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Tag: Zach Parise

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Rangers

Feb 27, 2014

The Break Is Over for the Rangers and Blackhawks

The Rangers begin the post-break schedule and stretch run of the season against the Blackhawks and that calls for an email exchange with Tab Bamford of Committed Indians.

The break is finally over. After 20 days without Rangers hockey, the Blueshirts return from the Olympic break without their leading scorer, but with three challenging games over the next four days. The Rangers host the Blackhawks on Thursday, head south to see the Flyers on Saturday and then back home to play the Bruins on Sunday. Now that there are just 23 games left in the season, we are officially in the stretch run and it all starts against the defending champions.

With the Rangers and Blackhawks playing for the second and last time this year, I did an email exchange with Tab Bamford of Committed Indians to talk about Patrick Kane’s performance in the Olympics, if Blackhawks fans trust Corey Crawford and what it’s like to be on top of the hockey world.

Keefe: The Olympics are over and they didn’t end the way I wanted them to for Team USA and that’s because they couldn’t score enough or actually when it came to playing Canada or Finland, they couldn’t score at all.

Patrick Kane is the face of hockey in the United States. He is the best American-born player in the NHL and was the best player on the 2014 version of Team USA. It was Kane who everyone turned to control and carry Team USA’s offense in the Olympics and lead them offensively to the gold-medal game, but he never got going. Kane seemed to hit a rough stretch just as the Olympics began and appeared to be in a funk and snake-bitten when it came to breakaways, penalty shots and shootouts as well as a couple of shots that were inches away from tying the semifinal game against Canada. But I’m sure Kane will have his goal-scoring abilities back when the NHL returns and the Blackhawks visit Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had the Patrick Kane-type of game we expected in the Olympics against the Rangers.

It’s disappointing that Kane wasn’t his usual self in Sochi because had he been, Team USA could have gotten past Canada and could have ended the now 34-year drought since this country’s last gold medal. But he shared his frustration with the media after the loss to Finland and looked like one of a few Team USA players that wanted to be playing in the bronze-medal loss.

Are you disappointed with Kane’s performance in the Olympics and him missing out on the chance to become a bigger name and face for the game?

Bamford: Not at all. If you look around that USA roster, there were plenty of guys not pulling their weight, especially at the center position. Kane, like Zach Parise, needed to be a bigger part of the scoring, but Team USA simply didn’t have the horses to put together two or three quality lines that could generate consistent offense.

Keefe: Henrik Lundqvist is now in his ninth season in the NHL and out of the eight prior seasons, Lundqvist has been to the playoffs seven times, losing in the first round three times, the second round three times and the conference finals once. Any success the Rangers have had in the post-lockout era can be attributed to Lundqvist, but here in New York, casual fans or Islanders and Devils fans like to cite his Cup-less career as a reason why Lundqvist isn’t what his stats suggest, despite playing at a Vezina-worthy level since his rookie season.

I always say if the Blackhawks had Henrik Lundqvist as their goalie, it’s scary to think of the type of record they would have and the type of dynasty they could build. If the Blackhawks can have the type of regular season they had last year and then the postseason they had, winning their second Cup in four years, with Corey Crawford, it’s hard to imagine what they could do with someone like Lundqvist.

Last year in the playoffs it seemed like the Blackhawks’ biggest concern, especially in the Final against the Bruins, was how Crawford would play. Do you trust Crawford in net after having now won, or is goaltending still a concern for Blackhawks fans?

Bamford: I trust the Blackhawks’ group of defensemen and the combination of Crawford and Antti Raanta to be good enough … and that’s the key. Crawford has his moments of Vezina-caliber brilliance and others that leave you wondering how the hell he ever made an NHL roster. But, for the most part, he’s been good enough to win games. He was overused and banged up early this season and how he performs down the stretch will be important.

Keefe: I went to college in Boston and know a lot of people that were either at Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final or were watching it with the belief that the Bruins were forcing a Game 7 in the final couple minutes back in June.

What were the emotional changes like at the end of Game 6 and those 17 seconds that changed hockey history? Going from looking at a Game 7 at home for the Cup to looking at overtime to either win the Cup or go to that Game 7 to looking at winning the Cup so quickly must have been hard to handle.

