Brian Boyle – Keefe To The City

Jun 4, 2015

Podcast: Brian Monzo

The Rangers’ season came to a devastating end in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals and now it’s time to look back at the season and ahead to next season.

It’s been nearly a week since the Rangers’ season ended with a Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference finals and the finality of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning season is still devastating. Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final was on Wednesday night and to catch a glimpse of a Rangers-less Final only made the young offseason that much more depressing.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the 2014-15 Rangers, what went wrong in Game 7 against the Lightning, how the Rangers can get over the hump and win the Stanley Cup and what moves the team should make this offseason.

Podcasts • Rangers

May 28, 2015

Podcast: Adam Herman

The Rangers have never lost a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden in the team’s history and that trend will need to continue against the Lightning.

The Rangers are one win away from returning to the Stanley Cup Final for the second straight year and that win will have to come in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Lightning. The Rangers have been unpredictable so far in this series and haven’t played their best at home, but they have also never lost a Game 7 at the Garden in the team’s history.

Adam Herman of Blueshirt Banter joined me to talk about Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals, the unpredictable efforts from the Rangers in the series, the lazy rhetoric about Henrik Lundqvist needing to win the Cup and Rick Nash’s postseason performance.

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Rangers

May 15, 2015

Rangers-Lightning Features Familiar Foes

The Rangers will not only face the Lightning in the Eastern Conference finals, but they will also face a group of former Rangers looking to end their former team’s season.

After the Rangers’ Game 7 win over the Capitals, I was ready for the Eastern Conference finals to start right after the handshake line. I didn’t think I would sleep between Wednesday night’s Game 7 and Saturday afternoon’s Game 1 and wanted the next round to start immediately. Thankfully, there’s just a two-day layoff between series and the Rangers can keep their momentous run alive.

With the Rangers and Lightning meeting in the Eastern Conference finals, John Fontana of Raw Charge joined me to talk about the Ryan Callahan-Martin St. Louis trade, former Rangers Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman playing for the Lightning and what to expect in the series.

Keefe: The Ryan Callahan-Martin St. Louis trade last season was the biggest non-Stanley Cup Final storyline of the 2013-14 Rangers’ season. The Rangers traded their 28-year-old captain for a 38-year-old former MVP because Callahan and his agent overpriced himself out of New York and because St. Louis wanted out of Tampa Bay and wanted to be close to his Greenwich, Conn. home.

So many Rangers fans were devastated that the homegrown Callahan was leaving and it seemed like fans were split 50/50 on liking and not liking the trade. I loved the trade for the Rangers and thought it was necessary.

Callahan had started negotiations with the Rangers at eight years, $60 million, overvaluing himself and overvaluing the “C” on his jersey as a player who had never scored 30 goals in a season. I didn’t get why Rangers were upset at all once he left because it was his choice to leave. He wasn’t willing to compromise with the Rangers and even as Glen Sather stupidly came closer and closer to Callahan’s demands, it wasn’t enough for the secondary scoring option. Ryan Callahan could still be a Ranger if he wanted to be and no one should feel bad for him.

What are your feelings about Callahan after watching him play 97 regular-season games and 16 postseason games for the Lightning?

Fontana: Before we begin, that’s a painful trade in Lightning history because of what was going on with the face of the franchise. Martin St. Louis didn’t like the changing scene in Tampa.

Let’s be fair here; Slats gave up on negotiations with how many months before free agency started? And the contract Callahan agreed to from the Lightning was something like a few hundred thousand dollars less than Sather’s last offer in New York. While the numbers you presented are certainly too much for Cally, there is the “C” and status with the club that propped him up on a negotiating angle.

At the same time, he’s still getting what comes off as more than he should for his toolsy, responsible game. He’s been playing first line wing with Steven Stamkos centering him and he’s put up a career high in points this season. While I like his game, his locker room presence and what he he’s doing on ice, the contract is still waaaay big. Fans down here in general like him too.

Keefe: On the other end of the trade, the Rangers acquired the captain and face of the Lightning in St. Louis, who was instrumental in helping the Rangers reach the Cup Final for the first time since 1993-94. With Callahan and without St. Louis, the Rangers don’t win the East last year.

For you, I can’t imagine what it was like to have a 13-year-old Lightning, captain and face of the franchise demand to be traded and then be traded to his place of choice at the deadline with the team in the middle of a playoff run.

