“Not when you look at, overwhelmingly, what our players do and what our clubs do and what the league does,” Bettman said ahead of a ceremony honoring former Sabres goaltender Ryan Miller, whose number was retired before Thursday’s match between Buffalo and the Islanders. “A handful of players don’t define what we’re doing as a whole. You know what our values are. The Flyers have the same values and individuals may have their own reasons for doing what they do. And you have to talk to him about that.”
Provorov, who was drafted by the club and has been with it since 2016, addressed reporters briefly on the matter following the game Tuesday, but has otherwise refused to take questions on it. That has in turn left his teammates as well as coach John Tortorella to answer for him, which the latter has done repeatedly.
Gary Bettman doesn’t want the Ivan Provorov controversy to overshadow the NHL’s initiatives. Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty ImagesIvan Provorov refused to participate in warm-ups during the Flyers’ Pride Night. AP
“Provy did nothing wrong,” Tortorella told reporters Thursday in Philadelphia. “Just because you don’t agree with his decision doesn’t mean he did anything wrong.”
Tortorella compared the incident to his own stance against players kneeling for the national anthem in 2016, which he later reversed, saying that although he disagrees with the form of protest, he would be wrong in forcing those beliefs on someone else.
“Same situation here,” Tortorella said. “Provy’s not out there banging a drum against Pride Night. He quietly went about his business. Him and I had a number of conversations to how we were going to do this. You have the team, you have him, you have all this going on. Talked to [Flyers forward Scott Laughton, who has been a strong advocate for LGBTQ causes]. Went through the whole process there. [Provorov] felt strongly with his beliefs. And he stayed with it. And this was discussed, prior up to that.”
Laughton and teammate James van Riemsdyk’s efforts, which include hosting members of the LGBTQ community at Flyers home games and hosting a skate for nonbinary teenagers in conjunction with Pride Night, have mostly gone unnoticed in the wake of Provorov’s actions.
“At the end of the day, I think everybody knows what the league stands for in terms of our values, what the Flyers stand for in terms of their values, but in the final analysis, individual players are gonna make their decisions and follow their beliefs,” Bettman said. “Having said that, when you look at all of our players and the commitments that they’ve made to social causes and to making our game inclusive, let’s focus on the 700 that embrace it and not one or two that may have some issues for their own personal reasons.”
Sign up for Inside the Islanders by Ethan Sears, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
Maybe it all would have turned out differently if the Islanders had won a playoff series. Maybe all it would have taken was just getting to the playoffs. Maybe it was all down to the disastrous record and pair of last-place finishes over the two seasons the Islanders used the infamous Fisherman as their primary logo.
Certainly the losing had at least something to do with the backlash back then.
“One of the truisms in sports is that you should rebrand when you expect that you’re gonna go in a winning direction,” Nick Hirshon, a journalism professor at William Patterson University and author of “We Want Fish Sticks,” a book that chronicles the failed rebranding, said in a phone call with Sports+.
The Islanders rebranded off a 15-28-5 lockout-shortened season in 1994-95. That was already one box they failed to check. The rest would come soon enough.
The original iteration of the Fisherman sweater, from the 1996-97 season.NHLI via Getty Images
That is part of the reason why it might be surprising to anyone around between 1995 and 1997 that the Islanders have wholeheartedly embraced the Fisherman as their reverse retro look this season. When the NHL first introduced the retro concept in 2020, the Islanders steadfastly avoided it, instead going with a navy blue sweater that was basically the same as their regular jersey.
This time, they took the plunge, and the buzz was immediate. The sweaters quickly became ubiquitous around the UBS Arena concourse. The Isles are an organization based just outside of one of the league’s biggest media markets, but one that struggles to get attention. This got attention.
Players hailed it. So did the marketing team.
“I like the throwback stuff,” Zach Parise said in October. “I like the different looks, the different colors. Not the change, but just for a different look. It’s always neat for the fans.”
Why, though, has there been such a change in attitude about this logo, once associated with the dark days of the franchise?
Nick Hirshon’s book chronicles the disastrous rollout of the Islanders’ Fisherman logo.We Want Fish Sticks cover
“When the Islanders first unveiled the Fisherman logo in 1995, there were lots of mistakes made,” Hirshon said. “There wasn’t a lot of research done, there were no focus groups or interviews with fans to determine whether they wanted to part from the original logo. They didn’t have a really good ambassador for the rebrand. In most of the ads at the time, they had either [general manager] Mike Milbury or [owner] John Spano, who turned out to be a con artist and had to give up the team. And they really didn’t focus as much on the team, like Ziggy Palffy, who was incredibly popular and still is with the fan base.
“I think one of the reasons is with the passage of time, a lot of the younger fans who don’t remember the Fisherman logo from its first run in 1995-1997, they just view this as a cool retro design and they don’t associate it with the losing of the 1990s or any of the other negative media attention that it received: ‘We Want Fish Sticks’ chants and all that.”
