NY because he knew a handful of players and they offered him a ridiculous contract. Not because of torts. St. Louis and Lecavelier always avoid questions about him. Wonder why? His cup winning team won in spite of him, not for him.
Prusty's response was priceless. "He's just another new york rangers coach". Yep, you hit it on the head. He is just another waste of time and money posing as a coach. The rangers are really good at finding those and keeping them way too long. And Prust was not just another montreal player. His line was the best all game on both sides, and his assist was just straight dirty. I found one of his comments very, very intriguing. When asked about some differences in montreal an NY, Prust immediately went to the fact that in Montreal he is free to play his game, get involved offensively and doesn't have to "constantly worry about fighting". Bang. There it is. He was playing scared in NY because of the system and was used as a work mule. Prust didn't like it and he split. All the power in the world to him and the habs have a hell of a team this year.
As for Nash, i'm pretty sure he has a concussion or shoulder/neck problems from the Lucic hit a week back. Mystery solved torts...This has been one pathetic season thus far
Last night was so painful to sit through. The Rangers have so much potential and they are not playing anywhere near their capabilities. Perhaps the players are growing tired of the condescending, rude, clueless person behind the bench. It is exhausting to have to phyche yourself out everyday trying to tune out his obnoxious bullshit while committing your body to his grueling system. And the garden reflects the energy on the ice because the garden was silent last night. Prusty returns after everything he put on the ice and the place is dead. Barely a pulse. Not too long ago a standing O or at least a loud cheer is given to the man who won the Steven McDonald. Not like it used to be. I think it's a combination of the blue blood fans being priced out of the building and the fans being so bored they cant keep their eyes open. No matter what though things r not the same. I was laughed at and made to feel foolish by a 'ranger fan' today for suggesting that the team or doctors of the team may be hiding a concussion. Because you know everyone is so honest. Ranger fans used to be known for calling like it is, seeing the truth over lies and letting our voices be heard. But now fans are mad if you disagree with the team or the way they run things. Fans on twitter decide your a traitor if you think against the big machine. Or a new one now is your a fair weather fan if you are upset you don't know what the injuries are, or your mad we lost because we show no life. Or we're so boring it's painful. Boring who cares they say as long as we win. You miss Avery or Prust? Get over it. They're not here anymore. These new fans root for the name on the front not the name on the back. Devils fan mentality to me.i don't know, this is not the ranger fan mentality I grew up on. We are loyal to a fault. We always stand by our players and we care when they leave, we follow them forever but still bleed blue.
Anyway, the pp once again can't come through, 6 on 4 and we can't muster a shot. We r 30th in the league and yet this so called coach gets away with zero production year after year. It's exhausting and it's boring. I'm sick of it. I know we have the talent to play exciting hockey but we are stuck with this moron dictator. I'm happy for Prusty to be able to breathe and get away from the way he was being forced to play. He played injured so many nights and he literally was dragging his body up and down the ice some nights.mand I'm talking in January. He could have rested his injuries but he didn't, he felt he had to play, the pressure from torts to play is immense and he did what he thought he had to do. I agree with you Andy Prust was tired of it and he decided to leave. He wanted to stay for for friends and NY but he did what he needed to do for himself.
Didn't get to comment after the Caps game Mike to which I was going to say that you need to be at every game! You and Charlise Lundqvist who watched her daddy play live for the first time. How sweet.
As for last night... ho hum. This up down roller coaster season is getting old fast isn't it? Last night should have been a great game. It had all the makings. Prust was back both teams were playing well and the Canadians were playing the second half of a back to back where they arrived at 2:30 am the night before. Somehow the Rangers got a weetheart of a schedule this year where they play few back to backs and tend to get teams on the second half of their back to backs but they sure as hell don't take advantage of it. We don't take advantage of anything. A fan favorite comes back there's no emotion from the team and no emotion in the building. Yup Even Keel right coach? He's on the bench huffing and puffing all night. He yells at the team during a TV time out and what was the result? One shot on goal and back to nothingness. Wow effective. I tweeted during the game:
"Coach has no right to bitch. U want even keel, U got it. This is about as even keeled as it gets. No highs. No lows. Just a flat line."
And the PP? How does he get away with calling himself a coach? Let's recap. In 2008-2009 we hired him so the season is half Renney half disagreeable. I assume that since everyone said we hired this jackass because of his "safe is death" motto (the only true thing he ever said - too bad he was lying at the time) that the Power Play was part of the reason Renney had to go. So here are the stats:
2008-09 Rangers finish 29th in the league 13.9%
OK bring in Torts. 2009-10- Rangers finish 13th at 18% - Not a great team and his first full season as head coach seemed like a reasonable excuse for an average PP and there was improvement after all. But Rangers need scoring and bring in Gaborik as the coach does his job changing the culture and teaching the boys "the right way." 2010-11 Rangers finish 18th 16.9% so we go out and get the player coach said we need for the PP but the PP does worse. Hmmm. Ok go get me Brad Richards.
2011-12 Rangers finish 23rd at 15.7% Now I need Nash that will make the PP work... Today we are 30th at 10.9%. The team gets better every year but the power play gets worse. hmmm. Who is the common denominator? Who is saying he needs a point man to QB the PP? He said that guy is Del Zotto. Could it be as simple as Del Zotto? Maybe so but as long as this guy and his mini me sidekick are running the show we will never know.