What was it like to see St. Louis traded? Is is still weird to see him play for another team?

Fontana: There’s a lot to be said here. As a fan alone I reflect on that as the end of an era with this team. As a blogger and a blog manager there’s another degree with what went down with Marty that fans (Rangers or Lightning fans) wouldn’t necessarily think of — having to cover it, talk about it, write about it, try to understand it and more than a year later it still isn’t settled because the reasons keep being twisted for why he wanted out.

I could link to articles I’ve written since February 2014 through Thursday, May 14 that touch on this. It’s a sore spot. Marty’s handling it from start to finish has made it worse to have to reflect on and not just put to rest. This, having to come back to it all, is the downside of the entire series. While I expect New York fans to react warmly to Callahan’s return to Madison Square Garden (or Brian Boyle, or Anton Stralman), Marty is going to see a mixed reaction. We have such good memories of the man and how things transpired to end it all (and some spoken words by him since leaving) defile them a bit; we don’t want to remember St. Louis just because of the trade request and how it played out.

Some fans have moved past him and care more about Cally’s status for Game 1 and the series in general compared to having to deal with Marty again. Others, like me, have feelings renewed: Anger, disappointment, and surprise.

Keefe: Every season there is a target of mine in columns, podcasts and on Twitter and for nearly his entire Rangers tenure, Brian Boyle was that guy. I never understood the fans who liked Boyle as a former first-round pick whose career became as a fourth-line role player and when the Rangers didn’t re-sign him last offseason I was ecstatic. Now had I known that the Rangers were going to waste money on Tanner Glass, I would have gladly had Boyle back, but oh well.

Boyle recorded his second-highest goal total of his career with 15 in a full 82-game season for the Lightning and has chipped in with one this postseason. A lot of Rangers fans have forgotten about his weaknesses as a player now that he is in Tampa Bay and just see him helping out a team that has reached the Eastern Conference finals.

What are your thoughts on Boyle?

Fontana: Boyle’s been able to fit in just about anywhere he’s been asked. He has seen a lot of time on the fourth line but how Tampa Bay approaches fourth-liners isn’t the traditional grind-grind-grind limited, physical aspect. He’s been a standard-bearer on the penalty kill which Ranger fansx should be aware of. But his presence has been elsewhere too — he’s done third-line center time, he’s layed on the wing. He’s played on the power play as the guy near the crease. He’s not an offensive force, but he’s a presence.

Keefe: Aside from not wanting Boyle back last offseason, I also didn’t want Benoit Pouliot back and Edmonton signed him and I didn’t want Stralman back because I thought it would take overpaying for him to get him back. That one I wish I could take back.

After looking nothing like an NHL defenseman for long stretches with the Rangers and forcing fans to call for Raphael Diaz to be inserted into the lineup over him frequently last season, Stralman has come into his own with the Lightning and finally reverted back to being more of an offensive defenseman.

How has Stralman fit in with the Lightning?

Fontana: To keep this one short and direct: Norris Trophy candidate worthy to the point I don’t understand one iota why he wasn’t even offered a contract by the Rangers. He’s been in the lineup while hurt and still was the solid guy on the back end. He’s stabilized and improved everyone he’s played with.

No, he’s not a Norris finalist in 2015, but he’s been an unspoken MVP on the Tampa Bay roster.

Keefe: Dan Boyle was a highly-coveted free agent and took less money to be a Ranger. The former star and Lightning defenseman was supposed to provide consistent offense to the Rangers’ defense and captain what has been an embarrassing power play. But in the first year of his two-year deal with the Rangers, Boyle has been a liability in his own zone and hasn’t done much to help the Rangers’ power play. I guess I just need to accept that the Rangers’ power play will never be good.

Like St. Louis, what’s it like to now have to root against Boyle?

Fontana: Dan Boyle’s departure from Tampa Bay isn’t comparable to how things went down with Marty. Of course it’s also been seven seasons ince the one of the worst trades in franchise history went down and Boyle (who had been freshly re-signed before the 2008 trade deadline) was forced out by one of the egomaniac new owners of the Lightning — a former teammate of Boyle’s, Len Barrie.

Time and distance have literally and figuratively passed (he was in San Jose, so he didn’t haunt us. Long time fans like myself like the guy, respect him and all that. But we’re used to him as an opponent.