Bamford: Truthfully, I think there was a lot of disbelief on both benches. To have an empty-net and tie the game is one thing, but to score again 17 seconds later to pull ahead in any game is almost unfathomable, much less in a Stanley Cup-clinching game.

Keefe: The last time the Rangers won the Stanley Cup I was in second grade. It will be 20 years this June since the Rangers beat the Canucks in seven games and the MSG Network is running out of storylines to overkill into making documentaries about from that season. The Rangers need to start making new memories since their best memories in the last 20 years are losing to Flyers in the 1996-97 conference finals and losing to the Devils in the 2011-12 conference finals.

Prior to the Blackhawks winning the Cup in 2009-10, they hadn’t been to the finals since 1991-92 and hadn’t won it all since 1960-61. But after almost 50 years without winning the Cup, the Blackhawks have now won it twice in the last four years.

What is it like to be on top of the hockey world, for someone who forgets what that feels like or means? As a Yankees fan, I have never bought into the idea of a grace period and treat every season as if the Yankees haven’t won the World Series in decades. When it comes to Blackhawks, do you believe in a grace period or would you be devastated if the season ended any other way than with the Cup back in Chicago?

Bamford: It’s surreal. You talk about the Rangers drought … the Hawks hadn’t won the Cup since 1961 before 2010. But, beyond the lack of a championship, the Blackhawks hadn’t even been relevant in almost a full generation. After they burned down a roster loaded with Hall of Famers like Chris Chelios, Ed Belfour, Steve Larmer, Denis Savard and Jeremy Roenick, fans in Chicago were left with a team that was ranked the worst in professional sports (not just hockey) by Forbes less than five years before they hoisted the Cup.

Any fan that’s been around the team for longer than five years will tell you it didn’t make sense that they were champions for a while in 2010 because of how far they had come in such a short amount of time. They were among the last place teams in wins, attendance, revenue, All-Star and postseason appearances. They couldn’t get a call back from an agent, much less sell season tickets. Now there’s a waiting list for tickets that’s thousands of names deep. In a town that had the Cubs, White Sox and Hawks all down for so long, having the Hawks rise to the top has been a wonderful experience for fans.

Keefe: I attended the Rangers-Blackhawks game in Chicago in January. It was my first time in Chicago and my first time at the United Center and it was an awesome experience that was made even better by the Rangers’ 3-2 win.

In that game, the Rangers led 2-0 after the first, but blew that lead (which came as no surprise), before Carl Hagelin broke the tie in the third. It was an encouraging win, beating the defending champions in their building, and since that game, the Rangers have gone 10-4-0 and have positioned themselves as the current 2-seed in the Metropolitan.

Before the break, the Rangers were playing their best hockey of the year (with the exception of a 2-1 home loss to the Oilers on Feb. 6). Now with what will have been 20 days off between games and without Mats Zuccarello for the next few weeks, I’m not sure what to expect from the Rangers as they return from the break.

What kind of game do you expect on Thursday night and are you concerned with how the Blackhawks will play coming off the break?

Bamford: It’s hard to know what to expect out of either of these teams with the number of Olympians returning to the ice. For Chicago, there’s looking back at the Olympics and forward to Saturday night’s outdoor game against Pittsburgh as distractions surrounding a big game against a quality opponent at MSG. The first five minutes to begin the game and the last 10 minutes of the third period will show us a lot about how ready both of these teams are for the home stretch.

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Blogs • Team USA

Feb 21, 2014

Team USA-Canada Thoughts: Goodbye, Gold Medal

Team USA was dominated by Canada in the semifinals and the chance to end the goal-medal drought will have to wait another four years.

Friday could have been memorable. Team USA could have beaten Canada. They could have played for the gold medal for the second time in as many Olympics and the third time in the last four. They could have forced Canada to play for the bronze medal on Saturday morning. They could have proven that USA Hockey is on the same level as Hockey Canada. They could have been one win closer to winning gold for the first time since 1980.