Hirshon points to how the Kings rebranded after trading for Wayne Gretzky in 1988 as what a successful effort looked like. Gretzky arrived at his introductory press conference wearing silver and black, new colors for a franchise that previously had draped itself in the same purple and gold as their co-tenants at the Los Angeles Forum.
With Gretzky, the Kings — who had made the playoffs in the two previous seasons before acquiring No. 99 — became perennial contenders, making it as far as the Stanley Cup Final in 1993. Silver and black are still the primary colors of their logo set.
“People are more receptive to something like that because the team is doing good, so ‘I guess I’ll go out and buy the new jersey and I’ll associate it with all these positive memories,’” Hirshon said. “I think it’s that, I think it’s also remembering that changing a jersey or a logo is just one step in a more comprehensive rebranding.”
The Islanders are wearing the Fisherman jersey as a reverse retro look for six games this season.AP
The Islanders, at the time, also introduced Nyisles as their new mascot and included elements in their game presentation meant to emphasize the Fisherman brand — a foghorn as the goal horn and fog-like smoke emanating from the Nassau Coliseum scoreboard. With the team struggling, though, and Spano soon being chased out of ownership due to fraud, that all became part of the running joke that was the franchise.
A wholesale rebranding effort would not be greeted happily now. But as a nod to the past and a jersey that they’re wearing six times this season — the final two occasions are coming Saturday against the Hurricanes and Jan. 28 against Las Vegas — the Fisherman comes off as cool.
“[Fans] just see it as, “Hey, this is something that’s cool and old, it kind of fits in with the nostalgic kind of direction that a lot of sports teams have been going in the last few years,’ especially with 1990s designs,” Hirshon said. “For a lot of people like myself, they grew up in the ’90s and now we’re getting nostalgic: ‘Yeah, remember that?’ It’s now old enough that we kind of pine for it again.”
How has Pelech’s injury impacted matchups?
The Islanders’ dependable top defense pair of Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech (right) has been broken up due to Pelech’s injury.Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Adam Pelech continues to skate with the team in his recovery from a head injury, but it has been a little over six weeks since the star defenseman went down against the Blues following a hit into the boards by Robert Bortuzzo.
Though the focus lately has been on the Isles’ offensive struggles, losing Pelech on the back end has caused major issues. The 2022 All-Star forms a steadfast pair with Ryan Pulock that eats up the largest bulk of minutes against opposing top lines when both are healthy. Without Pelech, Pulock has skated with whomever Pelech’s replacement has been on a given night — lately Parker Wotherspoon, though Dennis Cholowski drew in for Wotherspoon against the Bruins on Wednesday. That has been Lane Lambert’s way of protecting Wotherspoon, Cholowski or Robin Salo, all of whom have gotten a chance at that spot. But it means the Isles have needed to go with another pair — which has almost always been Scott Mayfield’s — against opposing top lines.
Steven Kaye/New York Post
A couple things to take note of here. First, the graphic dates back to Dec. 23, Wotherspoon’s debut. Second, we looked at which pair played the most, but that doesn’t mean one pair played exclusively against one line. Third, remember that on the road, the Islanders don’t have last change — and therefore don’t have as much control of matchups.
The last two caveats apply in particular to the Calgary game, the only one we looked at in which Mayfield wasn’t involved as the primary matchup against a top line. Aho and Mayfield played roughly five minutes against Nazem Kadri’s line that night and were on the ice for two goals against — Pulock and Wotherspoon just happened to be on for slightly longer, with the former being on for a goal against as well.
Still, there are some takeaways here, the biggest being that Lambert still is sheltering Noah Dobson. Against Washington on Monday night, for example, Dobson played just 3:22 total while Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome’s left wing — was on the ice. Mayfield and Romanov were on the ice for 11:54 and 10:04, respectively.
When Lambert and GM Lou Lamoriello talk about Dobson taking the next steps defensively, they mean being able to trust him in spots like this. Right now, he isn’t quite there yet. Neither is Aho, who was demoted off Mayfield’s left side following a series of poor performances out west.
The Islanders haven’t trusted Noah Dobson with a promotion to date.USA TODAY Sports
So lately, the Isles have been left with Mayfield and Romanov as their de facto top pair, and the results have been mixed. Minnesota’s top line of Kirill Kaprizov, Sam Steel and Mats Zuccarello had a strong night against them, as did the Capitals’ Ovechkin-Strome line. Mayfield and Romanov did hold their own against a heavy Stars top line of Jason Robertson, Tyler Seguin and Joe Pavelski — Robertson scored, but during a rare shift against Wotherspoon and Pulock — as well as against Montreal’s top line, centered by Nick Suzuki.
That alignment has the added disadvantages of splitting up Romanov and Dobson, a well-balanced pair that the Islanders want to make work, and limiting Dobson’s five-on-five ice time, which was down 1:16 per game from last season going into Wednesday.
