Kristo Re-signed by the Rangers

According to Pro Hockey Talk, the New York Rangers have re-signed Danny Kristo. Also, it looks like Kristo could get a chance at some playing time with the New York Rangers this season.

NHL.com --The 24-year-old native of Eden Prairie, Minn., completed his first full pro season in 2013-14 after four seasons at the University of North Dakota that saw him total 68 goals and 161 points in 157 games. Kristo (6-foot, 195) has shown some skill and is progressing nicely since his trade from the Canadiens, who drafted him in the second round (No. 56) in 2008.

"We liked him in college," Clark said. "It wasn't working out for him in Montreal and he turned out to be our No. 1 right wing in Hartford in his first full season. He's got speed, skill and knack of the puck somehow following him around. We're hoping to improve our pool of prospects at the center position where we weren't very deep as an organization in Hartford. We hope Danny can help us in that area."

Brady Skjei will return for Junior season

From @NYRangers prospect camp, @BradySkjei has confirmed his return to the #Gophers. Story: http://t.co/1yWldNMZcc pic.twitter.com/SgFXyLC1pS
— Minnesota M Hockey (@GopherHockey) July 3, 2014

Now that the development camps are in full swing, the Minnesota Gophers got some good news. Defenseman Brady Skjei will return for his junior season.

By Brian Deutsch (GopherSports.com) - Gopher Hockey defenseman Brady Skjei has confirmed he will return to the University of Minnesota for his junior season in 2014-15.

The Lakeville, Minn., native is currently participating at the New York Rangers Prospect Development Camp at Madison Square Garden Training Center and informed the National Hockey League (NHL) organization of his decision on Thursday.

Henrik Lundqvist: Rangers Consistent Star when Struggling to Score

Well the New York Rangers will have their work cut out for them if they are able to surpass the offensive talented Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round, especially after the grinding seven game series against the Flyers. However, the Rangers do have one trump card in their hands, and that is goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

With the New York Ranger power play being terrible in these playoffs, not getting many scoring chances and giving up shorthanded rushes, Lundqvist has always been there to save the day. Hank is posting a 2.07 goals against average and a .926 save percentage, which are outstanding numbers in any league, but has a playoff record of 5-4 because the lack of offensive support for the annual Vezina Trophy worthy goaltender. 

So far in the series against Pittsburgh, two games, "King" Henrik has made 36 and 34 saves respectively only allowing two goals in each of those contests. The Rangers need to start to find ways to put pucks in the net to support their goalie, who is giving the Rangers chances to finish games in the win column every single night. 

As addressed briefly earlier, the Rangers are struggling putting pucks in the net, especially from their power play and big gun Rick Nash. Their power play has hit just three times out of 37 attempts, or at a 8.1% success rate. You can't get very far in the playoffs if you aren't scoring with the extra man.

Now for the struggles of superstar power forward Rick Nash not being able to find the net. Going into tonight, Nash lead the NHL during the playoffs in shots on goal with 37, but has yet to find the twine. One can only think that he will break through soon and open the floodgates, but will it be too little too late against the offensive powerhouse Penguins? Maybe, but if Sidney Crosby ends his goal scoring troubles before Nash, and the rest of the Rangers are able to find the net more, this series doesn't go more than five games unless Hank is able to steal the Rangers some victories. 

Jonathan Quick scores on himself

I thought this was funny, one of my buddies put it on my Facebook page. It's a third-period shorthanded goal from former Wisconsin Badger Ryan McDonagh. That was McDonagh's first goal of the year. The New York Rangers ended up winning the game 3-1.

Former UND Hockey Players sent Down

Former UND Hockey Players Corban Knight and Danny Kristo have both been sent down to the AHL from their parent clubs.

The #Flames have reduced their training camp roster by four players --> http://t.co/JZ9gYdTzyx
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 26, 2013

RT @NYRangers: #NYR assigns following players 2 @WolfPackAHL F: Haley, Kantor, Yogan, Kristo D: Hughes, Johnson, McIlrath, Syvret G: Talbot
— Jim Cerny (@JimCerny) September 25, 2013

Here's my story as #NYR send 9 back to @WolfPackAHL including @dkristo7 & @dylan_mcilrath http://t.co/XqTpPveeDH
— Jim Cerny (@JimCerny) September 25, 2013

Former UND forward Danny Kristo traded to the to New York Rangers

Canadiens acquire right winger Christian Thomas from the New York Rangers in return for Danny Kristo.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) July 2, 2013

Former UND forward Danny Kristo has been traded to the New York Rangers for forward winger Christian Thomas.

