So in New York, the Rangers work on their power play at every practice, and in Vancouver, the Canucks have Kevin Bieksa in front of the net.
What? You thought there was a statute of limitations for filing observations regarding the NHL’s version of “Trading Places” behind the bench?
Seriously, the contrast between this season, when the Blueshirts work on their man-advantage approach as a matter of routine under head coach Alain Vigneault and associate coach Scott Arniel, could not be more stark when contrasted against the utter absence of such last year (and the year before that and the year before that …) under John Tortorella and assistant Mike Sullivan.
Think about it — and, we’re told — the players most certainly did: The one thing the Rangers did worse than anything else is the one thing they essentially never practiced.
Oh, every once in a while there would be a show of it, when the team would trudge back on after the ice had been cleaned for a second session devoted exclusively to power-play work, but that took place about as often as Tortorella and Marian Gaborik shared yuks, and proved as binding.
So is it a coincidence the Rangers entered this weekend with the seventh-best power play in the NHL at 20.9 percent (after finishing 23rd in the league each of the previous two seasons and 18th the year before that) and the Canucks checked in 24th at 14.7 percent?
Question for Glen Sather: If speed on the flank — personified by Chris Kreider, Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello — is emerging as one of the Rangers’ singular strengths, would the general manager dilute it in order to patch a size-and-strength weakness?
Kreider is as close to untouchable as anyone on the roster other than Rick Nash (no move), Ryan McDonagh and Henrik Lundqvist, and Zuccarello wouldn’t yield enough of a bounty in return, so as the trade deadline approaches, the query can more or less be distilled to this:
Would Sather deal Hagelin, 25 and with one more season on his contract at a $2.25 million cap hit leading into restricted free agency, for, say, Jets captain Andrew Ladd, 28 and with two more years on his deal at $4.4M cap hit leading into unrestricted free agency (and, it must be noted, a modified no-trade clause)?
If you were behind the bench of a team that was 0-7 going into its last shootout with one goal scored in 23 opportunities, as Pete DeBoer was in Denver on Thursday when the Devils and Avalanche went to the skills competition, wouldn’t you have been pretty tempted to use, oh, an entirely different approach?
Not the Devils coach, who watched Patrik Elias (0-for-5) and Adam Henrique (0-for-3) fail while Colorado beat Cory Schneider on each of its two tries.
This just in: Lou Lamoriello is attempting to sign Marek Malik as a free agent.
It just seems wrong, doesn’t it, but Olli Jokinen might be one of the more sought-after rentals at the deadline.
The Sabres’ Steve Ott would bring value to a Cup contender, but even if there’s no doubt about that, there is less doubt the acquiring team will inevitably yield too much to get him.
If teams tend to pursue players who have played well against them, then keep an eye on the Blueshirts and Stars forward Ryan Garbutt, the 28-year-old rental property at $575,000 who has driven the Rangers crazy in their two games this season.
Again, regarding Dan Girardi: In a world where the Rangers have two reasonable choices that are, A) signing the first-pair right defenseman to a contract extension, or B) dealing him as a rental property to a contender such as the Bruins or Ducks for a package of blue-chip youngsters; the only undeniably wrong answer is, C) keeping Girardi only to have him walk for nothing in return as an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Things tend to move slowly around the Blueshirts, but there is one inevitable truth as applies to signing impending free agents in the NHL: The price today only becomes more expensive tomorrow.
So, in so far as Olympic snubs go: 1. Martin St. Louis, Canada; 2. Brent Seabrook, Canada; 3. Jack Johnson, USA; 4. Bobby Ryan, USA; 5. Victor Hedman, Sweden. …
Your Washington Capitals have won 12 games in regulation this season. …
The Senators sure are a sensitive lot, aren’t they, if they could find cause to whine about P.K. Subban’s “excessive celebration” following his overtime winner on Thursday.
It’s not as if he went swimming in their pool or anything. …
Where do you suppose they’ve been doing more celebrating regarding Henrik Lundqvist’s rebirth; Rangerstown or Stockholm?
I read Martin Biron’s @MartyBiron43 Twitter post Thursday morning where he said, “Back at work after a month off” and my first thought was, just like when he was with the Rangers.