Keefe: This series scares me more than those two series because the Lightning are nothing like the Rangers and don’t experience the offensive slumps the Rangers do. The Lightning won all there games against the Rangers in the regular season, but those games came very early in the season before the Rangers are the team they are now and the team they became in the second week of December.

Losing this series will not only be devastating because it will mean the Rangers fell short of getting back to the Final and winning the Cup, but it will mean Callahan, Boyle and Stralman will be playing in the Final with a chance to win the Cup.

Henrik Lundqvist has the ability to be the difference in this series the way he was against the Penguins and the way he was in Games 5, 6 and 7 against the Capitals in the Rangers’ comeback and I will never not believe in the King.

I predicted the Rangers to beat the Penguins in six and the Capitals in six. I was wrong both times, but the actual result worked out both times, so let’s make it a three-peat. Rangers over Lightning in six.

What’s your prediction?

Fontana: I have a belief that I’ve tried to restate when and where I can that I don’t believe the season means a thing at this point. What’s done is done. Way to go Lightning, rah-rah-rah King Henrik, etc.

Over, done with, moot. What Tampa Bay did against the Rangers in November, what they’ve done against Detroit and Montreal have no bearing on the Rangers. What the Rags did against Pittsburgh and against the Capitals are in the past (and the Presidents’ Trophy amounts to a scheduling object). We know what our teams are capable of when they’re playing their A-game. We know how ugly or painful it can be when they just show up to the gunfight with knives instead.

That being said, youth is on Tampa Bay’s side as is speed. They’re more than capable on the penalty kill but have struggled during the season and playoffs on the power play (though the Montreal penalty kill helped rectify that a bit during the second round).

The Lightning are capable of winning the one-goal games, they’re also capable of offensive showings. Do the Rangers have the endurance to keep up with the speed? We’ve also (both teams) known Carey Price was a beast this season and the Lightning put him into a different kind of place — the L column. Henrik Lundqvist is looked upon league-wide as a force and a great character, but will he (and the team around him) solve the Lightning where Price, or Petr Mzarek (and the Detroit Red Wings) couldn’t?

I don’t think this series goes seven games, that much I’m certain of. The winner is something I’m waiting to see for myself.

Blogs • Rangers

May 15, 2015

Rangers-Lightning Is Frightening

One week ago, there was one minute and 41 seconds left in the Rangers’ season. Trailing the Capitals 1-0 with 1:41 left in the third period of Game 5, the realization that the Presidents’ Trophy

One week ago, there was one minute and 41 seconds left in the Rangers’ season. Trailing the Capitals 1-0 with 1:41 left in the third period of Game 5, the realization that the Presidents’ Trophy season was going to end in the second round after just 10 postseason games started to set in. And I thought of Mike McDermott narrating in Rounders.

“I’ve often seen these people, these squares, at the table. Short-stacked and long odds against, all their outs gone, one last card in the deck that can help them. I used to wonder how they could let themselves get into such bad shape … and how the hell they thought they could turn it around.”

The Rangers had one out left. They had to find a way to tie the game and either pull a Blackhawks’ Game 6 of the 2012-13 Stanley Cup Final and score twice in the final minute of the game or win it in overtime. And like Mikey McD, I wondered, “How could this Rangers team, the best Rangers team in 21 years, let themselves get into such bad shape?”

Chris Kreider scored at 18:19 of the third period to save the season and at 9:37 of overtime, Ryan McDonagh extended. Two days later, the Rangers solved Braden Holtby with four goals and then hung on for dear life in the final minutes of a 4-3 win. Three days after that, the Rangers overcame an Alex Ovechkin goal and 1-0 deficit to win in overtime, win a Game 7 on May 13 once again and be the first team in the history of the NHL to overcome a 3-1 series deficit in back-to-back seasons.

Before Game 7, I wrote about how every Stanley Cup-winning team must have a “championship moment” on their way to the Cup and if the Rangers are to win the Cup for the first time in 21 years, it’s going to be nearly impossible to top the odds that overcame in the second-round series against Washington.

