As most of you already know my Fishstick loving brother BD is currently on umm… errr… sabbatical, (yeah that sounds good, right?) so for at least the rest of the season there will be no official Sibling Rivalry. This left me in a bit of a predicament with the Rangers visiting the Mausoleum tonight, and a day after the trade deadline no less. What could I possibly do for a blog worthy of all the good work we did for the last two seasons?
We have come to understand many of you faithful Hockeybuzz patrons have come to enjoy the segment. Who doesn't want to see two brothers who utterly loathe each other go at it with laptops in hand? Well except for our dear mother, who hates us both equally.
With that in mind I looked far and wide for BD's replacement, kind of how Ebert did when Siskel left the mortal coil. Perhaps I would have a guest blogger every match up and we would tangle as my brother and I would have. Where to find an actual Islanders’ fan, in this day and age?? I mean one that isn’t busy looking at Tavares' scouting reports. Obviously they are not at the Coliseum, so no need to look there.
I guess it could be worse; trying to find an actual Devils' fan, well other than Wayne Z, (who I still think deep down is a Rangers' fan in denial), may be a tougher sell. You can’t blame them, they can't even be trusted to make left handed turns in their silly state.
So at my wits end, I was quite close to just scrapping the whole idea. But then a replacement emerged…
NOT B.D. Gallof (Nor a NY Islanders Blogger):
Christ, what did BD do, take a Michael Phelps-like bong hit? No. He just swathed a bit of NY cringe humor on the testicles of the NHL, making them scratch furiously. Oh wait, that would mean they actually have a pair. Nevermind.
The one bad aspect of such an insular and ravenous fanbase in the sport of hockey is that sometimes they just forget to have a sense of humor. Then again, I laugh at homeless people, so what do I know. But enough about Alexei Yashin.
So, you want to know about the Isles season? A giant ball of turd. There is no other description to apply. Rookie coach made some big mistakes. The team had trouble adjusting. Almost half the young kids are still question marks. Overspeed didn’t cause injuries later in the year. It made injuries throughout the entire season.
In fact, that this deadline, much like last season, the GM that many Isles fans have become an apologist for…failed to create value for impending free agents just like last year. But, hey, a popular Isles blog theorizes that he might just want to resign a few. That was the word last season also, my friends.
GMs run the hockey team. This hockey team is a business. This business is bleeding all over the place, and in severe distress. Today was a day to accumulate value, which was a failure last season. Now it is a failure this season.
Meanwhile, the Isles are trying to get their venue redone, which Charles Wang has pinned them into an entire land deal, and now we have the heavy dense fog of recession. Timing is everything, eh
But, it could be worse. We could have signed Wade Redden to a 6 year deal instead of the terrific Mark Streit.
Scott Gallof (NY Rangers Blogger):
Well, well, well. First let me start by thanking you for joining me. I know filling in for BD is not an easy task. I mean that’s many dozens of Krispy Kremes you’d have to inhale to even come close.
Now, if you were BD… which of course you are not, I would probably start off by saying, “What the hell were you thinking?!?” But since you aren’t…
You can knock the Wade Redden deal all you wish. You’ll get very little argument from most Rangers’ fans. You know just like you Islander fans won’t even bother justifying DP’s contract. I will say this however since John Tortorella took the reins Redden has picked up the pace somewhat. Will it last? We’ll just have to wait to see.
What I do know is that Sean Avery is back and raring to go and Dallas is footing half the bill! Also, the Rangers picked up Nik Antropov, who Tortorella will whip into shape and some sizeable depth on D in the form of Derek Morris. Dealing off Kalinin was an addition by subtraction and not many will miss the very streaky Nigel Dawes. As for Petr Prucha, he’ll be missed by the Ranger faithful and I wish him the very best in Phoenix.
Speaking of yesterday’s deadline it was nice to see the Islanders dump off their captain for a lousy conditional draft pick. You better break out those Penguins pom poms, cause if they don’t make the playoffs that would be a 5th round pick. What a pay off!
Not BD:
Well, good thing that Tortorella was hired. Way too many people were stepping on that dopey Rangers logo all too often. Unfortunately, the biggest culprit is likely Chuckie Dolan.
The hiring of Torts is one of the most overrated moves in hockey right now. The problem is that mess that Glen Sather made. Tom Renney might have been too nice, but look at what Sather gave him. Larry, Moe and Curley would have provided better expectations than Drury, Gomez and Wade “White Line” Redden.
Torts cannot reform a mess. He can only clean it up. And that might take much longer than just this season. Now he has Sean Avery to contend with. Torts might think twice next time he’s some talking head on TSN making sweeping statements on players like:
"He's embarrassed himself, he's embarrassed the organization, he's embarrassed the league and he's embarrassed his teammates, who have to look out for him. Send him home. He doesn't belong in the league." – Talking head Tortorella
Luckily he has lightweights like TSN’s lightweight James Duthrie to egg him on. Duthrie who just recently collected about 50 IQ points to denigrate bloggers, 90% of whom are brighter, more hockey savvy than this doorknob.