Haven't seen Christian Thomas play, but Danny Kristo has skills. Could turn out to be a really good move for #NYR.
— Matt Pryor (@BigTex1926) July 2, 2013

Canadiens trade Danny Kristo to Rangers for Christian Thomas. He's a 2nd round pick in 2010. Played 1 game with Rangers. #RDS
— Renaud Lavoie (@RenLavoieRDS) July 2, 2013

New #NYR prospect Danny Kristo, 23, is a 5-11, 185-pound right wing who was the 56th pick in 2008. He's from Minnesota.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossRecord) July 2, 2013

RT @dkristo7: Just wanted to thank the Canadiens organization for their support over past couple years. Excited to be a New York Ranger.
— All Habs (Canadiens) (@All_Habs) July 2, 2013

(Video) Shawn Thornton and Derek Dorsett Fight

New York Rangers forward Derek Dorsett has been begging for beat down all series long and after screwing with Boston Bruins forward Daniel Paille at center ice, Boston Bruins tough guy Shawn Thornton was more than willing to oblige the Rangers pugilist. Developing story.

John Tortorella explains his decision to sit Brad Richards

Classic John Tortorella, the guy is a gem. Earlier in the game, Torts was caught on audio cussing out a lines man and dropping the F-bomb. In the course of one night, Torts cussed out the on-ice officials and told the writers to kiss his ass and won a hockey, so he keeps his job for at least another day... It pretty much sounds like he's going to get fired if the Rangers don't make it out of the second round, if you believe the scuttlebutt that you read on the internet. Someone over on the Hockey Writers suggested that Tors coach the Maine Black Bears. Now I would love to see that.

More Torts: "I need to make decisions about what I feel is right for our team to win tonight's game, & that's why I made that decision"
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 24, 2013

Torts: "By no means is this a situation where I take him out and I'm blaming him...Brad Richards is a helluva hockey player"
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 24, 2013

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Former Eagle Kreider saves Rangers bacon and forces game five against Bruins....

It was the night of the former college hockey players and former B.C. Eagle Chris Kreider kept the New York Rangers slim playoff hopes alive as his game winning goal in overtime beat the Boston Bruins 4-3. In tonight's game.

Kreider the 5th college alum to score in tonight's NYR-BOS game, the 8th to score an OT goal in these playoffs.
— College Hockey, Inc. (@collegehockey) May 24, 2013

Derek Stepan scores goal off of Zdeno Chara miscue

Boston Bruins all-world defenseman Zdeno Chara was lazy with the puck this time and it cost the Boston Bruins a goal. Rangers forward Derek Stephan was Johnny on the spot as he put the puck in the net before the Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask could get set on his post. Chara's untimely slipup/turnover caused the game to be tied again at 2-2.

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Hilarious tweet from a Rangers fan at Tort's expense

Torts and his potential final goodbye w/ cameo from the $6M scratched man (@pezdoy @justindoy) twitter.com/MikeDarnay/sta…
— Mike Darnay (@MikeDarnay) May 24, 2013

This is a funny picture that was on twitter. It would be funny if Torts did this during his post game press conference.

(Video) Taylor Pyatt boards Johnny Boychuck

New York Rangers forward Taylor Pyatt was giving a two minute minor for boarding for this hit on Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuck. This hit ramped the game up for both teams. It's interesting to see how some classify the hit.