The Penguins’ offseason is now 21 days old and the Capitals’ is two days old. For the third time in four years, the Rangers are in the conference finals, and the only thing standing in their way of returning to the Stanley Cup Final is the one team I wanted no part of this postseason: the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Rangers went 0-3 against the Lightning this year. They lost 5-1 (Nov. 17), 4-3 (Nov. 26) and 6-3 (Dec. 1) and were outscored 15-7 in those three games, but those games did all come in a span of 14 days at a time when the Rangers were banged up and not the Rangers we see today. The Rangers didn’t become the current form of their team until the second week of December.

The main problem with the Lightning is that I was the Trade Ryan Callahan for Martin St. Louis Club President and then I also served as the Don’t Overpay and Re-sign Brian Boyle, Benoit Pouliot and Anton Stralman Club President. (To my credit, I didn’t know Glen Sather was going to sign Tanner Glass or give a ridiculous extension to Marc Staal after having already given one to Dan Girardi.)

A series against the Lightning is challenging enough without the idea of having to watch Callahan, Boyle and Stralman advance to the Final and play for the Cup at the expense of the Rangers. That would be too much to take. A little like watching Marian Gaborik carry the Kings to the Stanley Cup against the Rangers a little over a year after the Rangers traded him to Columbus because John Tortorella didn’t like him. I’m petrified of this series and what a Rangers series loss will mean.

The only thing keeping me from locking myself in my apartment until this series is over (and if ends poorly staying locked in my apartment for the next year) is that Henrik Lundqvist is a Ranger. It’s been 34 days since the regular season ended and there’s still a season for the Rangers because of Henrik Lundqvist the way there has been a postseason for the Rangers every season but one since the 2004-05 lockout because of Henrik Lundqvist. He has once again been the best player on a team picked by many to reach the Final and finish the job they couldn’t last season and he’s been everything and more this postseason. As long as Lundqvist is in net, I will always like the Rangers’ chances.

I picked the Rangers to beat the Penguins in six and they did it in five. I picked the Rangers to beat the Capitals in six and they did it in seven. Both times I was wrong, but the result worked out in the end. So why change something that works?

Rangers in six.

Blogs • Rangers

Mar 23, 2015

The Scared of the Rangers Playing Them in the Playoffs Power Rankings Part II

We’re a month closer to the Stanley Cup playoffs, so it’s time to update who Rangers fans shouldn’t want to play in the postseason.

The Rangers are still going to the playoffs. Since the first time I put out these rankings on Feb. 24, the Rangers have gone 10-2-1 and now sit in first in the Metropolitan Division and share the lead league in points (99) with Montreal and Anaheim. However, they have two games in hand on Montreal and three games in hand on Anaheim. So, yes, right now the Rangers are technically the best team in the entire NHL.

I don’t know that anyone could have seen a 35-8-3 run coming after they lost to Detroit on Dec. 6 to fall to 11-10-4. And certainly no one saw the Rangers going 17-3-3 after losing Henrik Lundqvist at the beginning of February. But here we are on March 23, a day after the Rangers embarrassed the Ducks with a 7-2 win at the Garden with the Rangers sitting atop the NHL.

Some things have changed over the last month since the original rankings came out and with 12 games and 19 days left in the season, I thought it was time to revisit them and put out the second installment of The Scared of the Rangers Playing Them in the Playoffs Power Rankings.

1. MONTREAL CANADIENS
Because I follow some Canadiens fans on Twitter, I’m not as scared of the Canadiens as I was a month ago. Yes, they’re still the biggest obstacle between the Rangers and getting back to the Stanley Cup Final, but hearing Canadiens fans complain about how the team isn’t as good as their record indicates, but rather it’s the Vezina- and MVP-like performance from Carey Price that has them in first in the Atlantic and tied with the Rangers in points has me less worried.

After losing six of eight to start March, the Canadiens have gotten back on track with three straight wins and back-to-back shutouts from Price. Price currently has a 1.86 goals against average and .938 save percentage. To put that in perspective, during Henrik Lundqvist’s memorable 1.97/.929 he was unbeatable and Price is having an even better season than that.

I don’t care how upset Canadiens fans might be or appear to be about their team’s recent play. The Canadiens are the team to beat for the Rangers.

2. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
The Rangers went 0-3 against the Lightning this year and haven’t seen them since Dec. 1 when the Rangers were a completely different team. So now there is a lot of mystery and unknown in how these two teams match up, but like I said a month ago, losing a playoff series to a team with Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman isn’t exactly how I want this Rangers season to end.

