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New York Rangers Win Again

February 19, 2012 by peteydeez Leave a Comment

Best Team in The NHL?

The New York Rangers continue to dominate the NHL.

With a win over the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets, the Rangers improve to 38-14-5.

That is first place in the Eastern Conference and best in the NHL.

Despite that, the Rangers continue to fly under the radar in New York, Linsanity definitely has something to do with that. However, the Knicks are just a .500 team at the moment with potential to be a contender.

The Rangers are in FIRST PLACE IN THE EASTERN CONFERENCE and have been DOMINATING ALL SEASON LONG.

TIME TO HOP ON THE BANDWAGON?

The addition of Brad Richards this past off-season has made a huge impact on the Rangers and Marian Gaborik has been playing great. Captain Ryan Callahan’s style of play with his physical/fast paced mentality has also taken shape in the Rangers play.

However, the Rangers MVP (and NHL MVP) thus far has been Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist is having an EXCELLENT year and has been a major part of the Rangers success. Also, the Rangers have made a commitment to blocking shots for Lundqvist.

Lundqvist is 28-11 with a Save Percentage of .941 (leads NHL) and 7 shutouts.

Lundqvist also is 2nd in NHL in GAA (Goals Against Average) with 1.77

PRETTY DOMINANT?

The Rangers are 5th in the NHL in killing off Penalties, this is very important and very good for the Rangers. Killing off penalties is an essential part of a championship team and the Rangers have that aspect down perfectly.

If there is one weakness I see in the Rangers, it is their power play production. The Rangers rank 27th in the NHL on power play efficiency (14.3%). That is something that MUST be improved if the Rangers want to bring Lord Stanley back to New York.

The Rangers are playing great Hockey and excitement builds in the city with every win. Casual fans are taking more notice every day and die-hard fans are going nuts.

I am a casual Ranger fan and I admit it, However, I just can not wait until the playoffs, that is when I really start paying attention (relax die-hard fans, it’s an 82 game season).

Personally, the Hockey playoffs in terms of excitement and quality of play come 2nd to football in my opinion. Playoff Hockey is awesome and attending Hockey games are great, if you have not been to a hockey game, you are missing out.

The MVP of The NHL

Filed under NHL, Sports Tagged with brad richards, henrik lundqvist, hockey, marian gaborik, new york rangers, NHL, rangers, ryan callahan, stanley cup

New York Rangers Start to an Epic Season

December 13, 2011 by nyrdubs 1 Comment

Even though it may only be a little more than a quarter through the NHL season, the New York Rangers have become both an offensive and defensive dominant force on the ice. They are not only in 4th place in the NHL, soon to be 1st as they are 3 games played behind the leader and only 4 points shy, but they have the highest winning percentage in the NHL.

The off season acquisition of Brad Richards proves to be the best deal the Rangers have made since Marian Gaborik. In addition to off season moves, naming Ryan Callahan Captain has given him the heart he needs to be on track for a 30 goal season.On that note, All three of the players listed above are on track to bank 30 to 40 goal seasons which has never happened in New York Rangers franchise history. As of 27 gamesplayed the three player’s stats stand as Richards- 11G 14A, Gaborik- 15G 10A, and Callahan- 12G 9A.

Another key piece to add to the equation is goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. He has made some of the most amazing saves this season and is known to be one of the top 3 (in my opinion the number 1) goaltenders in the league. Even in past years he has carried the team defensively to the playoffs on his part alone and is known to shutout superstar players. The main difference between past seasons and this season is now the New York Rangers are a defensive powerhouse and an offensive juggernaut which puts quite a bit of support in front of Lundqvist for the occasional garbage goals he every so often lets in the net.

Collectively the New York Rangers have a young and talented team that has been feeding off of victory with players like Derek Stepan, Dan Girardi, and Carl Hagelin who just continuously fuel the fire. The New York Rangers may very well be in the toughest division in the NHL with rivals such as the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins but I really believe that with this revamped team, history will be made and the New York Rangers have an overwhelming potential to become the 2012 Stanley Cup Champions.