Now Torts has to eat those words and deal with Avery. Serves him right.
Meanwhile, Antropov and Morris are not exactly great pickups. Not that they are bad ones. They are just not enough to offset those weaknesses. Antropov is a mixed bag, so he can lineup right next to Zherdev on that accord. Size is nice, but he doesn’t quite know how to use it to that terribly well, which infuriated some Toronto fans.
As for Morris, he is not the 2nd coming of Wade Redden. But he was a costly pickup for an impending UFA.
But, hey, it’s not all a lost cause. You certainly help make the Phoenix Coyotes the trade deadline winner. Congrats!
Scott Gallof (NY Rangers Blogger):
Now if you were BD, I would probably call you a moron and that you know as little about the Rangers as you do about IP addresses. Maybe all the dirty diaper fumes have gone to your head. Since you are not BD… I will remain tactful here.
Antropov and Morris will help the power play and that is why they were brought in. The Rangers have 29th rated power play in the league so something had to be done. Did we over pay for Morris? Depends on how you look at it. Picking up Avery and then a 2nd round & conditional for Antropov you have an abundance of forwards. You are going to pay Prucha and Dawes to sit in the Press box the rest of the season? They already did tpretty much just hat for the first 62 games.
Instead they dealt them off, since both will be RFA’s at the end of the season anyhow. Prucha really never got a fair shake this season he’s probably better off in Phoenix. Now the Rangers get a definite upgrade to Kalinin, which isn’t saying all that much but he’s 6 feet tall and 220lbs and has mighty blast front the point. If Morris doesn’t work out you simply do not re-sign him over the off-season. Same goes for Antropov. The potential positives outweigh the negatives in both cases.
As for Tortorella being brought in; I will not argue that Sather’s blunders have seriously stifled this team’s post season progress and Torts will only be able to do so much. However, in the three games he has coached so far there has been already a dramatic difference in how the team is playing and controlling the puck. You’ll see much of that as your overspeed playing Bridgeport team will be hit constantly in the offensive zone.
There might be some friction between Torts and Avery but in the end both guys want to win. Tortorella’s coaching style should work very well with Avery’s game and in the meanwhile he will be kept on a tight leash.
Phoenix the big trade deadline winners? I disagree I think Calgary made off the best. That could be debated of course, but do you know who didn’t do diddly squat… that’s right the Icelanders.
Enjoy the next decade or two of “re-building,” I hear Kansas City is just lovely in October.
Not BD:
KC is a lark. The chances are of the Islanders going to KC are about as much as you have a chance to go to the Stanley Cup riding on your free agent spending spree. About the same chance as Avery and Torts singing Joan Baez songs with a bottle of white wine by a fireplace.
It is a shame that hockey fans get taken for suckers these days as those seem manipulate and take advantage by playing certain fears, cheers and information on them these days. Funny what money, land deals or job security will do.
Phoenix, with the man who actually is the reason the NYR had a resurgence, Don Maloney, also made some nice deals for picks, Lombardi and others. So add in Prucha, and Dawes, they basically brought themselves a good line and future. Now if they can just get a coach, they might get somewhere.
Now Calgary did ok on paper. But if they still cannot get past San Jose or Detroit in the playoffs, it will amount to failure.
Speaking of failure, did you know Mark Streit has 45 points? That is two less than your leading scorer Zherdev. And one less than your 8 million dollar man… Ted DiBiase …errr, Scott Gomez.
Now, not for nothing, since I am certainly not a Gallof, but as you mention Krispy Kremes earlier, a little birdy told me if Hooters gave frequent flyer miles for wings, you’d be able to travel the planet as fast as Richard Simmons can drop his short-shorts.
Speaking of not being a Gallof, I think your parents wished that several times as they spied a juvenile delinquent in their midst back in the late 80s. If only someone bought stock in denim and hairgrease back then.
Scott Gallof (NY Rangers Blogger):
However, if there is a team in the west that CAN get past the two power houses it would be Calgary. Therefore, I think Calgary did pretty well.
Maloney has done a good job in Phoenix and they did come out of the deadline on the ups. That said, both Dawes and Prucha are quite streaky and are third liners so let’s not go the route of “the sky is falling” concerning what the Rangers gave up, my overdramatic misguided person who is not my sibling. If it took those two players to swindle some other team into taking Dmitri Kalinin, then so be it.
Mark Streit may have 45 points and he was indeed the guy I wanted the Rangers to pluck during the summer free agency, but the joke is on him since he will have to waste his talents on a last place team for at least the next four years. It’s like casting Johnny Depp in Meet the Spartans Part 2. Yes you can go around saying this is a Johnny Depp picture for marketing purposes but it doesn’t change the fact that the movie is heaping pile of stool.
Speaking of hair grease, if you were indeed BD Gallof I would probably take this time to comment on the fact that at least I have something left to put hair grease on.
It’s pretty easy to sit back and chastise what the Rangers have done, especially concerning anything Glen Sather has done. Meanwhile your own team is the laughing stock of the league. Christ almighty, even Atlanta Thrashers’ fans pity you!
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