3. BOSTON BRUINS
I know this doesn’t look right having the Bruins this high up when they only have a one-point lead on Ottawa right now for the 8-seed and Ottawa has a game in hand on the Bruins, but this team never dies and the last thing I want them to do is get hot over the next two-plus weeks and then be the Rangers’ first-round opponent. The Bruins are the hardest team to put away in the third period and they seem to always tie up any game once Tuukka Rask heads to the bench in the final minute. They are playoff-tested and still have 11 players from their 2010-11 Cup-winning team and 13 of players from their 2012-13 Cup-losing team on their roster. While New York could use a series win over the Bruins to start to tilt the city rivalry back the right way, I’m not sure the reward is worth the risk.

4. OTTAWA SENATORS
The Senators moved into eighth place in the East on Monday night with a win over San Jose. I watched the third period because of a financial investment in the game and the Senators went into the third trailing 2-1 before turning into Team Canada and scoring four goals en route to a 5-2 win. The Senators opened February with five losses in seven games, but since they are 15-1-1. That’s insane. The Rangers will see them twice in the next two weeks and I will have a better feel for what Rangers fans could be in for in a seven-game series with the Senators, but they are peaking at the right time and after the seven-game scare from them in the 2011-12 playoffs, I don’t want any part of them.

5. NEW YORK ISLANDERS
That sound you hear is nothing. It’s silence. It’s every Islanders fan that chirped Rangers fans with the “Best Team in New York” title for the first four-plus months of the season with nothing left to say.

6. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Since 2007-08 everyone has been riding the Penguins and since then they have two Stanley Cup Final appearances (2007-08 and 2008-09) and one Cup (2008-09). There’s a good chance we are looking at a 30 for 30 in the future being made about how much of a disappointment the Sidney Crosby Penguins era was. Here is what the Penguins have done since winning the Cup in 2008-09.

2009-10: Blew 3-2 series lead in first round to Canadiens and lost Game 7 at home.

2010-11: Blew 3-1 series lead in first round to Lightning and lost 1-0 in Game 7 at home.

2011-12: Lost in first round in six games to Flyers and allowed 30 goals in the series.

2012-13: Swept in conference finals by Bruins and scored two goals in the series.

2013-14: Blew 3-1 series lead in second round to Rangers and lost Game 7 at home.

For the first time in the last eight years, no one seems to be backing or hyping or believing in the Penguins and that’s what makes them dangerous. They still have Sidney Crosby and they still have Evgeni Malkin and Marc-Andre Fleury is having the best year of his career. The Penguins are playing without any pressure with a new head coach/general manager regime and without everyone expecting them to play for and win the Cup and that might be the scariest thing of all.

7. DETROIT RED WINGS
Ryan Brandell of Barstool Sports Chicago has been telling me about the Red Wings all year on every podcast we have done. And because the Red Wings are sort of a mystery team because of their move to the East last year coupled with their abundance of injuries in 2013-14 and their first-round, five-game exit in the playoffs, I started to worry about them because I felt like I didn’t know enough about them and hadn’t seen enough of them and wondered how they were having such a remarkable season. But then I watched the Rangers go to Detroit without Henrik Lundqvist and thoroughly dominate the Red Wings for 60 minutes and lose 2-1 in overtime on a fluky goal.

Jimmy Howard was the only reason the Red Wings were even in the game and I would be willing to bet against him having that type of performance for an entire seven-game series because nothing he has done in his career to this point suggests he will. So unless Howard turns into 2002-03 Jean-Sebastien Giguere then I like the Rangers’ chances against the Red Wings.

8. WASHINGTON CAPITALS
The Rangers have played the Capitals since the first installment of these rankings. The game was on March 11 and the Rangers beat them 3-1 in Washington. It was a pretty easy win for the Rangers and despite the Capitals tying the game at 1 in the first period, it felt like the Rangers would win all along, and they did.

A series against the Capitals means the Rangers will play another series after it. Give me the Capitals.

Blogs • NHL

Jan 27, 2015

The 2014-15 NHL All-Animosity Team

This year’s team is a little different, but there are some familiar faces in the lineup, including a goalie on his way out of the league.

NHL All-Star Weekend has always held a special place in my heart. My feelings about a skills competition and an exhibition game in which there’s no physicality, defense or anything that resembles NHL hockey other than nasty dangles are probably unshared. But when you’re a kid growing up with stars like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Ray Bourque and Brian Leetch and watching them wear those black and orange gems each winter on a weekend afternoon, it’s something that stays with you.