But Friday wasn’t memorable. At least not in a good way. Jonathan Quick was the only member of Team USA to show up and we’re lucky he did. Or maybe we’re not since all Quick’s performance did was prevent Americans from changing the channel as they watched the clock slowly tick away on their gold medal dreams. Without Quick, every American could have gone back to work earlier or saved their bank account from an excessive early-afternoon or bar tab or flipped over to watch King of Queens or Everybody Loves Raymond reruns rather than monitor the clock in the final minutes and seconds of the semifinal game, hoping Team USA had another last-minute Zach Parise goal from 2010 in their back pocket.

The Team USA we saw on Thursday wasn’t the team we saw the previous four games and that’s Dan Bylsma’s fault. Throughout the game, the team made no adjustments to create offense as the clock slowly wound down on their goal-medal campaign. Aside from Patrick Kane giving us a few “Ohhhh!” and “Ahhhh!” moments (and those were mostly exaggerated “Ohhhh!” and “Ahhhh!” moments since we were looking for something, anything to be excited about) Team USA never really came close to putting the puck in the net. The worst kind of hockey fans are those that get overly excited and get out of their seat for any 3-on-2 or for their team simply carrying the puck over the opposing blue since it’s unlikely either of those things will result in a goal, but I found myself getting worked up whenever Team USA was able to just gain possession on the other side of the red.

It’s hard to win when you don’t score and despite recording 31 shots (though I’m still unsure of where about 20 of those came from), you can count the true Team USA scoring chances on one hand and you could still count them if that one hand had only three fingers. Team USA never challenged Carey Price and never made a goalie who wouldn’t cross my mind in picking to start for me in a game for everything work for his eventual shutout. Canada dominated the entire game and again, if it weren’t for Quick, what was a 1-0 game would have easily been 5-0 or 6-0 or worse. Quick played like the former Conn Smythe he is and the Olympic MVP he could have been had Team USA won the game.

Despite the result, it’s hard to think that this Team USA was only one goal worse than this Team Canada. Canada was missing it’s second- and third- best players (Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Tavares) and they still won and they are still playing for the goal medal. It’s hard to think about what the result of the game would have been if Canada had Stamkos and Tavares in the lineup or if Quick had only been amazing and not unbelievable. If Patrick Kane is Team USA’s best player, where would this team be without Phil Kessel and Zach Parise (or whoever you think are Team USA’s best two players after Kane)? But this game doesn’t mean that USA Hockey has lost a step in its pursuit of Hockey Canada over the last four years. It’s just that this Team USA wasn’t as good as this Team Canada.

After waiting four years thinking that this would be the time to end the drought, it’s all over. Sure, Team USA plays again on Saturday morning against Finland for the bronze medal, but who cares? Anything other than gold was going to be a disappointment after the way the 2010 Games ended in overtime in Vancouver. Making the gold-medal game wasn’t going to be enough. Only winning gold was.

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Blogs • Team USA

Feb 19, 2014

Team USA-Czech Republic Thoughts: We Want Canada

I was worried that Team USA drew the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals, but it turned out there was nothing to worry about with this Team USA against that Czech Republic team.

I wanted Team USA to draw any team other than Czech Republic in the quarterfinals of the Olympics. But after winning all three first-round games and having a better goal differential than Canada and Finland, Team USA’s reward for earning the 2-seed was the winner of Czech Republic-Slovakia. And Czech Republic-Slovakia meant Czech Republic.

Canada ended up drawing Latvia and Finland ended up drawing Russia. Team USA got stuck with the Czech Republic, the 1998 gold winner, and a team still boasting household names, even if those names don’t hold as much meaning because of age.

But being so worried about the Czechs upsetting Team USA for the last few days was all for nothing. Here are the Thoughts from the game.

– When James van Riemsdyk scored just 1:39 into the game, I thought we could be in for another laugher, and for a quarterfinal game, we kind of were … eventually. After the Czechs tied the game up less than three minutes after van Riemsdyk’s goal and dominated play for the first period, I thought we might be in for a USA-Russia-type game. Instead Team USA won by three goals and their wins now in the tournament have been 7-1, 3-2, 5-1 and 5-2 for a combined 20-6.

– Czech Republic had plenty of quality first-period scoring chances that they didn’t capitalize on, but the play they did score on was when Ryan McDonagh shot the puck off Ryan Suter and over Jonathan Quick in an attempt to clear the puck. McDonagh must have learned how to score on his own net from Dan Girardi since he has had enough examples to watch from his teammate.

