The Best Deals You Make Are Often the Deals You Don’t Make, Part 4,604: If Kevin Shattenkirk had taken the Devils’ money on a long-term contract this summer, there is little chance Will Butcher would have signed with the club as a Mike Van Ryn-Blake Wheeler-Jordan Schultz-Kevin Hayes-Jimmy Vesey-type free agent. Butcher is the 22-year-old […]
Read MoreThe puck bounded down the ice, hit the back of the empty net, and Henrik Lundqvist raised his arms and looked to the wheeled roof of the Garden in complete relief. It was a long time coming, and it surely wasn’t pretty, but the Rangers and their franchise goaltender finally found a way to win. […]
Read MoreSo you checked even-strength save percentages through Friday’s games and yup, just as suspected, there was Henrik Lundqvist ranked 15th among the 20 netminders who’d played at least 200 minutes with a .920 number. Too old, obviously. But then you check out the name bringing up the rear, and why, it is Carey Price at […]
Read MoreAnders Lee’s second goal provided the Islanders with some needed breathing room and a two-goal lead midway through the third period — and they needed every bit of it. Logan Couture netted a hat trick for the visiting Sharks and his third goal made things dicey with two minutes left, but the Islanders hung on […]
Read MoreThat’s it for Matt Puempel and the Rangers. The Blueshirts traded the 24-year-old winger to the Red Wings on Saturday in exchange for defenseman Ryan Sproul. Sproul, 24, is a 6-foot-4, 205-pound righty who has 28 games of NHL experience and 220 games in the AHL. The native of Mississauga, Ontario, was Detroit’s second-round pick […]
Read MoreJosh Bailey remained modest when describing his stunning goal in the second period of the Islanders’ 5-3 win over the Sharks on Saturday night at Barclays Center. “I felt like it was kind of my last option,” Bailey said. “Thankfully it worked.” It was a description not quite fit for the level of craft used […]
Read MoreRegarding the Rangers, working on a victorious muscle memory in advance of Monday’s match at the Garden against San Jose. 1. Since the inception of the salary cap in 2005-06, there has been one major pre-January trade in the NHL. That was the Islanders’ swap of Matt Moulson (and a first and second) to Buffalo […]
Read MoreTrading four consecutive first-round draft picks in an attempt to add the missing piece/s for Stanley Cup runs was always a risk/reward proposition. And let’s face it, the deals that sent away the Rangers’ top picks from 2013 through 2016 in exchange for Rick Nash, Marty St. Louis and Keith Yandle did not bring the […]
Read MoreIf the Rangers are going to make a call-up from AHL Hartford soon, it’s unlikely to be Filip Chytil. The 18-year-old Czech forward who made the Rangers out of camp but was demoted on Oct. 10 after sparsely playing in two NHL games suffered a minor injury blocking a shot for the Wolf Pack on […]
Read MoreOne has to wonder how many more times this can happen without substantial change coming. How many more times can the Rangers go down almost immediately into a game, then struggle to fight their way back and fall short? Now 10 games into the season and 2-6-2 after a disheartening 4-1 loss to the Sharks […]
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