Even though Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin weren’t in Columbus this weekend and Henrik Lundqvist was home in favor of goalies of much lesser abilities (Hi, Jaroslav Halak), I still watched and still paid attention to the 60th NHL All-Star Game, the first in three years. Well, I paid more attention to the skills competition than the game, but I still paid attention. And since I don’t always agree with the selections for the All-Star Game, a couple of years ago I decided to build my own version of an All-Star team. The one difference is that this team is built up of players I don’t like.

(Of course the first time since I started creating these teams that Brian Boyle is eligible to be on it, he isn’t.)

FORWARDS

Milan Lucic
Welcome back, once again! After leading the 2012-13 team and 2013-14 team, Lucic is back on the 2014-15 team.

It wasn’t long ago that Lucic was considered to be Cam Neely 2.0 in Boston following his 30-goal regular season in the Bruins’ Cup winning 2010-11 season. But after watching his goal totals decline over the last three years, Lucic has just nine goals in 47 games for the Bruins this year. Instead of hearing from Boston about Lucic’s all-around game, it’s more likely you’ll hear about Lucic connected to trade rumors. During the Bruins’ struggles around the holidays, the Boston sports media was hoping they could create some package involving Lucic to send him to Edmonton in exchange for Taylor Hall because every team is willing to give away their former No. 1 overall pick for a power forward in the middle of a three-plus year slide. (Actually, Edmonton would be the team willing to do that.)

The Bruins have cap issues and because of this, Lucic could be playing for another team in 2015-16, and judging by every team’s eagerness to give out bad contracts and throw money at any and every free agent, teams will be lining up to offer Lucic a big payday. If he plays himself out of Boston and off the Bruins, there might not be a place for him on the All-Animosity Team going next year, but his three-year run on the team will always be a memorable one.

Alexander Ovechkin
My animosity toward Ovechkin has declined since Sidney Crosby officially won the Crosby-Ovechkin Debate (which was never really much of a debate anyway) and I no longer have to spend time and energy defending and supporting the best player in the world against a pure goal scorer, who couldn’t care less about what happens in his own zone.

In the Road to the NHL Winter Classic on EPIX, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis referred to Ovechkin as the most pouplar athlete of the four majors sports in Washington D.C. and I questioned it at first, but when put against Bryce Harper, Robert Griffin III and John Wall, I agreed with Leonsis. After watching Ovechkin attend the Wizards game in the EPIX series and seeing him act like a normal person and not a four-time 50-plus goal scorer and one-time 65-goal scorer, I actually kind of liked him. And then watching him hope to be the last pick in the All-Star Game to win a free car, despite being possibly the best pure scorer in the world, I actually liked him a little more. I’m a Crosby guy and always will be, but maybe there’s room to be a fan of both? Maybe Ovechkin’s personality is playing him off this team?

I’m sure I will be back to being anti-Ovechkin in March when the Rangers and Capitals play again and he spends the entire night taking shots at every Ranger on the ice. Even though I will annoyed, it will put a smile on my face that my animosity toward Ovechkin is back.

Brad Marchand
I had to figure out a way to make room for Brad Marchand on the team and that meant either cutting Alexander Ovechkin or Chris Kunitz. I didn’t cut Ovechkin, even though I actually don’t have as much out-of-game animosity toward him as I do for Kunitz. By “out-of-game” animosity, I mean that I don’t mind Ovechkin when he’s not playing a game against the Rangers, or a playoff game, and putting fear into me every time he’s on the ice or every time the Capitals get a power play. Kunitz, on the other hand, makes me angry to just think about since his career has taken off with the Penguins thanks to playing with Sidney Crosby, yet people continue to consider among the league’s elite players, which was never more true when he was given a spot on Team Canada in the 2014 Olympics. I thought about putting Kunitz on D for this team and sort of making a power-play unit out of the team, but then I decided … actually, wait, that’s a great idea! Put Kunitz on defense and cut Dion Phaneuf, who couldn’t be any more irrelevant as the captain of the downfall of the Maple Leafs.