– Jaromir Jagr was part of the Czech’s 1998 gold-medal team. To put into perspective how long ago that was, here are some members of the 1998 Team USA roster: Pat LaFontaine, John LeClair, Tony Amonte, Bryan Berard, Joel Otto and Gary Suter. And here some of the 1998 Team Canada members: Wayne Gretzky, Ray Bourque, Joe Sakic, Steve Yzerman, Eric Lindros and Trevor Linden. (Eric Lindros was the captain for Canada over Gretzky, Bourque, Sakic, Yzerman, anyone. That is real life.)

Even Petr Nedved played for the Czech Republic. He is 42, last played in the NHL in 2006-07 and I think he still has mid-90s TUUKs on his skates. At 37, Patrik Elias actually seemed like one of the Czechs younger players.

– Phil Kessel (6), Paul Stastny (2), David Backes (3), Dustin Brown (2), Cam Fowler, Joe Pavelski, Ryan McDonagh, John Carlson, Ryan Kesler, James van Riemsdyk and Zach Parise have all scored. Prior to the Olympics, I thought leaving Bobby Ryan off the team was the biggest mistake because of Team USA’s lack of goal-scoring ability, but it hasn’t been an issue. All four lines are capable of putting the puck in the net and the combinations created by Dan Bylsma and his coaching staff have worked out perfectly.

– Casual hockey fans knew Patrick Kane, Phil Kessel and Zach Parise before the start of the Olympics and now everyone knows T.J. Oshie. But David Backes, despite being the captain of the Blues, is a name that should be growing in popularity for those who weren’t familiar with his game.

Backes doesn’t garner the attention of some of the flashier names on Team USA since he doesn’t put up superstar offensive numbers, but his game is certainly one to be admired. He played his best game of the Olympics against the Czech Republic and that’s saying a lot since he has looked great throughout all of the games in the tournament. It’s enjoyable to watch Kane dangle, Kessel fly and Parise create, but it’s also fun to watch Backes overpower defensemen in the corners and take over the play in the offensive zone.

– With Team USA holding a 5-1 lead for most of the third, I couldn’t help by check in on the Canada-Latvia game, which was tied 1-1 until 13:06 of the third. Latvia had one NHL player on its roster (Zemgus Girgensons of the Sabres) and started a goalie (Kristers Gudlevskis) who has played in the AHL and ECHL this season, but they hung with the Canadians for the entire game and kept all of Canada on edge for 53:06 of the game. I only say 53:06 and not 60:00 because Canada dominated the play, outshooting Latvia 57-16, and you knew that once they scored the seemingly inevitable second goal it would be over.

If Latvia had won, it would have made for a great story for the 48 hours leading up to a USA-Latvia game (and it would have made for a great story in Latvia forever), but USA-Latvia isn’t what we want even if it’s the easier way. It’s been 34 years since Team USA won the gold and it wouldn’t feel right if Canada wasn’t part of ending the drought.

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Blogs • Email Exchanges • Rangers

Feb 7, 2014

Final Pit Stop for Rangers-Penguins

The Rangers and Penguins meet for the last time this season in what is their last game before the Olympic break and that calls for an email exchange with Jim Rixner of PensBurgh.

After Friday, there will be three weeks without Rangers hockey. I know, it’s devastating. But in place of Rangers hockey is Olympic hockey and Team USA hockey, which will do more than fill the void left by the NHL. In the final game for the Rangers before the Olympic break, they meet the Penguins for the final time this season and the last thing you want to do before having a long layoff is play the best the team in the Eastern Conference on the road, but that’s how the Rangers are set up.

With the Rangers and Penguins meeting on Friday night in Pittsburgh, I did an email exchange with Jim Rixner of PensBurgh to talk about if Chris Kunitz is the luckiest player in the league, whether or not Penguins fans trust Marc-Andre Fleury and if Dan Bylsma should have received his contract extension.

Keefe: Chris Kunitz is the luckiest man in the world. Or at least the luckiest hockey player in the world. A solid player and reliable scorer through the majority of his career, Kunitz did have 161 points in 163 games with the Ducks between 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. But prior to the 2012-13 season, Kunitz’s career single-season high for goals was 26, which he scored in 82 games in 2011-12 with the Penguins. And then last season as a linemate of Sidney Crosby’s, Kunitz’s production took off and he scored 22 goals … in 48 games! This season, also as a linemate of Crosby’s, Kunitz has 27 goals in 56 games and is on pace for at least a 40-goal season.