Pyatt hip checks Boychuk's head into the boards at 2:22 of the scoreless second period. Boychuk down on ice for a while.
— Andrew Gross (@AGrossRecord) May 17, 2013

Eastern Conference Semifinals: BOSTON VS. NEW YORK SCHEDULE

GAME 1: AT BOS THU MAY 16, 6:30 PM CT,  NBCSN

GAME 2: AT BOS SUN MAY 19, 200 PM CT, NBC

GAME 3: AT NYR TUE MAY 21, 6:30 PM CT, NBCSN

GAME 4: AT NYR THU MAY 23, 6:00 PM CT, CNBC

GAME 5: AT BOS SAT MAY 25, TBD ›

GAME 6: AT NYR MON MAY 27, TBD ›

GAME 7: AT BOS WED MAY 29, TBD 

A beautiful goal by Zherdev

It's nice to see someone playing some actual hockey and this is a taste of what we're missing. Check out former New York Ranger Nikolay Zherdev as he scored this beautiful highlight reel goal against Spartak in KHL action on Tuesday night. Zherdev plays for Atlant of the KHL and his team beat Spartack 5-2.

Summer Dreaming...

If you’ve read Goon’s World for any length of time (thanks for reading by the way), you will see that this is for the most part, a 24/7 365 days a year blog dedicated for hockey… When I am not watching hockey, I am actually thinking or dreaming about hockey (NCAA and NHL Hockey). Let’s just say,  hockey is my religion of choice for me.

While listening to a podcast of the Pipeline show last week while riding my bike, Fighting Sioux junior defenseman Dillon Simpson said something that got me thinking – it’s going to be hockey season very soon. While I am not very good at math – we’re roughly about 2 months away from the start of the college hockey season. "If" the NHL gets their stuff together with the CBA, we are about 9 weeks away from the drop of the puck in the NHL.

The summer is beginning to wind down and incidentally the fall semester at UND starts on 22 August – so like I mentioned above -– we're getting down to crunch time – hockey season is just around the corner... The college hockey season begins the 6th and 12th of October with exhibition games against the Manitoba Bison and the USNDT under 18 team.

In the final season of the WCHA as we know it – the University of North Dakota Hockey team will begin its defense of the Broadmoor Trophy – in case you were counting – UND is going for the 4-peat … That would be unprecedented if UND won the trophy for season in a row.

Yesterday was a big day for the University of North Dakota sports – Per Jayson Hajdu UND has officially gone Division I in all of their sports.

The University of North Dakota is proud to announce that it has been elected to full Division I active membership status from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), officially completing UND's transition from Division II status. UND President Dr. Robert Kelley received a letter from the NCAA today confirming the University's active membership in Division I athletics

If you’ve been paying attention this summer, you will have noticed that the NCAA has been very busy – yesterday, the NCAA levied a very heavy punishment against BGSU defenseman freshman defenseman Ralfs Freibergs, basically Freibergs is going to get to play 3 regular season games and possibly about 2-6 playoff games if BGSU doesn’t decided to have him file for a redshirt.

Kevin Gordon Sentinel Tribune --- Bowling Green freshman defenseman Ralfs Freibergs has been suspended for 33 games by the NCAA, the result of his junior hockey team in Latvia playing in a professional league, Falcon hockey coach Chris Bergeron said.

The Latvian born Freibergs has played junior hockey in the United States the last 2 1/2 seasons, but played in his home country before that.

He played with the Latvian national team in the World Junior Championships in 2009 and 2010 . To prepare the team for the WJC, Latvian officials had the team play in a Latvian professional league.

The NCAA penalized Freibergs one game for each game he played in the league. "Ultimately, anything professional, when it comes to the NCAA, is something that will have penalties with it," Bergeron said. "We knew, as a program, as a staff, this was a possibility. It's not something out of left field."

BG has 36 regular-season games this season, so Freibergs will be eligible to play the Saturday game of its next-to-last series of the regular season.

This is what former Princeton Tiger and current LA Kings’ Kevin Westgarth had to say about the prospects of the NHL having another lockout. I agree with Westgarth; I think we are going to see a lockout – actually – I would be very surprised if it didn’t happen. In my opinion, I think that the owners are trying to weaken the NHLPA.

Pat Leonard, Blue Shirts Blog --- Finally, the LA Kings’ Kevin Westgarth said it best on Wednesday when asked what he believes is the players’ No. 1 issue, considering the feedback he’s received from his peers:

"Generally, like the fans, we are concerned about – I think everyone has a little post-traumatic stress from last time,” Westgarth said, referring to the lockout and missed season of 2004-05, when the union lost the battle and eventually agreed to the salary cap in place today.

