Ranger re-sign slow footed Bickel to contract

Looks like the New York Rangers plan on holding on to the NHL fighting Major total this season again. The New York Rangers have re-signed former Gophers hack defenseman Stu Bickel to a modest contract.

NEW YORK (AP) --- The New York Rangers have added grit and experience to their lineup by reaching a deal with forward Arron Asham on the first day of NHL free agency.

A 13-season NHL veteran, Asham spent the past two years with Pittsburgh. He had five goals and 11 assists in 64 games last season. Overall, he has 92 goals and 206 points in 756 career games split between five teams.

Asham broke into the NHL in 1998 with Montreal, and has also played for the Islanders, New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Earlier on Sunday, the Rangers agreed to re-sign defenseman Stu Bickel, who had nine assists in 51 games in his first NHL season last year. New York had acquired Bickel in a trade with Anaheim in November 2010.

It’s no mystery why Bickel is playing with the New York Rangers - the slow foot defensman Bickel played minuscule minutes during the Rangers playoff push and was seen as a defensive liability at crucial times.

One of Bickel’s redeeming strengths is that he is willing drop the gloves and be a punching bag is probably the main reason Bickel was inserted into the Rangers line up this past season. Bickel was third on the Rangers in fights and dropped the gloves 12 times during 51 games for the New Yorks Rangers. Brandon Prust lead the Rangers with 20 fights but signed a contract with the Montreal Canadians.

Link around on Thursday

CBS Boston

This weekend the free agent signing period will kick off on Sunday July first. There are some big name former WCHA players out there on the market looking to sign new deals. With all of the negative news stories making up today’s news cycle I thought I would focus on the positive, NHL Hockey.

SCSU forward Drew LeBlanc has been invited and will attend the Minnesota Wild’s Development Camp. [St Cloud Times]

Apparently, former Fighting Sioux forward Jonathan Toews is trying to get Phoenix Coyotes forward Shane Doan to sign with the Blackhawks. [Rant Sports]

According to Darren Dreger of TSN – Penguins star forward Sidney Crosby Penguins will sign a new long-term contract extension worth than $9 million and a total value over $100 million. [ESPN.COM]

According to NESN, the Boston Bruins are close to re-signing Tuuka Rask. [NESN.COM]

While I am not a fan of Montreal Canadians defenseman P.K. Subban or his bush league antics – I am quickly becoming a big fan of his little brother Malcolm Subban, who was drafted in the first round by the Boston Bruins. Get those recorders rolling – Bruins first-round pick Malcolm Subban is already on record as saying that he hates the Montreal Canadians. [CBS Boston]

According to Michael Russo - the oft injured power forward - Guillaume Latendresse's playing days with the Minnesota Wild are now over - Latendresse will test the free agency market starting on July first.

From the Same article Russo says that, "The Wild's contract offer to Parise on Sunday will be, let's just say, absolutely colossal." As a Wild fan this makes me happy.

According to the AP - A judge has upheld the Glendale City Council's vote on an arena lease agreement with a prospective owner of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Former Fighting Sioux defenseman Brian Lee has been resigned by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lee’s contract is a two year deal, and also a one-way contract.

Former Fighting Sioux All-American Forward Zach Parise is listed as one of the top dozen free agents [NHL.COM]

Also, from that same article linked above – former WCHA alumni Ryan Suter (UW), Nashville, Jason Garrison (UMD), Florida, Justin Schultz (UW), Anaheim and Matt Carle (DU), Philadelphia – are also included in that dozen. Impressive fact is that five out of the top 12 available free agents that also have ties to the WCHA. That speaks volumes on what kind of league the WCHA is. [NHL.COM]

Justin Schultz has given his list of teams that he will sign with, they are as follows the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Ottawa Senators and Edmonton Oilers. [TSN.CA]

Former Boston College Eagle goalie Cory Schneider doesn't seem all that worried about not having a new contract as of yet. [TSN.CA]

Here is the latest from the CBA front - Donald Fehr, ‘says season could start on time even without agreement.’

Then there were two - Devils and Kings

There will be at least one former Fighting Sioux hockey players name on the Stanley Cup this season.

From the Eastern Conference Champion - Zach Parise and Travis Zajac's Devils will play the Western Conference Champion and Matt Greene's Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Finals starting on  Wednesday Night.

Fighting Sioux own the night in Devils win

NBCSN ice level announcer/personality Pierre McGuire couldn't seem to say it enough as he kept mentioning the two outstanding players from Grand Forks, ND. While Zach Parise (2002-04) and Travis Zajac (2004-06) are former Fighting Sioux Hockey players - they never played hockey together during their time at UND. Parise left UND in 2004 after playing two season for the Fighting Sioux. Shortly there after, Zajac arrived at UND in the fall of 2004 and played two season for the Fighting Sioux as well before joining Parise in New Jersey.

That historical fact doesn't seem to matter as both players seem to have a good chemistry on the ice together as the two former Fighting Sioux forwards frustrated the New York Rangers and led the way for the New Jersey Devils beating them 4-1, Parise was named the game first star and (2g-1a—3pts). 

