NHL preview, Rangers Top 10, Week 4

My NHL Eastern Conference standings prediction:

1. Capitals - solid forwads, Varlamov/Theodore tandem nice

2. Penguins - can't make it to the top in regular season

3. Bruins - will start slow, Thomas falls back a bit

4. Devils - How do they do it? Brodeur is back

5. Rangers - Gaborik, Lundqvist, and Staal lead the crew

6. Senators - rid of Heatley, counting on Leclaire and Kovalev

7. Hurricanes - just have a feeling Ward will do well

8. Panthers - young players are coming around

9. Sabres - Miller not quite strong enough. but Olympics starter

10. Lightning - still unproven in net and on defense

11. Flyers - goaltending issues and too many "depth" players

12. Canadiens - what a traveshamockery; midgets on top line

13. Maple Leafs - just toughnesss won't make the playoffs

14. Islanders - more decent goalies than proven good forwards

15. Thrashers - hope they play well early and Kovalchuk signs

Ten members of the New York Rangers were on the Late Show w/ David Letterman on Wednesday night to present the Top 10 List of Things Never Before Spoken By a Hockey Player.

10. Instead of fighting, why don't we work things out over brunch? (Donald Brashear)

9. Between you and me, I have no idea what the hell icing is. (Dan Girardi)

8. What this team needs is a skating kitty. (Marian Gaborik)

7. I really wish these fans would watch their language (Brandon Dubinsky)

6. High scorer gets to pick which Barbara Streisand CD we listen to on the bus (Chris Drury)

5. Forget all the goals and the awards, Gordie Howe has one nice looking butt. (Marc Staal)

4. For good luck, I lick the puck. (Christopher Higgins)

3. My real dream is to work at an insurance company. (Ryan Callahan)

2. Who could concentrate on hockey when Jennifer Aniston still hasn't found love? (Henrik Lundqvist)

1. I wish Letterman was on at ten. (Sean Avery)

I like numbers four, seven, and eight the best. Staal, Lundqvist, and Avery did the best delivering the lines, along with Higgins and Dubinsky doing a good job. Kitty! I'm guessing number three is an inside joke to the show that I missed, and number one is related to Jay Leno. Avery should have been given a better one!

The week four Survivor pick is the New York Giants on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs. Coming off of a road shutout, the Giants are facing an even weaker team. While I don't expect back-t0-back shutouts, they should also be able to cover the spread of 8.5. For the rest:

Lions (+10) @ Bears: line so big when Lions showed they can play

Bengals (-5.5) @ Browns: the Browns are pathetic and line should be bigger

Seahawks (+10.5) @ Colts: surprised by how well Seneca Wallace played last week

Ravens (+2) @ Patriots: could go either way, but choosing defense

Redskins (-7) vs. Buccaneers: battle of underachievers

Titans (-3) @ Jaguars: no chance the Titans go to 0–4

Raiders (+9) @ Texans: no reason to trust the Texans defense, so high-scoring

Dolphins (+2) vs. Bills: not feeling good about this one with no Pennington

Saints (-7) vs. Jets: would have gone with the Jets, but two cornerbacks injured

Broncos (+3) vs. Cowboys: only for home-field advantage

49ers (-9.5) vs. Rams: Gore out, but 49ers will be upset about last-second loss last week

Chargers (+6.5) @ Steelers: probably decided by a field goal; Polamalu trying to play

Packers (+3.5) @ Vikings: Rodgers wants to beat his old mentor

Pacing break!,

My guest blog on Rangers Report

Rick Carpinello over at the The Journal News's Rangers Report blog was forced to take two weeks of vacation due to newspaper cost-cutting measures, so he took a cue from his colleague Peter Abraham, who runs the Yankees blog there, to let loyal blog readers fill in as guest posters during his vacation time. My post runs today and is as follows:

It is a bittersweet chance that some of us get to guest blog for a couple weeks. While it is great for us to be featured on the blog, it is only a result of newspapers cutting costs and giving their employees more vacation time. For my appearance, I don’t have any fresh opinion on the Rangers that hasn’t already been discussed here, so I’m going to take an overall look at the National Hockey League.

The 2004–05 lockout was devastating at the time, but the prevailing opinion was that the league could come back stronger than before. Why they couldn’t do this without canceling a season, we may never know. The biggest issue for Commissioner Bettman and the league was that they needed “cost certainty,” which was their code for a salary cap. Fans of the Rangers and other teams with high attendance probably did not see any problem with the 2004 NHL, but the less heralded teams were struggling, especially in places that gained expansion teams under Bettman’s regime.

