Alain Vigneault needed convincing to open the season with the Ryan McDonagh-Kevin Shattenkirk first pair on defense that seemed a natural to just about everyone other than the Blueshirts head coach. Shattenkirk was too much of an offensive guy who merited offensive-zone starts and Vigneault relied too much on McDonagh for defensive-zone starts to feel […]
Read MoreIt appears as if the 7-11 at the Garden is a thing of the past. And so too, Filip Chytil. Because the Rangers’ waiver claim of Adam Cracknell from Dallas indicates that he will go into the lineup on the fourth line against the Blues at the Garden on Tuesday after coach Alain Vigneault went […]
Read MoreThomas Greiss returned between the pipes Monday, his first shot at redemption since getting pulled after giving up five goals in an opening night loss to the Blue Jackets on Friday. Coach Doug Weight said he thought the goalie had “earned a lot more than that 30 minutes from us as a team and from […]
Read MoreRegarding the Rangers, whose logo could well be a question mark heading into Tuesday’s Game 4 of the season, at the Garden against the Blues: 1. It is a long way to the Feb. 26 trade deadline, 60 games through which the Blueshirts must navigate from here to there. But the inability of longshot 18-year-old […]
Read MoreFor 4 minutes and 38 straight seconds in the second period of Monday’s matinee at Barclays Center, the Islanders were on the power play. A minute and 23 seconds of that came with a 5-on-3 advantage. The golden opportunity came and went without anything to show for it. While the Islanders were able to fight […]
Read MoreThe Rangers’ experiment with Filip Chytil has taken a somewhat unexpected turn, as they sent the talented 18-year-old center to AHL Hartford on Tuesday before their Garden match against the Blues. Chytil, the No. 21-overall pick from this year’s draft, played the first two games with the Blueshirts after making the team out of camp. […]
Read MoreThe Rangers are keeping their options open. All of them. And if you want to know why the Blueshirts dispatched Filip Chytil to the AHL Wolf Pack instead of sending him back home to his native Czech Republic following a two-game trial run on Broadway, here is as good of an answer as any, provided […]
Read MoreJon Ledecky wanted to make something crystal clear, the hope being to quiet the questions surrounding his Islanders and their pending arena impasse. “We have a singular focus at playing at Belmont Park,” Ledecky said at a media luncheon Tuesday afternoon. He and co-owner Scott Malkin recently submitted a bid to New York State to […]
Read MoreJust about the most positive glimpse into the contract negotiations between the Islanders and star captain John Tavares came with a one-word answer from general manager Garth Snow. Asked on Tuesday how he felt about where he stood with Tavares’ camp, Snow said: “Excellent.” see also Islanders owner: Forget Nassau, were focused on Belmont Park […]
Read MoreNo apologies necessary if you intermittently nodded off during this one, but unfortunately for the Rangers, the points count just the same now as they will in the spring. So the only real question is the level of concern after a few early mistakes and some sleepy hockey led to a 3-1 loss to the […]
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