Marchand is the ultimate player who you hate to watch your team play against, but would love if he were on your team. He’s dirty and annoying, he’s a pest and nuisance, but he’s good. Or at least he can be good. There are stretches where you wonder why it looks like he doesn’t care and other stretches where he’s involved in every play and leading an unstoppable forecheck. His lapses in judgment and total disregard for player safety are what makes him hated and in the Rangers-Bruins game on Jan. 15, there he was earning a two-game suspension for slew-footing Derick Brassard (a technique that Marchand turns to frequently). The only thing worse than Marchand’s antics in that game were Jack Edwards and Andy Brickley calling the game for NESN and saying they didn’t see a slew-foot.

DEFENSEMEN

Zdeno Chara
I don’t know how Chara would feel knowing that on this team Milan Lucic wears the “C” instead of him, but if he were upset about it, I would have no problem throwing an “A” on his jersey for him.

It’s weird to think that the Bruins will retire Chara’s number one day considering the team they were when they signed him and the team they have become now seven years later. But Chara is as big of a reason as anyone in the Bruins’ turnaround from finishing the 2006-07 season with 76 points to eventually winning the Cup and being in another Cup Final. It felt like it would be at least another three decades until the Bruins won again when Chara arrived in Boston and he should be recognized for … wait a second … this is supposed to be about why I don’t like Chara. In that case, let me repurpose what I said about him last year:

Jack Edwards will likely tell you that Chara is the best defenseman in the league, but he’s the same guy who thinks fights are decided by whichever plays ends up on top of the other player on the ice. Is there anything worse than when broadcasters talk about Chara’s 108-mph slap shot in the Skills Competition in a real game? No, there’s not. Because there are a lot of times in real games when you get to sprint untouched from the blue into a still puck in the slot and rip a bomb into an open net. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is the lovefest for the 6-foot-9, one-time Norris Trophy winner.

Chris Kunitz
The Rangers’ 3-1 series comeback against the Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals last year was an amazing five days, in which any shot, bad bounce or deflection could have ended the Rangers’ season a month earlier than it lasted. And aside from the jubilation from watching the Rangers come back against a team that had its way with the Rangers in the postseason forever, came the jubilation of watching Chris Kunitz score once in the series.

I moved Kunitz back on D on this team just to keep him on and it was a move I had to make after originally thinking of leaving him off this year’s roster. But the more I thought about him and the more I thought about him putting up stats and getting paid as the product of playing on a line with the best player of this generation, I had to find a way to keep him on the team.

When I was in college in Boston, there was a place called New York Pizza next to the Boston Common on Boylston St. that I would always eat at 2 a.m. at the earliest when I wasn’t exactly sober. I swore to everyone that visited me that New York Pizza was the best pizza in Boston and every person I told this to agreed with me because I would take them there after a night of drinking. It wasn’t until one time when I went to New York Pizza in the middle of the day and had a slice and could barely get two bites down that I realized that the alcohol had masked the true taste of the pizza. Chris Kunitz’s career pre-Sidney Crosby was me eating New York Pizza sober in the middle of the day and Chris Kunitz’s career with Sidney Crosby has been me eating New York Pizza drunk.

Last year, I said, “I feel like you could stick pretty much anyone and I don’t mean just any NHL player, but rather any actual person on a line with Crosby and they would be good for 15-20 goals,” and I believe that to be 100 percent true. And because that’s true, let’s stop pretending that Chris Kunitz is the type of player that he isn’t.

GOALIE

Martin Brodeur
Like last year … was there any other choice? And unless you’re a Devils fan or have changed your stance on the Ten Commandments, then you will agree with Brodeur as the starting goalie once again.

Yes, I stole that line from myself from last year. And maybe there were other choices (cough, cough, Carey Price, cough, cough), but with Brodeur set to retire on Thursday after trying to play at the age of 42 for the St. Louis Blues, it made sense to bring him back one more time.

Rather than ride off into the sunset as a lifetime Devil, who could have enjoyed a final game in New Jersey last season, Brodeur had to come back this season. After 1,259 games with the Devils, his stats will always have those glaring seven games at the bottom of the list. Sure, he added three more wins to his all-time record of 691 wins, but it’s unlikely that number will ever get touched, so instead of leaving it at 688, it’s now at 691 with a little bit of stink on it.