Not only is Kunitz riding Crosby to career point totals and contract extensions, but the wing is also on Team Canada this year over some very worthy candidates and you would have to think he will also be a linemate of Crosby’s there.

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. Am I wrong for constantly bringing up this argument with others (you’re not the first) about Kunitz being lucky to be on a line with Crosby? Is it wrong for me to cite Crosby as the sole reason for Kunitz having career years in his mid-30s?

Rixner: I don’t think it’s wrong to cite Sidney Crosby as being a great help in the production of Chris Kunitz. Kunitz is sitting in the top 10 in the league in scoring, and if he’s on a team that’s not the Pittsburgh Penguins, we all know that’s not going to happen. Crosby’s the best player in the game, so of course he’s going to boost his linemates statistics and that’s definitely been the case for Chris Kunitz.

But I don’t really think it’s luck that’s made the Kunitz-Crosby combination a success, or the sole reason that Chris Kunitz is a productive player. First of all, his skill-set meshes perfectly with Crosby in that they both like to play low in the offensive zone and use a grinding, cycle-based game to use their lower-body strength to outwork opponents and drive chances from right in front of the net. Kunitz also has underrated in-zone playmaking ability, he has good vision and is capable of playing the puck very well in the offensive end with touch passes. He’s tough enough to hang in front of the net on power plays and that can pay off with chances. His hands are quick enough to convert them.

Then there’s also familiarity. Crosby and Kunitz have played 2,200-plus minutes together at even strength in their careers and even more on power plays and in practices for the past five years. They know what each other’s tendencies are and how each will react in every situation. Crosby knows what Kunitz will do, say on the forecheck should the defenseman break to the left. He knows where Kunitz is going to go if he gets the puck, and he knows precisely when he’ll arrive there. That’s something, that in a short tournament like the Olympics, will be very useful. Players like Crosby and Gretzky and Lemieux are said to be “two steps ahead” of everyone and if you give Crosby a linemate he knows, likes and is productive with, that removes one more element of unknown variables on the ice and helps push him even further ahead of the competition.

To that end, Crosby scored seven points in seven games last Olympics, but consider that three of those were assists against a weak Norway team. Another was a shootout goal (which counts to stats). Aside from the flashy golden goal in overtime, Sidney Crosby wasn’t really that consistently productive in the 2010 Olympics with Patrice Bergeron, Eric Staal and Jarome Iginla (the three linemates they tried him with).

Keefe: Marc-Andre Fleury was the goalie for a championship team and was also the goalie for a team that lost in a Game 7 for the Cup. He can win in the playoffs because he has proven he can even if those two seasons were five and six years ago.

But after his 2011-12 playoff debacle against the Flyers when the Penguins were bounced in six games by a 7-seed and the disaster last postseason against the Islanders that saw him lose his job to Tomas Vokoun, it seemed like maybe Fleury was ruined. However, so far this season, he has played better than he has any other year and he might set career bests in wins, goals against average, save percentage and shutouts. What’s different about Fleury this year compared to last spring and do you trust him?

Rixner: I trust Marc-Andre Fleury, but shakily so. The most unsettling thing about his meltdowns in 2012 and 2013 in the playoffs was that he had pretty good regular seasons before the bottom dropped out and now again this year, we’re seeing another strong regular season. The hope is that there are some changes from year’s past. The Penguins have a new goaltending coach. Fleury’s seen a sports psychologist that’s hopefully helped get his mind to a better place. The Pens now have Rob Scuderi back, a defensive defenseman who’s thrived in the playoffs in L.A. and Pittsburgh. And they also have Jacques Martin as an assistant coach to lend a defensive conscious to the team.

Will it work? I’d be lying if I said I was 100 percent confident, but there certainly are enough changes to at least believe they’re not just trying the same thing every year. Also, I think it’s important to remember that the Pens failures have been more than just on Fleury. In 2012 when the Pens met the Flyers, Philly got under their skin and had the speedy and skilled forwards to trade chances with them. Ditto the Islanders last year in terms of having impressive team speed and ability to counter-punch a wide open Pittsburgh team. All we as Pens fans can do right now is hope that they play more responsible hockey in front of Fleury and that he can continue his strong regular season into the playoffs.