Still, it might be the best solution they have right now. Which only makes it all the more imperative to get Pelech back and correct the order of things.
Five hits from Bruins 4, Islanders 1
1. William Dufour struggled in his debut, turning the puck over two separate times that led to goals. But the Islanders put their 20-year-old prospect in a position to fail. Asking him to make his NHL debut on the top line against the Bruins and then nailing him to the bench after he struggled is a self-fulfilling prophecy, one that stinks of desperation.
2. Ditto for the recent deployment of Semyon Varlamov, who allowed four goals on 1.86 expected goals-against on Wednesday, per Natural Stat Trick. The NHL is a results league, and that is on Varlamov, just as Dufour’s performance is on him. But not giving Varlamov a single game on the homestand until the last and then expecting him to beat the best team in the league — in only the second game he’s played in a month — does wrong by the player.
Trying to stop the NHL’s best team in only his second game in the last month was not a winning formula for Semyon Varlamov.Getty Images
3. When every single penny of cap space matters, keeping Simon Holmstrom on the roster to be a healthy scratch instead of sending him to AHL Bridgeport — even if only for the day — was another head-scratcher.
4. Prior to any roster moves made Thursday, the Islanders had $3.36 million in cap space and were on pace to have $6.88 million by the March 3 trade deadline. Can they afford to wait that long to make a move? It is becoming hard to see how.
5. For all the well-deserved hand-wringing over the power play, the Islanders had just five high-danger chances at five-on-five on Wednesday, per Natural Stat Trick. It was the fourth time in their last seven games they’ve been held to five or fewer high-danger chances, and during the five-game homestand, they scored a total of eight goals.
LOS ANGELES — Erik Haula, Nikita Okhotiuk and Ryan Graves scored in the second period, and the New Jersey Devils became the first NHL team to win 17 of its first 20 road games by defeating the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 on Saturday night.
Tomas Tatar had a power-play goal, Jesper Bratt scored an empty-netter and Jack Hughes had two assists as the surprising Devils improved to 17-2-1 on the road, including six straight wins. Mackenzie Blackwood made 34 saves, stopping a penalty shot by Kevin Fiala in the third period.
Fiala and Anze Kopitar scored on the power play, but Jonathan Quick allowed four goals on 27 shots and the Kings had their three-game winning streak snapped.
The Devils broke the game open with three goals in the second after both teams found the back on the net on the power play in the first.
Tomas Tatar celebrates after scoring a goal during the Devils’ 5-2 win over the Kings.NHLI via Getty Images
Haula scored on a 2-on-1 rush 2:37 into the period to give New Jersey a 2-1 lead.
Kopitar tied it at 6:48 by tipping Drew Doughty’s shot from the blue line, but the Devils regained the lead 52 seconds later when Okhotiuk beat Quick under his right blocker on a long shot.
Graves made it 4-2 with 9:03 to go when his shot from the left point took an unexpected redirect off the skate of defenseman Sean Walker.
New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff is no stranger to success on the road. His 2006-07 Buffalo Sabres were one of five teams in league history to win 15 of their first 19 road games, a mark Ruff’s Devils surpassed with their 6-2 victory at Anaheim on Friday.
Buffalo ended up going 25-12-4 on the road and winning the Presidents’ Trophy before losing to Ottawa in the Eastern Conference Finals.
CALGARY, Alberta — Lou Lamoriello wasn’t exactly defiant, but on the afternoon of Aug. 22, it was at least clear he felt the narrative surrounding his team’s offseason missed the mark.
During a news conference to announce contracts for Noah Dobson and Kieffer Bellows, as well as introduce Alexander Romanov, Lamoriello spent much of his time defending the lack of moves to upgrade the roster over the summer.
“I feel very good about this hockey team,” he said.
“Sometimes some of the best transactions to make are the ones you don’t make,” he added, a few minutes later.
And in his last remarks of the day: “We would have made drastic changes last year if we didn’t feel good about the group we have and what we’re capable of doing. I say that with comfortability. I say that with confidence. I’m looking forward to getting back at it and maybe proving everybody wrong.”
Lou LamorielloGetty Images
After the Islanders finished off the first half of the season with a disastrous 1-3-0 road trip through the Pacific Division, it’s getting harder and harder to see them proving Lamoriello right. They are still in a playoff spot as of Saturday morning and may yet make the postseason. But a wild-card berth and a first-round playoff loss being spun as positive would only go to show how far this group has fallen in just two seasons.
The forward group Lamoriello failed to upgrade in a meaningful way over the summer still has all the same problems as last season, even with Mathew Barzal having taken a major step forward and Brock Nelson continuing to produce at a high level. Not enough skill. Not enough scoring.
That became especially clear in Friday’s 4-1 loss to the Flames, when the Islanders spent all 60 minutes searching for answers after Barzal became a late scratch. It’s not an overstatement to say it’s hard to see how they’ll survive if Barzal’s lower-body injury keeps him out for any serious period of time — that’s how important he is to the Islanders’ offense.