In 2009, Bettman would like to have you think that everything is rosy with record-setting attendance numbers every season since the lockout. However, are we really in a much better position now? Revenue sharing was good common sense and should have been in place for a longer time before teams were absolutely hemorrhaging money. Despite what the NHL says, we can still see arenas with a lot of empty seats, especially the new Prudential Center (when the Rangers are not playing there), and the Phoenix Coyotes did not get any better financially, being forced to file for bankruptcy. Many of the seats are filled only due to ticket deals and freebies.

Before the lockout, the NHL did not have great television ratings in the United States and therefore had a contract that generated low revenue. Since starting play again, the contract has only worsened, moving the games on cable to a channel that players can’t find in hotel rooms and only having one game per week for ten weeks in the second half of the season on a broadcast network that focuses on only a few big-market teams. In addition, NASCAR is probably ahead of the NHL in popularity, but the NBA is falling back a bit. With four seasons passed since the new CBA was ratified, teams are now finding innovative ways to play with the salary cap so that the stars still get paid and the role players have to fight for every dollar or leave to play in the KHL.

At this point, the best thing that could happen for the NHL would be to bring in fresh ideas in the form of a new commissioner. Without any ties to Bettman, the new person in charge could make changes where Bettman held strong to defend his position. This could include moving one or two teams back to Canada and finding a better way to market the league and its star players, such as putting the two latest No. 1 draft picks on national television more than twice each (only one of these is in a Versus-exclusive window).

All of these problems that still exist will lead to more heavy negotiating in the next couple of years leading up to the next Collective Bargaining Agreement, especially as the salary cap will likely see its first drop after this upcoming season.

http://rangers.lohudblogs.com/2009/08/31/guest-blogger-spiderpig/

NHL National Television Schedule Released

The National Hockey League released their schedule of which games would be on national television in the United States and Canada today. You will see the typical large amount of games involving teams from the big markets airing on Versus and NBC, but an Eastern Conference finalist from 2009, the Carolina Hurricanes, did not make the Versus schedule at all. The two teams that they eliminated from the playoffs are on Versus 13 times combined (Bruins: 7; Devils: 6). I'm guessing the Blackhawks and Red Wings got to go over the limit of eight games per team because one of each of their games in being played overseas at the beginning of the season and not in primetime. The Hurricanes are part of NBC's flex schedule but have little chance of making the air unless the Bruins and Rangers are absolutely awful this season, making NBC choose Sabres vs. Hurricanes.

Those overseas games are not actually the premiere games of the NHL this season because they are being played after the first night of games in North America, which is rediculous in itself because of the compressed schedule due to the Olympics making these four teams have it even worse. Another change from last season is that these games are taking place on Friday and Saturday. Why would Versus choose to air the games that are taking place during the day on Friday when there will surely be less people watching than if they chose Saturday?

My predicted NBC schedule based on a limit of four games per team which I believe includes the Winter Classic and past experience with NBC:

January 1: Flyers @ Bruins (Winter Classic)

January 17: Blackhawks @ Red Wings

January 24: Penguins @ Flyers (obvious; Bruins @ Carolina? Yeah right!)

January 31: Red Wings @ Penguins (no doubt)

February 7: Penguins @ Capitals (no doubt about this either)

March 7: Bruins @ Penguins (guessing they don't want another Blackhawks/Red Wings game)

March 14: Capitals @ Blackhawks (intriguing)

March 21: Rangers @ Bruins (other choice is Sabres @ Hurricanes)

April 4: Red Wings @ Flyers (no other game scheduled)

April 11: Rangers @ Flyers (subject to change based on which playoff spots are up for grabs)

My least confidence comes with scheduling the Penguins four games in a row, but they are only on the schedule one other time, and that is against the Lightning. If NBC really wanted to mix it up, they could throw Hurricanes @ Thrashers at us on March 7.

Thanks to Puck Daddy (http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Winners-losers-in-Versus-2009-10-regular-season?urn=nhl,183899) and Puck the Media (http://puckthemedia.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/your-2009-10-nhl-on-nbc-flex-schedule/).

Free Agent Frenzy: New York Rangers

Let's take a quick look at the New York Rangers' major activity so far since the beginning of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, including a couple trades and some signings.

Added: Christopher Higgins, Ryan McDonagh, Enver Lisin (RFA), Ales Kotalik, Donald Brashear, Marian Gaborik, Tyler Arnason, Brian Boyle

Subtracted: Scott Gomez, Lauri Korpikoski, Paul Mara, Nik Antropov, Colton Orr, Fredrik Sjostrom

Re-signed: Ryan Callahan, Corey Potter

Still in limbo: Brandon Dubinsky (RFA), Nikolai Zherdev (RFA), Derek Morris, Blair Betts

It looks like General Manager Glen Sather is re-making the team yet again, but this time for good reason: to have players that fit new head coach John Tortorella's style. There is more optimism for scoring with the additions of Gaborik and Higgins while losing underachiever Gomez and his seemingly devastating cap hit. That trade also brought over the Canadiens' best prospect according to Hockey's Future, McDonagh, albeit another defenseman.