Keefe: After the Penguins’ Cup win over the Red Wings in 2008-09, I thought we were about to see an Oilers-esque run from the Penguins built around Crosby and Malkin. And if they had Henrik Lundqvist the last few years, they might have put one together. But since winning the Cup, the Penguins have lost in the second round, the first round twice and the conference finals despite usually being the best or one of the best regular-season teams.

Dan Bylsma took over the team during their Cup-winning season and has led them to the playoffs in each of his four seasons. But after the Penguins were swept by the Bruins last year following to straight years of first-round exits, it seemed like there was a lot of backlash and criticism toward Bylsma and that he might be on his way out. Then the Penguins went and gave him a two-year extension through the 2015-16 season. Are you a fan of Bylsma and were you a fan of the extension?

And on another note, what can I expect from Bylsma over the next few weeks as the Team USA head coach in the Olympics?

Rixner: Well, the Oilers didn’t have a formal salary cap and were able to keep their Gretzky, Kurri, Messier, Coffey, Anderson and Fuhr for much of the ’80s in their run. The Pens have had to drop Jordan Staal, Sergei Gonchar and even role players like Scuderi, Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy due mainly to the salary cap within a few years of winning it all. Their team depth has definitely diminished since winning it all in ’09.

I’m fine with Bylsma, because like you mentioned he is a solid regular-season coach. The Penguins have, by far, lost the most man-games to injury in the league this season, but they’re still the best team in the East. It helps having a good team anchored by Crosby and Malkin, but the coaching staff has plugged lesser guys into big roles and it’s worked. They also have the No. 1 power play and the No. 1 penalty kill in the league so far right now. Again, a lot of that credit goes to the execution and skill of the players, but that’s also a credit to the coaches for their preparation and instruction. And, at least they keep the team invested and do more than “just go through the motions” on most nights.

Team USA ought be great for Bylsma, because it has so many players who fit perfectly for the philosophy of his north-south style. Zach Parise, Dustin Brown, David Backes, T.J. Oshie, Ryan Kesler and, yes, Rangers captain Ryan Callahan. It’s a match made in heaven for Bylsma who likes his wingers big, physical and active on the forecheck. He also stresses the defensemen making the long, vertical stretch pass, and I think the skill and ability of the USA personnel defensively really fits what he looks for as well. It’ll be interesting because Bylsma usually has the stud centers in Crosby-Malkin, and center is probably the biggest weak point on Team USA (compared to the talent that Canada, Russia and Sweden has) so we’ll see how he handles that.

Keefe: The Shawn Thornton-Brooks Orpik incident and that whole Penguins-Bruins game as a whole (including James Neal and Brad Marchand) got a lot of attention for the gongshow that it was. As someone who went to college in Boston and who has friends from there and who live there and even some who covers the Bruins, I’m certainly aware of the Boston perspective of everything that occurred in that game and their take on the suspensions and injuries that resulted from it. Do you think your Penguins are a dirty team?

Rixner: I don’t think the Penguins are necessarily dirtier than any other team (especially since they no long employ Mr. Cooke). They certainly have some hot-heads, but NHL players are basically all alpha-male young men with a lot of testosterone who are playing a physical and emotional game that moves really fast. There’s no excuse for James Neal’s actions that night, but consider that he kneed the same guy in the head who pretty viciously boarded him five months earlier. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind, but it’s not just the Penguins players who are starting incidents or behaving badly, as the cowardly action from Thornton showed as well.

Keefe: I attended both of the Rangers-Penguins games at Madison Square Garden this season and in the first game (Nov. 6), the Rangers won 5-1 and in the second game, (Dec. 18) the Penguins won 4-3 in a shootout. In their only game in Pittsburgh this season (Jan. 3), the Penguins won 5-2.