When the Islanders can get pucks deep, forecheck and play within coach Lane Lambert’s system, it works. But producing offense via controlled breakouts and entries has been an issue all year, and is at the heart of their struggles on the power play. Want to know why they’ve scored twice on their past 36 power plays? Because the Islanders are at their best when they are trying to get the puck back — not when they actually possess it.
Asked about that dichotomy after Thursday’s 4-2 debacle in Edmonton, Lambert said, in short, that his team didn’t forecheck enough against the Oilers, itself an admission of one-dimensionality.
“You turn the puck over and they come back at you,” he said. “You also have to manage the game well and be smart about who you’re playing. I thought we didn’t get [the puck] into areas [Friday]. Their goaltender plays the puck well. Early on, they broke the puck out a little too easily.”
A night later, it was the same issue in Calgary, and the Islanders walked away with a loss to show for it. It’s true that injuries — particularly Adam Pelech’s — have contributed to the issues, but every team suffers injuries, and the Islanders have been one of the luckier groups in the league in that category.
The injuries have exposed a lack of organizational depth more than anything else. Signing Hudson Fasching over the summer looks shrewd on Lamoriello’s part, but that is about it.
Neither Josh Bailey nor Anthony Beauvillier have stepped up in the way the Islanders need, and the two combine for $9.15 million against the salary cap. The members of the Identity Line are not going to make up for lack of scoring, and Cal Clutterbuck has struggled to stay healthy.
Ross Johnston, meanwhile, has played only as a last resort a year after signing a four-year, $4.4 million extension. Bellows hit waivers after playing one game. Aatu Raty may be a player in this league eventually, but he is still earning the trust of the staff, and if Barzal misses a few more games, the Islanders might end up using up a year of his entry-level deal to put a Band-Aid on the wound.
If they can’t string together some wins at home over the next two weeks, when six of their next seven games will be at UBS Arena, it will be a full-blown disaster. Who knows what Lamoriello will do then.
Remember, though, this season is not a referendum on the first-year head coach. It reflects directly on the general manager.
After cycling the puck in the corner with the game tied at three-all in the third period, K’Andre Miller watched as Kaapo Kakko dished it out to Mika Zibanejad, who was covering for the defenseman at the top of the zone.
As Zibanejad wound up to unleash a shot, Miller went to screen Pyotr Kochetkov and ended up getting his stick on the puck to redirect it to the top shelf on Carolina’s goalie.
Miller’s goal was one of three that the Rangers scored in the final 20 minutes of their eventual 5-3 win over the Hurricanes on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.
The game-winning goal capped a mixed bag of a night for Miller, who — along with his defensive partner Jacob Trouba — was also on the ice for all three of the Hurricanes’ goals.
Mika Zibanejad (right) congratulates K’Andre Miller on his go-ahead goal in the Rangers’ 5-3 win over the Hurricanes.Getty Images
“Obviously, you never want to go into a period minus-three, but that’s hockey, that happens sometimes,” Miller said after the win, which improved the Rangers to 21-12-6 on the season. “I think having a short memory and trying to put it in the past and look for good plays and being reliable again.”
The 22-year-old Miller, who was a forward in his earlier playing days, admitted it was weird to be the player tipping the puck in instead of his usual role of sending it into traffic. Nevertheless, the goal was Miller’s third of the season, all of which have come in the last 13 games.
“It was a big goal,” head coach Gerard Gallant said. “They were probably not too happy with being on for three goals, but I’m not blaming them for the three goals, it’s a five-man unit out there. They were unfortunate situations where the puck went in our net. It was a huge goal for K’Andre. I thought he made a couple of great offensive plays and played a good solid game again.”
With three goals in the third period Tuesday night, the Rangers have now totaled 52 in the final 20 minutes this season, which is the third-most in the NHL.
Igor Shesterkin earned the starting nod, marking his 29th start of the Rangers’ 39 games this season. After stopping 20 of the 23 shots he faced to pick up his 18th win of the season, the Russian netminder is now tied with the Golden Knights’ Logan Thomas and the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck for the second-most in the NHL behind only the Bruins’ Linus Ullmark’s 21.
SUNRISE, Fla. — Regarding the Rangers, who open 2023 here Sunday night against the Panthers.
In other words, regarding Alexis Lafreniere.
1. The latest L’Affaire Lafreniere does not look good on anybody: not the Rangers organization, not the coaching staff and not the player. That is no small issue.
It is incumbent upon president and general manager Chris Drury to put the full weight of the organization into working with Lafreniere and his camp to determine why it reached the point that on Thursday at Tampa Bay, the 2020 first-overall pick needed to be jolted by being made a healthy scratch.
The burden of proof is on everyone, but the Rangers do go back administration after administration culpable of either mishandling or misidentifying prospects. The organization is famous for eating its young, so it is not a particular reach to wonder how much of Lafreniere’s one-step-forward, two-steps-back dance this season is on the team.