There are some players that are just supposed to play for one franchise forever and Brodeur is one of those players, considering he has been on the Devils since I was in kindergarten. Yes, I said KINDERGARTEN! Very rarely does a Ray Bourque-like move work out and instead it just gets weird when someone like Brian Leetch, who was a Ranger for 17 years, ends up playing 15 games for the Maple Leafs and 61 games for the Bruins at the end of his career.

I also said that about Brodeur last year and now that he’s no longer a one-team career guy, it’s a shame that he put on another jersey in an attempt to try to hang on to the only thing he has known to do in the winter for his whole life. I thought Martin Brodeur would retire at the end of last year and he should have. But now that he will make it official on Thursday (barring another Roger Clemens-like midseason comeback) it’s time for me to say it again:

I will miss Martin Brodeur when he retires, but my animosity for him will stay the same.

Podcasts • Rangers

Jul 9, 2014

Podcast: Brian Monzo

Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since it ended and the departure of Benoit Pouliot, Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle.

The Rangers’ last game was 28 days ago and therefore we have been without hockey for 28 days. But the best part about having your team reach the Stanley Cup Final, other than playing for the Cup, is extending the season so long that next season doesn’t feel that far away. And with the Rangers playing until mid-June, we got the NHL Awards, the NHL Draft and the start of free agency all immediately following the devastating Game 5 loss.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since it ended, the ridiculous contract Benoit Pouliot received from the Oilers and whether it matters that Anton Stralman and Brian Boyle signed with the Lightning.

Podcasts • Rangers • Rangers Playoffs

May 30, 2014

Podcast: Brian Monzo

Brian Monzo of WFAN joins me to talk about the feel-good stories surrounding the Rangers’ Stanley Cup run and which Western Conference team Rangers fans should want to play.

Three weeks ago this didn’t seem possible. And even though it’s now possible, it doesn’t feel real. The Rangers will play for the Stanley Cup starting on Wednesday after beating the Canadiens in Game 6 and in six games.

After a long stressful night waiting for time to run out on the Canadiens after Dominic Moore’s goal, I called WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo late on Thursday night into Friday morning to talk about the Rangers’ improbable three-week stretch. Monzo joined me to talk about the Rangers’ series win over the Canadiens, the feel-good stories surrounding the team’s Stanley Cup run and which team Rangers fans should want to play from the Western Conference.

Podcasts • Rangers

Apr 3, 2014

Podcast: Brian Monzo

Brian Monzo of WFAN joins me to talk about how Martin St. Louis has impacted the Rangers in a way Ryan Callahan never could and whether Alex Burrows’ hit on Ryan McDonagh was dirty and deserving of a suspension.

Since the 2004-05 lockout, it’s taken an average of 92.3 points to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. I looked that up and did some math to come up with that number back on March 17 when the Rangers were 36-29-4 and coming off a devastating 1-0 home loss to the Sharks. The Rangers had 13 games left in the season and were going to need to win at least eight of them to have a chance at the playoffs. I was skeptical and wasn’t sure if I would get to watch playoff hockey this year or have to hate-watch playoff hockey this year. But since March 17, the Rangers have gone 7-1-0 and have 90 points, and if the math holds true, they need to win just one of their last five games to make the playoffs. So in honor of the Rangers’ recent run, I decided to do a podcast with person who told me with 13 games left that an 11-2-0 run wasn’t out of the question.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about how Martin St. Louis has impacted the Rangers in a way Ryan Callahan never could, whether Alex Burrows’ hit on Ryan McDonagh was dirty and deserving of a suspension and if the Rangers can compete with the Bruins and Penguins in the playoffs.

Podcasts • Rangers

Feb 25, 2014

Podcast: Brian Monzo

Brian Monzo of WFAN joins me to talk about the Ryan Callahan trade rumors and why trading the captain would be the most significant move of Glen Sather’s tenure.

The Olympics are over and the NHL is back. The Rangers begin their post-break season on Thursday night against Chicago at Madison Square and will play in Philadelphia on Saturday and then host Boston on Sunday for a very tough three games in four days. And with 23 games left in the Rangers’ season and just eight days until the trade deadline, it’s looking more likely that these will be Ryan Callahan’s final days as a Ranger.

WFAN Mike’s On: Francesa on the FAN producer Brian Monzo joined me to talk about the use of NHL players in the Olympics after some recent devastating injuries, the growing Ryan Callahan trade rumors and why trading the captain would be the most significant move of Glen Sather’s tenure.

Tag: Brian Boyle