The empty net goal by Parise at end of the game was a thing of beauty as well as the puck appeared to have a bit of English on it and curved into the net to ice the New York Rangers.

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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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Henrik Lundquist stuffs Ilya Kovalchuk

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist has been nothing short of amazing during the Stanley Cup Playoffs and this was no different this past Saturday against the New Jersey Devils.

Check out this amazing save by the All-World goalie Henrik Lundqvist as he stopped a Ilya Kovalchuk breakaway attempt with the game score still tied at 0-0. It's saves like this on on Kovy that helps make Lundquist's case for why he deserves the Hart Trophy.

I also think that Henrik Lunquist could be in the running along with Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

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Brandon Prust suspended for Game 4

The New York Rangers forward Bandon Prust was suspended for his elbow on New Jersey Devils forward Anton Volchenkov at the 2:31 mark of the second period of yesterday's game.

I predicted that this play would warrant a suspension from the National Hockey League Department of Player Safety yesterday. The NHL has set a precedence if you hit someone where the head is the principle point of contact you will be suspended, it no longer matters if you're a repeat offender or not. In this case, Prust is not a repeat offender - yet he will become the 13th player to be suspended by the NHL during this season's Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Rangers forward Brandon Prust has no one to blame but himself on this play and I just don't think you can really defend this hit. A player is responsible for his actions on the ice at all times and I think that going forward all of these hits need to be punished consistently.

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Tortorella Responds To “Headhunter” Charge From DeBoer

John Tortorella (Photo credit: Robert Kowal)

It looks like the smug one; New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella can actually say more than 36 words during a press conference, albeit this was a pregame press conference. This is what Torts had to say about the Prust hit as well as what he thought about the New Jersey Devils. There seems to be no love lost between these two teams.

Dave Lozo, NHL.com --- On Sunday, Rangers coach John Tortorella responded to that comment by defending Prust and accusing the Devils of embellishing calls and setting illegal picks during their power plays.

"He's probably one of the most honest players," Tortorella said, before launching into a a big chunk of gamesmanship. "I look at (Dainius Zubrus') elbow to (Anton) Stralman. I look at (Zach) Parise launching himself at (Michael) Del Zotto. Maybe if our players stay down on the ice, we'll get something. We tell our players don't stay down on the ice, get up.

"The picking on the power play. If we want to start discussing officials with the media, I've got a long list here. That's a set play by Jersey -- picking so we can't get to (Ilya) Kovalchuk to block his shot. There's some gamesmanship right there, huh?"

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Rangers' Prust to have hearing Sunday

Rangers forward Brandon Prust has a hearing today with the department of player safety for his hit to the head of Devils defenseman Anton Volchenkov. After the game, New Jersey Devils head coach Peter DeBoer was not happy with the hit. "Headhunting," DeBoer said. "Plain and simple."

NHL.COM --- New York Rangers forward Brandon Prust will have a hearing with the NHL's Department of Player Safety on Sunday morning after connecting with the head of Anton Volchenkov during a 3-0 win against the New Jersey Devils in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday.

Volchenkov was carrying the puck along the boards and chipped it out of the zone when Prust landed an elbow to the back of Volchenkov's helmet in the second period. Volchenkov was down on the ice for almost a minute afterward, but was able to continue playing. No penalty was called on the play.

 

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Torts game two press conference

I think the best job in the NHL would be transcribing New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella's brief post game press conferences - there are very few words spoken by the Rangers head coach - especially when the New York Rangers lose the game. I have to admit that I thought the short post game press conferences were funny at first but I would actually like to hear what he has to say. Why didn't Gabby play in the third period.

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Don't be that guy - Torts unloads on reporter for having cell phone on

The ongoing joke during the Stanley Cup Playoffs has been the Rangers head coach John Tortorella and how short his press conferences have been. As a person that been to a few post-game press conferences – sometimes the coaches just don’t want to talk to the media nor are they in any mood to answer questions from the media jackals.

Don’t be that guy – you also don’t want to be the person that has forgotten to turn off his cell phone. You might do it once but you probably won’t ever do it again.

Dave Stubbs, National Post --- “Typical New York,” veteran New York journalist Stan Fischler said Sunday with a laugh.

Next to this lunacy, Tortorella is just a cloudburst whose 15-second, syllable-short news conferences add to this season’s delicious drama on Broadway.

Torts’s act is well known in hockey, fittingly showbiz in the world’s headquarters of the theatre as his team prepares to face the New Jersey Devils Monday in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final.

The coach’s shtick probably is carefully crafted to take heat off his team, give the opponent as little information as possible and keep the media off balance. It quickly wears thin with many and is viewed as disrespectful not just of reporters, but of the many great communicative coaches who have gone before him.

Predictably, Torts’s players will tell you they respect their leader who will go to the wall for them. And his results —the Rangers now eight victories from a Stanley Cup championship — speak for themselves.