Progress in fulfilling the potential of Lafreniere, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov and, soon enough, Brennan Othmann — all first-rounders — is paramount to the success of the franchise.
Lafreniere, who is a pending restricted free agent in need of a second contract, is represented by Momentum Hockey’s Olivier Fortier, who replaced Emilie Castonguay when she left the agency last season to become assistant GM of the Canucks. He does not have a particular public profile — Lafreniere is his most well-known client — but it is certainly in everyone’s mutual interest for the Rangers to have a good working relationship with Lafreniere’s camp.
Alexis Lafreniere’s healthy scratch represents a serious challenge for the player and the organization.Corey Sipkin for the NY POST Photo
2. If the Rangers somehow could have known that not only would they be in the 2020 lottery, but also would win it and thus claim left wing Lafreniere, yes, it is possible they might not have extended Chris Kreider just ahead of the deadline and, in fact, traded him rather than Brady Skjei. It’s possible that the tandem of president John Davidson and GM Jeff Gorton might have done that. But that is moot.
All offseason following the lottery, the question was whether the Rangers would stack their left wings in Kreider, Lafreniere and Panarin. It seemed that switching the 18-year-old would make more sense than asking NHL veterans to move to their off-side, but perhaps that assumption did not allow for the fact that the pandemic prevented Lafreniere from playing competitive hockey for nearly a full year and that No. 13’s rookie season was not preceded by a traditional training camp from which he surely would have benefited.
It is still kind of a mystery whether Lafreniere can comfortably make the switch to the right after half-measures to shift him haven’t quite taken hold. I’m not sure why this has been such a mysterious process. He insists he is comfortable but then it is suggested that he’s really more comfortable on the left side of the Kid Line.
Oh, by the way: What do the Rangers intend to do when Othmann — a left wing — is ready for Broadway?
Lafreniere, the top pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, could benefit from the change Gerard Gallant refuses to make.Corey Sipkin for the NY POST Photo
3. Yes, this is true: a career 36-33 in 171 games that includes 36-30 at even-strength and 0-3 on the power play.
And here is what I do not understand, and this directly has a dramatic impact on Lafreniere:
When lines struggle at five-on-five, coach Gerard Gallant will not hesitate to change them. A couple of bad periods is often enough to create an upheaval.
But when the first power-play unit struggles for games at a time, the coach not only will not change the personnel, but also would consider it blasphemy to break up the four-righty unit even under the current 1-for-16 quagmire in which they are stuck. I know — missed open nets and posts.
That is where the team and Lafreniere could benefit if Gallant would make that kind of move and elevate an athlete who is supposed to possess great vision and creativity into a spot where he may be able to show his stuff. Lafreniere should be an effective puck retriever, too.
4. I cannot imagine what equal value in a trade for Lafreniere would possibly resemble. Dealing Lafreniere and having him flourish somewhere else would represent the ultimate organizational nightmare.
Who would they be able to get, a first-rounder who may or may not ever play? Another project who plays a different position? Where is the GM who will deal a known, young, cap-controllable center or defenseman for Lafreniere … if, again, the Rangers would ever even consider making that move?
If you’re bringing in a center, you’ve decided to move on from Chytil, isn’t that correct? Unless, that is, that you’re going to ask Vincent Trocheck to waive his no-move clause one season into a seven-year agreement?
Do you think Drury wants to risk a trade that becomes Nolan Ryan for Jim Fregosi?
5. It is time to get Lafreniere back in on Sunday.
The remade lines worked against the Lightning on Thursday to the degree the Rangers produced 46 shots and double-digits of glorious chances, but still scored just once in the 2-1 shootout defeat.
There is no reason to break up the Kravtsov-Chytil-Julien Gauthier third line that played dynamic hockey against the Lightning. Kreider, Zibanejad and Kakko are remaining intact.
Lafreniere should slide in on the right (Is he comfortable on the right?) with Panarin and Trocheck reforming the unit that was together for 12 games in the early weeks while Barclay Goodrow shifts into the middle of the fourth line between Sammy Blais and Jimmy Vesey while Jonny Brodzinski sits.
Brodzinski has been fine in his role, and Gallant had him on late in the third period in place of Kravtsov on Thursday. But in the big picture, and that is surely as important a part of it as the narrower one, playing Brodzinksi ahead of Lafreniere is a little bit nutty.
Sign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
The narrative that had taken hold since Gerard Gallant’s reign behind the bench started last season — and for good reason — is inoperative.
The Rangers who were insufficient at five-on-five and were carried offensively by the power play have ceased to exist.
Instead, the remodeled Blueshirts, who used 40 different game-opening line combinations in the club’s first 35 games leading into the wonderfully civilized Christmas recess, rank comparatively higher playing at even strength than with the man advantage.
No one would have expected that.