Andy, playing for Tortorella is like wearing a strait-jacket. I think there must be some unwritten rule that players don't speak ill of former coaches, for various reason. There is a code of silence surrounding Tortorella. I'd like to see Avery write a tell-all book about his career and experiences with Torts.
Jeanine, you hit the nail on the head for me when you wrote Tortorella hockey: "It's exhausting and it's boring." Completely agree. And you would think the team and MSG would be a little pumped up to play Prusty and the conference leading Habs. Not last night. Stunning and completely ridiculous.
Jen, the PP is our canary in the coalmine. It has died and the rest of the Rangers game is left gasping for air in this Tortorella gas chamber.
i hope that you people don't have access to barbituates. i have never seen such negativity in my life. Good thing you weren't following the LA Kings last year when they foundered through 3/4 of the regular season only to get hot at the right time and then roll right to the Stanley Cup. lighten up! The Rangers were two games from the finals last year with your favorite coach who by the way was praised highly by Prust who was joking when he called him just another coach. If you can't be objective about Tortorella then you don't deserve the playoff run that this team is going to go on later this year
Wrong website loser. Go back to your Sycophant others and don't ever question anyone on this websites' loyalty to the rangers. We simply speak the truth as we see it.
You deserve every ounce of bull shit john tortorella pours down you and your "real fans" throats
You must be a suit?
Andy & mikewelley- The reason I come here is to speak my mind. Funny how people love to just say shit like you have no loyalty and you don't deserve to see the team win based on the fact that you don't agree with the coach or the way the team is run. The truth of the matter is if you can see more than one way to accomplish winning hockey games than you really do know something about hockey. Its easy to drink the kool aid and just parrot everything the coach says and pretend you know what you are talking about.
mikewelley, I honestly don't mind if you have a different opinion than we do but don't come on here and judge us before you know anything about us. We have all been loyal to this team since birth and we stick with them through thick, thin and extremely thin. Why else would we put ourselves through this frustration? So you are welcome to disagree but you are not welcome to tell us what you think we "deserve" because quite frankly we have probably been fans long before you and we will be here long after you and our disagreeable coach are gone.
JB - Yes it is ridiculous. All the years I have been watching this team there have been many coaches. Some I've liked and some I haven't but I have never experienced this before where I just basically hate the guy and want him gone. There are a lot of long time fans who agree with us but bite their tongue. The reason it feels like it can't happen soon enough is because the team we have is a strong team that certainly has the potential to be a Cup winner. This team can achieve so much more than they do. I know it in my heart and I can see it in their talents. The missing piece is the coach. The last time I felt this way and wanted a coach gone for these same reasons was when we had Roger Neilson. He was a nice guy and a good coach who accomplished things like winning the President's trophy but much like Torts (not to the same extent) he held guys back. He wasn't able to get the best out of players and he was very critical of Mike Richter when he was just coming in and it hurt Mike's confidence. Messier stepped in and basically fired Roger himself. I remember being at the Garden after Roger was fired and fans were angry with Mess because they knew he had him fired and this was a guy who coached the Rangers to some success so many disagreed with the firing. They were calling him "coach" and all kinds of stupid things. When Mark exited the ice Jeanine and I yelled together so it would be loud enough to hear "Thank you Mark" he looked right at us and nodded. We used to see that team on and off the ice all the time so Mark knows who we are. He's the best. The best person I've ever met outside of my loved ones - but who am I kidding? Mark is a loved one to me! Anyway, back to the point, which is we were sure the final piece of the puzzle was the right coach in 1993 and then we won in 1994. In 2013 I am sure of the same thing and this is the first time I've felt it since then. My gut is good on this one. There's no doubt in my mind.
BTW anyone take in any of that Flyers Pens game last night? We hate those two teams but we may be thanking them one day. They break every "rule" of playing "smart hockey" but they are bringing the fun back to the game. They really go at it too. The emotion is high (broken rule unto itself nowadays), the hate is obvious, they fight, they skate and man do they score goals. You know why? They hate each other so much that they don't hold back. They go for it. And while you were watching did you see the Pens PP? Holy crap. You want to talk about some sustained pressure? That's crazy pressure. They move the puck so fast, they set up down low, and guys like James Neil are always ready for the one timer. They don't let the goalie set up and they make the defense move. They don't have guys hanging back at the blue line because they are thinking about the possibility of a short handed attempt if they make a mistake. Nope. All they are thinking about is scoring and scoring they have in nine straight games. Its really not rocket science. Its just hockey. So I enjoyed the hell out of that game, after all its the rule breakers who innovate, create and force change to happen, so a stick tap to them for showing the world that there still is and always will be offense in hockey.
Jen,
I didn't see the game, but a guy I know was talking about it today, and said that it was intense. Other than the Devils I don't know if the Rangers get worked up for anyone.
Jen-I watched that Pit/Phi game. Very entertaining. I normally don't watch those teams but it really was great hockey. Emotionally sparked hockey is usually the best hockey!
Hopefully the rangers have that style of play coming up this evening