Of course the New York Rangers were supposedly looking into adding Ryan Smyth as a top-six forward (maybe…). The Rangers need scoring, especially given Brad Richards recent cooldown that some might call positively Drury-esque.

Smyth is more than just offense, though. His strong play in both ends would let him slide right into this current Rangers team.

Too bad Smyth is going to be 36 in a few weeks.

Although, to be fair, Smyth’s advanced age hasn’t hurt his production for a defense-oriented Oilers team. He has 16 goals in 52 games this season. And Smyth would just be a rental, as I don’t think he has any long-term desire to live on the east coast, nor do the Rangers have extended plans to retain a player drafted the same year as their last Stanley Cup win.

Any why wouldn’t Rangers GM Glen Sather want Smyth? He’s the perfect example of a Sather acquisition:

Sports Illustrated‘s Michael Farber had an interesting look at John Collins, the NHL’s chief operating officer.

Collins came from the NFL and is credited with making the NHL more event-driven, coming up with ideas like hyping the annual outdoor game, starting the season in Europe, and making the All-Star game a sort of real-life fantasy draft.

The article is largely complimentary, but Farber does take issue with aspects of Collins’ philosophy:

I too have some concerns about what Collins is doing to the league. More and more, mainstream media NHL news seems to be about either one-off special events, like the Winter Classic and the All-Star draft, or horrible violence associated with the game. But the regular season, for the most part, is completely ignored, left for the fans to discuss amongst themselves.

Part of that is because the NHL season is so long and grueling. It’s hard for fans to sustain a level of excitement for 82 games; I’m not sure it’s fair or realistic to expect the local media to maintain it.

The regular season is also often ignored because the post-season is considered to be hockey’s real season. After all, more than half of the league’s teams make it into the playoffs. That’s where the games really begin to count.

But the disappointing thing is that Collins comes from the NFL, where the regular season games are incredibly important (I’m assuming no one from Indianapolis is reading this…). Obviously, that’s because of the much shorter season, but not entirely (team parity is also probably a factor, and that’s something else the NHL is struggling to successfully accomplish). Just about every regular season NFL game is an event, enjoyed by fans of the teams playing, but also non-fans.

Read more

Larry Brooks had a nice little appreciation of Brad Richards yesterday.

Brooks also credited New York Rangers coach John Tortorella, who moved Richards off of Marian Gaborik’s line when it became obvious the two just weren’t clicking.

Tortorella deserves a lot of credit for his handling of Richards.

Given Richards salary, it would seem that he belongs on a top line. But given that Richards’ north-south North American style doesn’t seem like it will ever mesh with Gaborik’s more European east-west leanings, Tortorella doesn’t press the issue (at even strength, anyway).

Instead, Tortorella embraced Richards for the player he is. For all of his offensive talents, Richards is really just a solid two-way player who happens to have a great shot. To leave him as a top-line center would have negated some of his defensive strengths.

Tortorella figured that out back in October, when he first separated Richards from Gaborik, putting him on a more physical line between Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky. Richards told the New York Post he appreciated the move:

Read more

It was a little bit surprising when the St. Louis Blues fired coach Davis Payne earlier this month. The Blues were 6-7. Not great, but certainly not horrible.

It was even more surprisingly when GM Doug Armstrong hired Ken Hitchcock as the new coach, since the rumors had Hitchcock taking over in Columbus.

Armstrong obviously didn’t have much faith in Payne, but he also gave the St. Louis Post-Dispatch an interesting reason for the Hitchcock import:

In other words, Armstrong felt Davis wasn’t doing enough of a job kicking the tires of guys like TJ Oshie, Chris Stewart, Carlo Colaiacovo, Alex Pietrangelo, and Patrik Berglund, none of whom are under contract past 2013.
Read more

Kerry Fraser had a big piece on TSN about how Brendan Shanahan blew it by not suspending Milan Lucic for his hit on goalie Ryan Miller. Fraser says that without a Lucic suspension, it’s going to be open season on goalies:

Apparently NHL GMs agree to some extent and have vowed to remind their players to protect goaltenders outside of the crease.

The thing is, how common is the scenario that got Miller hurt? How often are goaltenders hurt coming out to play the puck? How often do goalies come out that far to play the puck? You hardly even see goalies playing the puck behind the net anymore.

The Lucic hit was bad and he probably should have let up sooner, but it’s not a recurring NHL problem.

If the NHL is serious about protecting goalies, it needs to look at what teams are doing to their own goaltenders.

How many times have you seen a defenseman shove an opponent into the defenseman’s own goaltender? There’s no statistic tracking this, but it sure happened last night when Islander Blake Comeau (a forward) shoved Ranger Michael Sauer into Islander goalie Evgeni Nabokov. Nabokov writhed around in pain for a minute or two but was able to finish the game.

But who’s protecting Nabokov? Where is the outcry? Is an injury somehow less damaging when it’s inflicted by a teammate?

Read more

Like a lot of NHL fans, I’m not sure why people are just now realizing that the Tampa Bay Lightning use a 1-3-1 system.

I’m also not sure why the 1-3-1 suddenly infuriated the Philadelphia Flyers Wednesday night.

But now, there’s talk about the NHL “doing something” about trapping teams.

Obviously, there are things that can be done.

Greg Wyshynski suggested a shot clock, which is an interesting idea.

But if the NHL really wants to kill trapping, they need to talk to their television partners.

Specifically, they need to talk to them about how they shoot NHL games.

Most NHL telecasts follow the puck through the three zones. Sometimes there are some shots from behind the goal up the ice, but for the most part, NHL games are shot like you’re watching above center ice. It makes sense, because viewers want to see the action. But in hockey, a lot of action occurs behind the play, too. And when you can see the whole play, it’s very easy to see what types of systems a team is running.