By the way, Gallant created 33 line combinations in last season’s first 35 matches. Neither that total nor this season’s tally includes units that were combined mid-game. So the Artemi Panarin-Mika Zibanejad-Vitali Kravtsov and Barclay Goodrow-Jonny Brodzinski-Julien Gauthier combinations that played the final two-plus periods of the 5-3 victory over the Islanders on Dec. 22 are not included in the count.
The 411 on 5-on-5
Artemi Panarin and the Rangers have become a better even-strength team in 2022-23.NHLI via Getty Images
The 2021-22 Rangers improved their five-on-five game proximate to the trade deadline with the rental additions of Frank Vatrano, Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte and defenseman Justin Braun. The club’s production and efficiency improved.
But before Vatrano was acquired as the first of the fortifications following Game 60, the Blueshirts ranked 24th in the NHL at five-on-five in goals-per-60:00 at 2.26 (thanks, Natural Stat Trick). They ranked 28th in xGF (expected goals-for) percentage at 45.85, and their goals-for percentage of 50 percent (111 for, 111 against) came in at 17th.
Hence, the flurry of trades that cost the Blueshirts one first-round draft pick, one second-rounder, one third-rounder, a pair of fourth-rounders and Morgan Barron, but also propelled the club to the conference finals.
This season, without any of the rentals and also without free-agent departure Ryan Strome, the Rangers will enter Tuesday night’s Garden match against the Caps ranked 12th in goals-per-60 at 2.66 and 15th in xGF pct. at 51.16. Their goals-for pct. of 53.96 (75 for, 64 against) ranks eighth.
So, despite splitting up Zibanejad and Chris Kreider and also having stopped trying to bang the Panarin-Vincent Trocheck peg of a connection into a round hole (or perhaps, because of these unanticipated moves), the Blueshirts have taken significant strides in their five-on-five game … and that is while receiving average goaltending for the first couple of months.
Nothing special about this power play
With Mika Zibanejad sniping away, the Rangers power play has become predictable.NHLI via Getty Images
These results may not alter Drury’s approach to the deadline — at or around which everyone expects the Rangers to add a known-quantity top-six right wing — but it represents improvement and good news.
Neither of which applies to the allegedly vaunted power play.
After ranking fourth overall last season while operating at a 25.2 percent clip with a dynamic group that was feared, the Rangers sit at 15th at the break with a 22.9 percent rate that has provoked tears. That is simply not close to good enough for a unit expected to be a game-breaker.
The four-righty concept has been in place since Thanksgiving of 2019, when then-head coach David Quinn constructed a unit including Zibanejad, Panarin, Strome and Tony DeAngelo with the lefty Kreider. That unit went off at a clip of 29.3 percent from the Christmas break to the COVID-related March 11 end of the season.
Vincent Trocheck, celebrating a power-play goal against the Devils on Dec. 12, is much more shoot-first than Ryan Strome was.USA TODAY Sports
Righty Adam Fox replaced DeAngelo at the top at the start of the following season. That unit remained inviolate until Trocheck, another righty, stepped in for Strome at the start of this season.
But with familiarity, the unit has become more predictable and even occasionally stale, even if Panarin and Zibanejad essentially exchanged places against the Islanders last week with No. 10 moving into the off-wing, left-circle, one-timer position that he originally held upon joining the team in 2019-20. The puck often moves too slowly. The setups are often too deliberate and at times telegraphed.
Strome was more of a facilitator while Trocheck has a shoot-first mentality out of the bumper position. Indeed, Trocheck is tied with Panarin in power-play shot attempts, trailing Zibanejad, while second in shots to Zibanejad. That’s a change.
Chris wires crossed
But the most dramatic change as the season has evolved concerns Kreider, who led the NHL last season with a franchise-record 26 power-play goals on his way to a 52-goal season. The league’s most effective net-front presence hasn’t gotten anywhere near the touches he did both last season and through the first 20 games of this season when the unit pretty much ran through him.
Chris Kreider battles for position in front of the Penguins goal during a game on Dec. 20.NHLI via Getty Images
Over the first 10 games, Kreider had 28 attempts on the power play and 15 shots while being credited by Natural Stat Trick with creating 21 scoring chances. Over the next 10 matches, Kreider had 16 attempts and 12 shots while creating 16 scoring chances. So, through 20 games, Kreider had 44 attempts and 27 shots while creating 37 scoring chances and recording four PPGs.
But over the next 15 games that led into the break, the Rangers have either been unable to get the puck to Kreider either screening the goaltender or at the side of the net, or they have changed the game plan. In the past 15 games, Kreider has only 10 power-play attempts and five shots while generating nine scoring chances. He has gone 18 straight games without a PPG.
New York Post
The difference is dramatic.
Maybe opposing penalty kills are preventing the guys at the top from getting shots through to Kreider. Maybe Trocheck’s increased shooting mentality as he has gained more comfort on the unit has changed the dynamic. Maybe defensemen are doing a better job preventing Kreider from getting position. Maybe Kreider hasn’t done as good a job establishing that net-front presence. Maybe the Rangers fell head over heels for Zibanejad’s one-timer.