On the flip side, there is reason to be worried about the team's defense and especially the penalty kill because our top pair penalty-killing forwards, Betts and Sjostrom, have left the team. We still have capable players to play there, such as Chris Drury and Callahan, but some others are going to need to step up their games. Trading Korpikoski for Lisin weakened the penalty kill further and was another trade by Coyotes GM Don Maloney to acquire players that he helped draft when he was a member of the Rangers front office. Both players are reportedly threats to sign in the KHL, but Korpikoski quickly signed a two-year deal as an RFA in Phoenix.

The first head-scratching move came shortly after the great trade of Gomez. Orr was expected to be offered a big contract as one of the best enforcers in the league, going to Toronto for four years and $4 million. At the time, it seemed like the team could replace him for cheaper from within, but Sather felt the need to sign Brashear, a hated enemy for many years going back to his Flyers days, to a $2.8 million contract over two years, a cap hit $400,000 higher than Orr's! Ales Kotalik seemed like an underachiever in Buffalo where Lindy Ruff milks a lot of talent out of his unheralded players, so he is a risk at three years and $9 million. Brian Boyle may be the second-biggest bust from the 2003 draft behind Hugh Jessiman, but Sather only gave up a third-round pick in 2010 for the 6'6" center, so I am happy with that. Hopefully for my fantasy dynasty team, Boyle will score some goals and collect some penalty minutes for fighting.

Other moves were minor or expected. Arnason will compete for a spot with the Rangers, but will likely be shown the way to Hartford with a two-way contract, needing to pass through waivers first. Callahan was re-signed for a decent amount as a restricted free agent and will be expected to compete for a spot on the second line and hopefully stick there if Zherdev is not brought back to New York. Potter can serve as the seventh defenseman or a good presence on the Wolf Pack. Antropov's agent wanted too much money, but he is a big body and could be missed. Mara clearly didn't have a place here under Tortorella. Dubinsky is almost a lock to be re-signed and Morris could stay if he takes a big pay cut; I think he will definitely return if Rozsival or Redden is traded as is rumored as part of a package for a number-one center; hopefully, that package will not include Dubinsky.

There is still cap room to play with and at least one move to be made, unless Sather and Tortorella are comfortable with relatively inexperienced centers around captain Drury. Overall, fans should be happy with this offseason's moves but still not expect too much progress with Redden and Drury still on the roster if they continue to vastly underperform their contracts.

Summer class

The professor was not kidding when he said that 15 weeks were compressed into five during the summer, in this case for Applied Microeconomics. The first of two tests in on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. after only two weeks of the course. Unfortunately for me, my Wednesday afternoon is already booked with doing set-up in Allentown for the Force, so I wil have to get all studying finished by Tuesday night. This should be fun!

I'm looking forward to being able to watch game five of the Stanley Cup Final after missing games one, three, and four; I watched some of four the next day on NHL Network. This has been a good series to cap off a good playoffs overall, which I have missed by being in Portugal, doing work, and spending time with good friends. Good thing that two of those things were time well-spent with others rather than watching television by myself or with my dad.

NHL ECF Game 4: Penguins @ Hurricanes

The Hurricanes face elimination as they trail three games to zero. Goaltender Cam Ward is 5–0 when facing elimination and he has never lost a playoff series.

First Period: The Hurricanes are playing well, but they can't afford to keep making turnovers, especially with Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby on the ice, which is over three-quarters of the time in this game because they are rotating with the open spot on the fourth line. The Hurricanes are 7–0 in the 2009 playoffs when Eric Staal scores a goal, and he scored the first goal on a quick wraparound, but the Penguins came back to take the lead 2–1, with their second goal coming on a deflected shot by Maxime Talbot that floated over Ward's glove.

Second Period: Crosby makes a beautiful pass off of another turnover to let Bill Guerin potentially put the Hurricanes away for the season. The Hurricanes had 16 shots on goal in the second period, but not too many quality chances. A sign held up by a fan said "Miracles Cam Happen" and it will take a miracle for the Hurricanes to win this game. I fully expect them to come out strong in the third period despite Marc-Andre Fleury stopping every opportunity after the first soft goal.

Third Period: Carolina came out with a valient effort, but it's more of the same from Fleury in goal. I was more interested in watching Livan Hernandez finish his 127-pitch complete game for the Mets, giving up one run as the Mets scored six, paced by Gary Sheffield's three-run home run. When I turn back to hockey, the Hurricanes still can't find the back of the net and the Penguins are going back to the Stanley Cup Final after scoring an empty-net goal to make it a 4–1 victory.

Side note: The end of the NBA Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Game 2 was unbelieveable. That's the only word I could utter after Hedo Turkoglu and LeBron James traded buckets in the last second.