I go into every Rangers-Penguins game with a pessimistic view because to me, the Penguins are a terrible matchup for the Rangers. They rely on their offense and power play to win games, while the Rangers rely on Henrik Lundqvist and pretty much only Henrik Lundqvist. That’s why the Rangers’ 5-1 win back on Nov. 6 was so surprising and also why their late comeback on Dec. 18 was as well. You would think the Jan. 3 game is how a Rangers-Penguins game should play out, but so far this season the Rangers have gotten three of a possible six points against the Penguins and I’m content with that.

But since the last time these two teams met, the Rangers have gone off on an 11-3-1 record and are playing their best hockey of the year as Alain Vigneault’s system is finally coming together. What do Penguins fans think of the Rangers and what kind of game do you expect on Friday night?

Rixner: Most Pens fans, to be honest, aren’t all that concerned about any threat within the division. With every team 17-20-plus points back in the rear-view mirror and being non-threats all season, the focus has been more on injuries and seeing the team play well more-so than worrying about anyone chasing Pittsburgh. Personally, I’ve always thought Washington, Philadelphia and the Rangers would be the biggest division challenges for the Pens, and I even picked the Rangers to win the division in my pre-season predictions. Maybe I slept on the transition time Vigneault would need, but I’m not surprised that now the Rangers are playing good hockey lately.As far as the game goes, we’ll have to see. Right on the eve of the Olympics, a lot of players might have their minds on vacation, or heading over to Russia. I know Evgeni Malkin has been just sensational recently and really seems motivated and focused on getting his game in gear in time for his big homecoming. The Pens are an amazing 23-4-0 so far this year at home. They’ve been beyond impressive on special teams and have had pretty good goaltending too. They’ll look to use their strengths to get out to a good start and an early lead and then just coast on to victory. Hopefully the Martin/Orpik combo can get ready for the Olympics by keeping Rick Nash off the scoreboard and limiting his chances as much as possible and the Pens will go into the break on a high note.But, if they check out a game too soon, as we saw in November, the Rangers definitely have the firepower and ability to beat Pittsburgh in a relatively easy fashion. It’s cliché, but the first period will be key. If Lundqvist can come up big on the Pens and keep it 0-0, I like the Rangers chances. If the Pens can punch through and get a 1-0 or 2-0 lead, obviously the chances that they’ll end up getting the win go way, way up.

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Blogs

Jun 14, 2012

Hiroki Kuroda Is No Longer a Coin Flip and Other Thoughts

Thoughts on Hiroki Kuroda, A-Rod, Nick Swisher, perfect games, no-hitters and Zach Parise.

It’s Thursday, and that means it’s time for Thursday Thoughts, which is my way of putting together things that didn’t end up in columns for the week.

The Coin Flip Kuroda name is officially retired … indefinitely. That doesn’t mean it won’t make a comeback like Andy Pettitte, but it really holds no meaning as of late. I’m not about to start calling Kuroda “Sure Thing,” but I can’t justify his “Coin Flip” status.

Here are Kuroda’s last four starts.

May 27 @ OAK:  8 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

June 2 @ DET:  7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

June 8 vs. NYM:  7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 K

June 13 @ ATL:  6 IP, 9 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 8 K

Total line: 28 IP, 21 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 BB, 22 K, 1.29 ERA, 0.929 WHIP

Kuroda has now made 13 starts this season and has allowed three earned runs or less in 10 of them. He has six losses and one no-decision, but in those seven games the offense has scored 16 runs, including being shut out twice and scoring just one run twice. (The offense has scored three runs or less in eight of his starts.)

The real question I ask with Yankees pitchers is: Do I trust him? I don’t think I “trust” Kuroda yet (since I trust CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte), but I have confidence when he is on the mound. Having trust in a Yankees pitcher is the highest compliment I can give them, and for Kuroda just having confidence in him right now is a big step in the right direction when you consider that 24 days ago he lost to the Royals and 29 days ago he gave up seven earned runs and three home runs in Toronto. (For example, I just now have “confidence” in Boone Logan after two-plus seasons, but I don’t “trust” him. However I’m getting there.) Kuroda hasn’t lost since that May 21 start against the Royals at the Stadium, and since then he has outgrown the “Coin Flip” nickname and given me confidence in him. The next step is gaining that trust and then we’ll start to talk about where he fits into the postseason rotation.