I have to give Torts credit, he is very entertaining and a lot of fun to watch in the post game press conferences that they show on NBCSN and a lot of what he says can’t be said on TV without being bleeped out, but It makes for good theater. I also think it might be a tactic and maybe his antics do take the heat off of his team when they lose.

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Leave the game alone – Part Deux

There seems to be a lot of discussion on what would open up the game of hockey. Some want to get rid of shot blocking; others want to limit the number of players that can line up in front of their goal. Some have suggested that the size of the goalie equipment is making goal scoring hard. Now Rangers head coach John Tortorella has chimed in, Torts would like to see the return of the “red line.” I think that is a horrible idea and would really slow down the game of hockey.

Mark Everson and Brett Cyrgalis --- “To me, I think they need to put the red line back in,” Tortorella said yesterday as his team prepares for Game 1 of its Eastern Conference final matchup against the Devils tonight at Madison Square Garden.

“Look at the puck possession teams,” Tortorella said, “they’re out.”

Coming out of the lockout in 2005, the NHL made it legal to make a two-line pass, meaning coming from out of one’s zone, behind the blue line, a pass could be made to a player beyond the center-ice line, the so-called red line. It was a pass that used to be illegal, immediately blowing the play dead.

The new rule was designed to open up the game, and if it did for a while, the way teams have adapted is by playing tighter in their own zone.

“Because it’s a game of ping-pong,” Tortorella said. “The game is a long pass, forecheck, defend. Another long pass, forecheck, defend.”

With a history of fines for criticizing the league, Tortorella then looked at the NHL representative in the room and added, “I better just leave it at that.”

I like the way the NHL is currently run, albeit the officiating would be a little more consistent during the playoffs but the NHL is comprised of the best players in the game of hockey and you’re not always going to have a 8-7 game, some games are going to be 2-1, 1-0, 0-0… I have no idea what bringing back the red line is going to do but slow the game down more and give us more unnecessary whistles and stoppages. Please leave the game of hockey alone.

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Kreider seeing little ice time during Rangers run

Larry Brooks has an interesting article on the Rangers and how they have utilized a few of their younger players that happen to have college hockey experience. I really thought the Ragners forward line of Kreider-Stepan-Callahan looked pretty good earlier in the series and for what ever reason the Rangers head coach has broke up that forward line after game two and the Rangers really haven’t generated a lot of offense since.

Larry Brooks, New York Post --- Since Tortorella made decision to limit the 21-year-old rookie to fourth-line cameo appearances in the wake of a pair of deficient plays in the defensive zone in Game 4 led to a pair of Capitals’ goals in Washington’s 3-2 victory, the Rangers have scored one pure five-on-five goal in 144:52 covering more than seven periods, and that by Anton Stralman in the first period of Game 5.

Not a forward has scored a pure even-strength goal since Tortorella benched Kreider while concurrently and mysteriously demoting playmaking pivot Derek Stepan from a top-six role to a checking line assignment between Ruslan Fedotenko and Brandon Prust while elevating checking center Brian Boyle to the spot between Ryan Callahan and Artem Anisimov.

The moves have failed. Where the Kreider-Stepan-Callahan line could generate speed off the rush through the neutral zone against the Caps, and did when previously united, the Rangers have been stagnant and station to station since the realignment, the reasons for which have been placed into Tortorella’s accordion folder of confidential material that has grown larger than the Penske File.

I have watched every game of the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals series and this series reminds me of the Bruins and Capitals series, much like the Bruins, the Rangers have failed to get a lot of offensive chances down low in the slot. The Capitals have effectively clogged up the front of the net and have made it difficult to get any chances on net. It not very exciting hockey but the Capitals are negating the Rangers offensive opportunities and you can see it frustrating the Rangers. It’s also been a very unattractive series to watch as well.

Apparently, Rangers head coach John Tortorella isn't even saying whether the former Boston College Eagles star Chris Kreider is going to play in Saturday’s game seven or not, don’t expect Torts to say a lot about the matter either during his press conferences.

Michalek kicks Girardi

This is the kick that everyone has been discussion on line today. If you watch the video you will see that Ottawa Senators forward Milan Michalek actually kicked NY Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi during the closing minute of the third period of game six. This Michalek kick happened during the scrum on the controversial Jason Spezza goal.

The Senators were unable to get the game tying goal and there is a good chanced that Henrik Lundquist is going to be fined by the NHL for bad mouthing the officials after Monday night's game.

"It's an absolute joke. Oh my God. It scares me," Lundqvist said in an emotional rant. "When it's such an obvious play, goalie interference and a kick, and they still call it a goal? It scares me that someone can call that. It's just unbelievable. It still upsets me, because we have this game, and then they get a chance. Someone wants them back in the game obviously, because there's no other explanation, I think." [Daily News]

The National Hockey League Department of Players Safety has decided not to discipline Michalek for his kick on Dan Girardi, but he was given a warning from the Shanahammer.