There’s never been a fan-driven outcry against systems because they’re tough to suss out on TV.

Even while Philadelphia was stalling, it was hard to tell exactly what was going on, because the camera was focused on the Philadelphia defensive zone. It’s only until Versus went to an overhead shot that fans could see the issue with Tampa’s 1-3-1:

[ http://www.youtube.com/embed/lWGbZPx_HPY#t=40 ]

Read more

Scott Arniel has got to go in Columbus.

Not because his coaching is the reason his team has been awful. Not because of this weekend’s embarrassing 9-2 loss to the Flyers.

But because the team has obviously checked out on him.

With just two wins and an overtime loss, the Blue Jackets have five points in the standings, putting them 10 points behind the eighth seed.

If Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson wants to give up, he can keep things as-is and prepare to start dealing talent toward February. Or maybe he can even start earlier, like when stores have a Black Friday sale before Black Friday.

But if Howson thinks he’s assembled a competitive NHL team, it’s time to get rid of Arniel and bring in someone else. But he needs to do it now, before the playoffs fall out of reach.

Yet again.

Last season, the Devils were mired in a similar slump with coach John MacLean, although the Blue Jackets would kill for a slump like that right now, and Devils GM Lou Lamoriello didn’t make a coaching switch until late December. But by then, the playoffs were out of reach. Even though the Devils put together a lights-out second half under coach Jacques Lemaire, who took over for MacLean, there just wasn’t enough time for the Devils to push their way into the playoff picture.

If the coaching switch had been made sooner, the Devils might have made the playoffs.

So while it’s not entirely fair to solely blame Arniel for his team’s lackluster start, ultimately he’s the coach and he is responsible for how his team plays.

Saturday night in Philadelphia, we saw a team that was apathetic. We saw a team that was undisciplined. We saw a team that was lazy.

Arniel just cannot come back from that.

Read more

More and more I wonder if Sean Avery has some kind of magical power.

The Rangers traded for him in February 2007, helping to put Avery on a more prominent stage than he had in LA as a King. Avery’s antics and agitating suddenly seemed more noteworthy.

Avery loved it in New York but couldn’t come to a contract agreement with the Rangers, so in the summer of 2008, Avery signed with the Dallas Stars. Avery had a four-year contract, but he wasn’t playing for the team he wanted to be.

In Dallas, he made his infamous “sloppy seconds” comment and the Stars decided to part ways with Avery, whatever it took, whether it meant stashing him in the AHL for the rest of his four years, or simply paying him not to play for Dallas.

But then, the Rangers decided they wanted Avery back and claimed him off of Dallas’ hands, with the Stars on the hook for half of Avery’s salary.

Not only was Avery back in the NHL, he was back playing for the team he wanted to play for.

Magical.

And then, just a few weeks ago, Avery was once again sent to the AHL, told that the Rangers had no place for him. Avery’s NHL career seemed over. Again. Why would the Rangers ever recall him? What would they need Avery for?

And yet, here we are. Avery is once again on his way back to the NHL. As a Ranger no less.

Read more

The Rangers are getting a bit nervous about their lack of secondary scoring.

The team has just 12 goals in its first six games of the season. A third of those goals have come from Marian Gaborik. Another third have come from a combination of grinder Brandon Prust and sophomore defenseman Ryan McDonagh.

That pattern probably won’t be sustainable over the course of an entire season.

Much has been made of the lack of offense from players like Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, and Brian Boyle. All three players saw career high scoring last season.

And that just might be the problem. What if last season was the aberration and the slow start this season is the more typical performance?

Look at Boyle. In his first 107 NHL games, he scored just 12 goals. In the next 82 games, aka, last season, he scored 21 goals. And now, in his first six games of this season, he has just one goal.

But looking at Boyle’s career, which seems more typical? Last season’s goal-scoring outburst or this season’s slow start?

For Dubinsky and Callahan, last season’s performance jumps weren’t as dramatic as Boyle’s. Dubinsky jumped from 20 goals in 2009-10, to 24 goals last season. Callahan jumped from a career high of 22 goals in 2008-09 to 23 goals in 60 games last season.

The problem is that the Rangers’ organization has been acting like both players’ scoring abilities were on the rise. The assumption has been that both will do the same or better this year. But what if the high point has already passed? What if none of those players continues to improve?

Read more

Devils’ coach Peter DeBoer got a little bit of a break in Martin Brodeur getting slightly injured so early in the season.

The Brodeur injury instantly grabbed the team’s attention, focusing them on winning without their franchise goalie, and took their minds off of last season’s horrible start.

DeBoer has been doing a lot of mental coaching to try and shake-up a franchise that, historically, has always seemed to create tightly-wound, neurotic players.

For one thing, DeBoer has been riding Kovalchuk while he’s looking good, giving him over 32 minutes of ice time against Nashville over the weekend. One reason is because Kovalchuk has been skating well. But also, Kovalchuk does well with a lot of ice time, a holdover from his time in Atlanta. If the Devils can’t give Kovalchuk complementary linemates to get him going, at least they can give him lots of ice time.

Historically, the Devils have never been a team to ride one player (although Jacques Lemaire certainly was inclined to go to Kovalchuk when he didn’t know what else to do), but DeBoer sees a chance to pile on the minutes for Kovalchuk, so he’s taking it.

The Devils are just four games into the season, so it’s hard to say how representative these first few games have been. But it’s interesting to see how DeBoer is taking advantage of Brodeur’s injury to change things up a bit. Players will complain about change, but when a team is compensating for an injured goalie, just about everyone understands that a team needs to do whatever it can to remain competitive.

DeBoer knows that and he’s using that as an opportunity to make some changes (like moving Petr Sykora off of the top line and down to the third) and to keep his team focused on surviving, rather than avoiding a bad start.

Read more