“It is something (where) they locked us out last time. It’s foreseeable for them to lock us out again. So guys obviously want to play, but obviously we need to get the right deals together, as well.” Read that one more time: “It’s foreseeable for them to lock us out again.”

Boston Bruins heir apparent Tuukka Rask is ready to take over the reigns as the starting goalie in Beantown this fall. According to Capgeek, the RFA Rask has a new one year deal worth $3,500,000.

Tuukka Rask was caught off guard - just a little - when he heard fellow Bruins goalie Tim Thomas decided not to play next season.

Surprised? Yes.

Shocked? Not so much.

''I wasn't expecting him to do that, obviously,'' Boston's new starting goalie said Thursday at a charity event. ''But I really appreciated what he's done and I appreciate his decision to want to be with the family and take some time off hockey.

''It really didn't shock me that much, but I'm more sad to see him leave because we had a really good connection and friendship going on. But I'm sure he's happy now where he is, and gets to spend time with his family.''

Here is some interesting news – former Edmonton Oiler, Vancouver Canucks and New York Ranger forward Mark Messier has been awarded a $6-million in a settlement with the Vancouver Canucks. [Vancouver Sun] Mark Messier played with the Vancover Canucks from 1997-2000 and returned to play for the Rangers from 2000-04.

Former Fighting Sioux forward Chris Vandevelde was on an Edmonton Oilers podcast recently and this is what he had to say about his recent success in the AHL playoffs. Also, the Edmonton Journal also has this story on Vandy as well. There is a chance that Vandevelde could make the Edmonton Oilers roster out of training camp.

Jonathan Willis, Edmonton Journal --- In 68 regular season games in the AHL, Chris VandeVelde scored just seven goals. In 14 post-season games, however, he tallied six times. What happened?

I’ve spent a lot of time looking at VandeVelde’s last couple of seasons over the last two weeks. Between evaluating the Oilers’ prospects for our prospect series here at the Cult of Hockey and the Top-25 Under-25 at the Copper and Blue, his name would have come up anyway, but combine those two series with the fact that VandeVelde turned down his qualifying offer, subsequently signed an identical deal, and now is in the conversation as a possible Oilers roster option in 2012-13 and he’s been top of mind.

VandeVelde was on Oilers Now a few days ago, and host Bob Stauffer asked him about that bump in goal-scoring during the post-season. VandeVelde had some difficulty answering the question but even so I found what he said interesting:

"I mean I just… I, you know, I was shooting more and I had confidence and that’s a huge thing. Any player with confidence is obviously better, and just making good plays, playing with good line-mates, that’s just how it went and we had a good run there."

Here is a break down for UND's conference Affiliations. UND’s 2012-13 Conference Affiliations – this is an exciting time in UND sports as now all of UND’s sports have a conference to play in.

America Sky Conference: Men’s golf

Big Sky Conference (BSC): Men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, football, women’s golf, soccer, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, volleyball

Great West Conference (GWC): Baseball

Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF): Men’s swimming and diving

Western Athletic Conference (WAC): Women’s swimming and diving (affiliate member)

Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA): Men’s and women’s hockey (2012-13 final season)

Mike Rupp and the New York Rangers come unglued

Mark it down as being a rough and tumble hockey game between two teams that really don't like each other at all. In the end the Rangers kind of lost it and acted like a bunch of spoiled babies at the end of the game.

For his efforts, New York Rangers forward Mike Rupp was given a 10 minutes misconduct and a double minor (4 minutes) for roughing. I don't know, If I was Rupp, I might think twice of trying to rattle Marty Brodeur's cage, your just looking for some extra lumber to the back of the legs. It's obvious that the Rangers are sending a message but the fact remains that the Devils really didn't take the bait from the Rangers.

Personally, I think that the Mike Rupp hit behind the net on Devils Defenseman Peter Harold was questionable even a border line and unnecessary check, Rupp left his feet and led with his hands as well, lucky for Peter Harold that Rupp didn't catch all of him.

It should be an exciting game in Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night as the series is now tied again. During game the Devils play disciplined hockey for the most part.