Some of all of the above? Probably. But the fact is that over the past 15 games, Kreider ranks eighth on the team in power-play attempts per 60:00. Something is off there. It is imperative the Rangers get Kreider more involved. Everyone benefits when he gets his touches around the net.
Sammy Blais’ third-period benching in the Rangers’ loss at Pittsburgh on Tuesday that snapped their seven-game winning streak carried over to the next contest — and his replacement made the most of the opportunity.
After Blais took an undisciplined penalty when he punched Penguins forward Brock McGinn in retaliation to tee up the home team for their go-ahead power-play goal, he was a healthy scratch for the 5-3 win over the Islanders on Thursday night at the Garden.
As a result, Julien Gauthier drew back into the lineup after serving as a healthy scratch in the previous three straight games. The 25-year-old Gauthier had a hand in two plays that allowed the Rangers to tie the score, including his fifth goal of the season in the second period.
In addition to scoring the goal that made it 2-2 off a strong move to the net, Gauthier sent the shot on net that Barclay Goodrow deflected in to knot the score 3-3 three minutes into the third period. It was Gauthier’s second multi-point game of the season.
Julien Gauthier scores during the Rangers’ win over the Islanders. Getty Images
There was some extra energy to Gauthier’s game, which was certainly a result of coming off his longest stretch of scratches this season.
“It’s never pleasant, honestly, when you’re trying to fit in, trying to get back in as much as possible,” Gauthier said after the win. “I thought my game was good tonight, but overall this year has been really good. Sometimes it’s just not fun or easy to be the scratched guy, but when you go back in the lineup, like tonight, you try to make the most of it.”
Gauthier, who enjoyed a run of 17 contests in a row before he was relegated to street clothes, primarily skated in his usual right-wing spot on the fourth line, next to Vitali Kravtsov and Jonny Brodzinski. He also spent some time next to Alexis Lafreniere and Filip Chytil after Kaapo Kakko’s costly turnover in the second.
“He was upset and disappointed,” head coach Gerard Gallant said of Gauthier’s scratches. “He wasn’t scratched for bad play, he was scratched from coaches making decisions. We liked the way he played, we just wanted some different kind of players. He came in tonight and did a real good job. Played hard and scored a great goal.”
It marked just the second time in Blais’ Rangers tenure that the 26-year-old forward was a healthy scratch. The first was last week against the Maple Leafs, when Gallant wanted to get Kravtsov back into the lineup.
Blais, who has five assists in 30 games this season, was called for roughing at the 18:09 mark of the second period against the Penguins. He did not take a single shift afterward, including the entire third period.
Defenseman Libor Hajek was scratched for a fifth straight game in favor of Ben Harpur, who has provided a more physical presence on the back end throughout this stretch.
Artemi Panarin and Barclay Goodrow each had one goal and one assist to lift the New York Rangers past the host Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 on Saturday.
K’Andre Miller, Jimmy Vesey, Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren also scored one goal apiece for the Rangers, who won their sixth in a row.
Rangers goaltender Jaroslav Halak made 29 saves.
James van Riemsdyk, Scott Laughton and Morgan Frost scored one goal each for the Flyers.
Philadelphia played without Kevin Hayes, who was benched by head coach John Tortorella for personal reasons. Flyers goaltender Carter Hart stopped 29 shots.
The Flyers went ahead 1-0 at 7:11 of the first period when van Riemsdyk spun around and scored from the corner of the net.
The Rangers soon unleashed a flurry of shots and equalized at 16:58 when Panarin connected.
Artemi Panarin tied the game at one apiece in the first period. APJaroslav Halak makes a save during the Rangers’ win over the Flyers. AP
Panarin nearly scored again at 1:54 of the second when he fired a shot which deflected off Philadelphia’s Cam York and then the crossbar.
Read the expert take on the Blueshirts
Sign up for Larry Brooks’ Inside the Rangers, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.
The Flyers soon earned a power play and Travis Sanheim ripped a slap shot at 6:19 which was denied by Halak.
Seconds after killing off back-to-back power plays, Miller gathered the puck at center ice, skated in all alone and scored for a 2-1 New York lead at 9:09.
Goodrow scored at 12:14 for a 3-1 advantage though it appeared as if the Rangers had too many men on the ice.
The Flyers closed within 3-2 when Laughton corralled a loose puck at center ice, skated in and scored a short-handed goal on the backhand at 17:56.
The Rangers went ahead 4-2 at 6:22 of the third period after Vesey scored for the third time in the last two games. Vesey’s shot landed in the top right hand corner of the net.
The Rangers celebrate during their win over the Flyers. Getty Images
Philadelphia quickly cut the deficit to 4-3 when Frost fired a shot through a screen and past Halak at 7:53.