***

Is anyone surprised that A-Rod finished second and Nick Swisher finished third as the most hated players in baseball (A.J. Pierzynski finished first) in the Men’s Journal player’s poll? Actually I’m surprised that Swisher finished third. I can understand why non-New Yorkers hate A-Rod, but Swisher? Is it possible that even non-Yankees fans are seeing what some Yankees fans are in Swisher’s over-the-top and sometimes phony personality? At least one player is.

An unnamed American League veteran said, “Everything about (Swisher) is annoying, from his mannerisms to his always wanting to ‘bro’ it down. Being around him is just exhausting.”

Maybe it’s just going to take me more time to come around on Swisher than others (though we are in the fourth season of this and there might not be a fifth season), but I just don’t see it happening. Between Swisher’s lack of hitting in the postseason, his low Baseball IQ, his shaky defense, his arguing of obvious called third strikes and the way he goes about things (like climbing the wall for a rob attempt when the ball is 30-plus rows back) there’s just something about him that I can’t stand. I guess that “something” is the “broing it down.”

***

Of course the one night I decide to go to sleep early there’s a perfect game on the West Coast. I felt like I had been disconnected from the world when I was scrolling through Twitter on my phone on Thursday morning and finding out in reverse order that Matt Cain had thrown a perfect game. It’s always strange when you a big story from a game, and use Twitter to watch it unfold backwards even though you already know the outcome.

No-hitters and perfect games are always entertaining even if some old, grumpy, miserable sportswriters have nothing to say or write so they go with the angles that the feats are too common now or that they have lost their importance. This season we have seen Cain and Philip Humber throw perfect games and no-hitters from Jered Weaver, Johan Santana and the Mariners staff and all of them have been enjoyable. (Yes, I experienced joy while reading tweets about Cain’s after missing it.) And on top of those, Cy Young favorite (and one of my personal favorites) R.A. Dickey nearly added the Mets second no-hitter in 12 days on Wednesday night after the franchise suffered through 50-plus years without one.

There’s a good chance Justin Verlander could no-hit the Cubs on Thursday afternoon, and no one would be surprised. And if he does I will enjoy it the same way I have for the rest of the non-Yankees perfect games and no-hitters because they never get old unlike sportswriters.

***

“No. No way.” That’s what Zach Parise said and repeated over and over when asked if he would go to the Rangers as a free agent this offseason. Does anyone believe him?

Parise just finished his seventh season with the Devils and it would have been his eighth if there wasn’t a lockout in 2004-05. He started playing for the Devils when he was 20, and they are the only team he has known as a professional. When asked the question, he had just finished losing the Stanley Cup Final after playing in all 106 of the Devils’ games this year. So it makes sense why he would say “no” several times when asked about leaving the only team he has ever known to join their rival in the middle of the Devils locker room after a season that lasted as long and ended as devastatingly as it did.

Does that mean Parise will say no to the Rangers when they officially pursue him? Of course not. He would have to really hate money to close the door on the Rangers before they even talk to him or make him an offer, as it would destroy any leverage he has of getting more out of the Devils, and would take away from what the Red Wings might offer.

For some reason I believe Parise when he says that he wouldn’t play for the Rangers. He seems like the loyal type that you can rarely find in 2012, and as the captain of the team, I think he understands what he means to his organization. But then you start weighing his options of playing at The Rock rather than Madison Square Garden or Hockeytown and for a fan base that doesn’t come close to what the Rangers and Red Wings have, and you would have to think that Parise would have to be more than just someone who hates money to stay with the Devils. He would have to be insane.

The Devils are still Martin Brodeur’s team even if he hasn’t been Martin Brodeur for a while now, and once he retires it will be Ilya Kovalchuk’s team. And while Parise would join a roster with Henrik Lundqvist, Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards and Marc Staal, if he signed with the Rangers, he would get paid and have the ability to contend for the Cup in his prime as the youth of the Rangers enters theirs. I don’t think you can say the same for the Devils. But maybe Brodeur’s line after the Devils’ Game 6 loss that “These guys will be celebrating a championship in the near future” is a step toward convincing Parise to stay a Devil the way Brodeur has for so long.

If Parise decides he would rather play his home games in Newark rather than Manhattan, and if he would rather try to win the Cup with the Devils and have a parade in a parking lot rather than up the Canyon of Heroes then I can’t help him.

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