Here are the penalty minutes from the boxscore 
06:18 NYR Mike Rupp : Misconduct (10 min) - 0 min
06:18 NYR Mike Rupp served by Michael Del Zotto :  Roughing - 2 min
06:18 NYR Stu Bickel : Roughing - 2 min
06:18 NJD Ryan Carter : Roughing - 2 min 06:18
NYR Mike Rupp served by Michael Del Zotto : Roughing - 2 min
06:18 NYR Stu Bickel : Misconduct (10 min) - 0 min
 06:18 NJD Ryan Carter : Misconduct (10 min) - 0 min

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A couple of nice goals - Kreider and Zajac

Here are a couple of great goals to prepare us for game seven between the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals. This is the first career NHL goal of former Boston College Eagles Chris Kreider, who is now a member of the New York Rangers. The box score read - Chris Kreider (1) Wrist - ASST: Derek. Stepan (2) AND Mark. Staal (1)... Nice to see two former Division I college hockey players leaving their mark on the score sheet.



While I am not a fan of the New Jersey Devils, however as a Fighting Sioux hockey fan this line in the box score makes me happy - Travis Zajac score his third goal of the NHL -playoffs with an assist from Kovalchuk and former Fighting Sioux star forward Zach Parise. Congrats to the former Sioux hockey players that helped the New Jersey Devils extend the Devils season.

Chris Neil will not meet the Shanahammer

I think this is the right decision, it looked like a good hit, Boyle had just released the puck and Neil kept his elbows down and didn't leave his feet to lung at the Rangers forward. In my opinion, the Chris Neil hit on Brian Boyle was a good legal red light hit. The New York Rangers coach John Tortorella was not happy with the hit last night and compared Neil’s hit on Boyle to the Raffi Torres hit on Marian Hossa.

Katie Strang, ESPN --- Well they have the blueprint," Tortorella said in his postgame news conference. "It's the exact same hit as Torres' -- a different part of the ice -- but he launches himself, head shot, (the) puck's at the goal line, and he's hit. So, the blueprint's there.

I'm sure he's a repeat offender, too. Not much research to be done there."Neil is not a repeat offender, however, a critical distinction between Neil and Torres. But Boyle suffered what could potentially be a very serious injury, a fact that will be taken into consideration when the league review the play. 

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Rangers and Devils start the game off with a brawl

I guess the New York Rangers didn't want to let the Boston Bruins beat them in Fighting Majors tonight, so the Rangers decided to have three to start the game off.

This was the opening face-off for tonight's game between the New York Rangers and the New Jersey Devils. That is a crazy way to start to a game, I haven't seen something like that for a very long time. Three fights by six different players fighting on the ice at one time. Former Golden Gopher's and current Rangers defenseman Stu Bickel broke the hockey code when he continued to hit Minnesota State University Mankato Mavericks forward Ryan Carter as he laid on the ice. Bryce Salvador got a 10 minute misconduct for trying to get Bickel off of Carter.

00:03	NJD	Cam Janssen : Fighting (maj)  - 5  min
00:03	NYR	Mike Rupp : Fighting (maj)  - 5  min
00:03	NJD	Eric Boulton : Fighting (maj)  - 5  min
00:03	NJD	Bryce Salvador : Misconduct (10 min)  - 0  min
00:03	NYR	Stu Bickel : Fighting (maj)  - 5  min
00:03	NJD	Ryan Carter : Fighting (maj)  - 5  min

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Worst fight of the year... Subban vs. Wheeler

Far be it from me, to stick up for Blake Wheeler because I think he is a big bodied player that plays like he is 5'9" but P.K. Subban was trying to elbow Wheeler in the head. I am surprised that the Canadian's fraud Subban didn't turtle from this fight as well. I guess he saw Wheeler as not being much of a threat.

Now compare and contrast, former Gopher and current New York Rangers defenseman Stu Bickel is making quite a name for himself with the Rangers.

Apparently, the other night the former Gopher defenseman got in two fights in a game against Philadelphia Flyers. One of his fellow combatants Flyers cement head Tom Sestito got into three fights. I got to give Bickel credit, and he is a much better fighter than former fellow Gopher team Blake Wheeler. Unlike some of the fighters around the league and Bickel respects the hockey code and doesn't hit an opponent once he hits the ice. I have to respect that.


 Here is the other fight. -  Bickel vs. Wayne Simmonds

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