The Flyers received a power play at 16:40 when Vincent Trocheck slashed Frost. Hart was pulled for an extra skater midway through, but Trouba scored on the empty net from nearly the length of the ice at 17:52.
Lindgren also was credited with a goal with 49.3 seconds left.
PHILADELPHIA — I have always believed that there is a lot of, “I told you so,” in Gary Bettman, who even when he didn’t, most often insists that he did.
That is what I think is at the root of the odd solo dance conducted by the NHL commissioner who in October, kind of out of nowhere, tantalizingly dangled the concept of a meaningful salary cap increase for next season before last week slipping into his familiar guise of Grinch in indicating to the Board of Governors that no such thing would be happening.
Instead, under terms of the collective bargaining agreement that was adopted in July 2020, the cap will be set to increase by just $1 million to $83.5 million, making 2023-24 another in a string of seasons in which at least half the league will be strangled by the cap. That is because the massive escrow debt incurred by the NHL Players’ Association during the pandemic will not be paid off by the end of this season.
Of course it won’t. We are told that last spring, the NHLPA advised agents that the debt would not be satisfied until the end of the 2024-25 season. The idea that somehow the debt would evaporate two years ahead of schedule is the type of concept based on voodoo economics.
But, like a practiced carny, Bettman threw it out there before reeling it back in. Magic! I can’t quite fathom the reason why, unless it was to remind folks, both on his side of the aisle and those across the way caucusing with the NHLPA, that he had immediately foreseen the pain that the CBA would inflict on teams and suggested renegotiating the deal in December 2020, just about five months after it had been adopted.
Remember? Bettman wanted the players, who had agreed to a 10-percent deferral and 20-percent escrow cap for 2020-21, to give approximately another $300 million over the course of the season. That would have accelerated the debt payment and would have steered the NHL out of the flat-cap era more quickly.
NHL commissioner Gary BettmanAP
There was surely self-interest involved in the league’s ask, but it also would have benefitted a vast majority of teams and, ultimately, a vast majority of players. But the NHLPA had no interest in reopening the agreement because the CBA was designed to make players under contract in 2020-21 as whole as possible. The single-issue escrow hawks in the NHL, those marquee veterans operating on long-term deals, had carried the day. The agreement was all about limiting escrow. It was not about growth. The overwhelming majority of players who would become free agents during the first three or four years of the agreement were sacrificed to keep escrow down on existing contracts. The union pyramid had been turned on its head.
But that is what the NHLPA wanted and that is what executive director Don Fehr negotiated and so the union rejected Bettman’s plea for an accommodation that would indeed have benefitted the NHL and the players.
I kind of think this dance was a reminder of that. Fully half the league is dipping into long-term injured reserve in order to remain compliant with the cap. The system will burst at the seams next summer. There was a way out in December 2020. The union chose not to take it.
There could be a way out now if, as we first suggested in this space two months ago, the league and union could reach an agreement to smooth out the $10 million increase in the cap that is projected over the next three seasons. Instead of the cap rising by $1 million and then by another $4.5 million to $5 million each of the subsequent two seasons, the parties could agree to an annual increase of approximately $3.3 million each of the next three seasons.
But that would entail a negotiation. The league never gives back anything for free. It is unknown what accommodations Bettman might seek (Honestly, doesn’t the league have all it needs?), but the NHLPA is hardly in a position to negotiate anything without a successor for the departing Fehr in place.
Donald Fehr (l) and Garry BettmanAP
That is where we are, though. Bettman foresaw the flat-cap crunch way ahead of time. He was not alone, but he offered to do something about it. He kind of told you so. Still is.
The NHL’s interest in increasing intradivision games by increasing the schedule from 82 to 84 games, first reported by ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, could be the give-back the union could trade for a smooth cap.
From the NHLPA side, that would be tantamount to getting Ryan Strome for Ryan Spooner.
The hellacious open-ice hit that the Wild’s Ryan Reaves laid on Filip Hronek on Wednesday is legal under current rules. That tells you all you need to know about the efficacy of current rules in protecting players from brain damage.
Yes, the Red Wings defenseman should have kept his head up. Yes, he should have known that Reaves was on the ice, though No. 75 never came close to exploding someone in his year-plus as a Ranger as he did Hronek.
But the league has an obligation to protect its employees’ health. The union that reflexively contests and appeals suspensions applied to headhunters has an obligation to protect its members.
We know now what we did not know decades ago. Principal contact with the head must be outlawed. If that puts the onus on big-game hunters, so be it. Legal under the current rules must become illegal.
Finally, I must confess that when Gerard Gallant said on Friday that, “We don’t want him blocking too many,” in reference to Artemi Panarin having blocked a shot at Vegas a couple of weeks ago, all I could think about was another Rangers coach benching Marian Gaborik in the third period of Game 5 of the 2012 conference finals against the Devils for his failure to block a shot.
Lost the game, lost the series.
Can’t quite think of who that might have been, though.
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie
Duration
Description
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
