There's an old saying in sports for teams suffering from many injuries that goes something like "you can't tell them without a scorecard". Well if that saying really holds true, scorecard an...
Now that each and every team in the National Hockey League has reached the official mid-point of the season---having played at least 41 games of their 82 game schedule---it is time to hand out t...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2011/01/halfway-home-awards.html
Last night's game between the Rangers and Canadiens at Madison Square Garden---particularly events surrounding the first two periods of play---provided quite the numerical oddity, one that reall...
After playing parts of nine seasons in New Jersey, Jamie Langenbrunner is heading back to the team that drafted him in the second round of the 1993 draft, and with whom he won the first of his t...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2011/01/stars-in-dallas-talk-langenbrunner.html
Here are some Monday morning quick hits from a reporter fresh off a New Years road trip to the Sunshine State: RANGERS NEED A HELPING HAND I almost couldn't believe my eyes yesterday afternoo...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2011/01/monday-musings-rangers-identity-risk.html
During the first half of the season the National Hockey League has offered up non-stop promotion for its reality series on HBO centered around Washington's Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh's Sidney ...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/in-reality-its-crosby-vs-stamkos.html
With much news in hockey land of late, here is a smorgasbord of the most important doings the past few days, and my quick take on each. DARYL SUTTER RESIGNS AS GM OF THE FLAMES This was not a...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/sutter-resigns-devilish-problems-and.html
Sitting here at Madison Square Garden after a 2.5 hour snow-shoveling marathon and an ensuing uneventful drive into Manhattan---well, other than having to back up the length of 26th Street betw...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/hockey-recollections-on-snowy-day.html
Word started to spread around 5:30 last night at Madison Square Garden that Ilya Bryzgalov was stricken with the flu and would not be able to start in goal for Phoenix against the Rangers. With...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/please-add-to-coyotes-roster-number-35.html
This is my fourth season covering the New York Rangers as a beat reporter. I have seen many ups and downs for the team as well as for individual players. Needless to say I have seen a lot of the...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/something-good-brewing-on-broadway.html
Here in Columbus to cover Rangers and Blue Jackets and much of the talk at the morning skate over at Nationwide Arena was about a talented winger with questionable work ethic and desire from Ea...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/can-filatov-break-zherdev-mold.html
Am up here in Ottawa to cover Rangers and Senators tonight, but found myself watching TSN as the Penguins won their 11th straight last night, 5-2 over the Maple Leafs. And I found myself glued...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/12/here-to-praise-sid-kid.html
When I served as the play-by-play voice of the Islanders during the predictably unpredictable dark days of multiple bad ownerships, Mike Milbury's reign of error as General Manager, the revolvi...
The debates began in the stands, locker rooms, and press box at Madison Square Garden last night and have raged ever since on the internet, in Twitter-verse, and in the hockey blogosphere. Th...
Rangers head coach John Tortorella repeated something last night that he has been subtlely saying more and more often recently: "we are a tired team". Nine games in 14 days in seven different ...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/through-hard-work-team-first-rangers.html
Am down here in Tampa to cover the Rangers and Lightning tilt at the St. Pete Times Forum, one that features two good up-and-coming Eastern Conference teams and the subplot of Henrik Lundqvist's...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/talkin-steven-stamkos.html
For eight seasons he was the face of the Minnesota Wild franchise. He was the expansion team's first-ever first-round draft pick, and went on to become its all-time leader in goals, assists, an...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/gaborik-makes-long-awaited-return-to.html
Does it seem logical and make sense that a National Hockey League coach is fired after two straight last-place finishes and in the midst of a ten-game losing streak in Year No. 3? Absolutely. ...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/gordon-had-no-chance-on-island.html
In a league where fans and media members have been calling for John Maclean's head only ten games or so into his rookie season as head coach of the New Jersey Devils, it is rather amazing that e...
Blair Betts wore Rangers red, white, and blue for four seasons, establishing himself as one of the top defensive forwards and penalty killers in the entire National Hockey League. Jody Shelley...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/ex-rangers-betts-and-shelley-loving.html
In the cases of Penguins center Jordan Staal, individually, and the New Jersey Devils team, collectively, that old saying rings so true: If not for bad luck, they would not have any luck at all....
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/11/if-not-for-bad-luck.html
For the record Taylor Hall, the first overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, recorded his first National Hockey League goal last night. The goal came at 9:57 of the third period and helped Hall's...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/10/taylor-halls-first-goal-and-six-degrees.html
So much going on in the world of hockey, so here are a few quick hits and random thoughts: CENTRAL SUCCESS Quick, name the only division in the NHL where currently all of its teams are playin...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/10/central-succes-and-other-nhl-tidbits.html
Not that they are obligated to at all, but neither Devils coach John Maclean nor New Jersey's $100 million superstar Ilya Kovalchuk offered up any explanations as to why Kovy was a healthy scrat...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/10/kovy-and-coach-offer-no-explanation-for.html
Though you wouldn't know it from this picture, Bruins head coach Claude Julien is one of the nicest, most personable, and affable coaches in the entire National Hockey League. It's always a tr...
http://rinkrap.blogspot.com/2010/10/calude-julien-unplugged.html