Hartford Wolf Pack Shakeups

Look! Actual news!

The Rangers just issued some tweets regarding some shakeups with the Wolf Pack, who have been disappointing in recent years both in their performance within the AHL as well as in their development of Rangers’ prospects.

First, long time AHL coach Ken Gernander (and former longtime Binghamton Rangers/Hartford Wolf Pack player) has been fired.  I’ve been on record a long time saying that he should be replaced.

Second, Chris Drury, who was denied permission by the Rangers to interview for the general manager position with the Buffalo Sabres, has been promoted to GM of the Wolf Pack, replacing Jim Schoenfeld, who will remain in, and focus on, his roles as senior vice president and assistant GM of the Rangers.

I like both of these moves, quite a bit.  I’m also very interested to see who replaces Gernander as the Hartford bench boss.

217 thoughts on “Hartford Wolf Pack Shakeups”

  10. Interesting that the Rangers made the change in GM at Hartford. You have to figure it is a promotion to make up for not letting Drury interview in Buffalo – unless Dolan/Sather (sorry Carp, but I am sure Slats still has Dolan’s ear) want to turn the heat up on Jeff Gorton.

    It will be interesting to see how the Rangers move forward in the AHL. They can either build a team emphasizes the development of younger players or they can bring in a couple of hired AHL guns and try to emphasize winning. Of course, it is possible to emphasize development and winning, but the Rangers aren’t in a position to do that yet. They need to recoup all of the lost depth in the organization that was through the trading of draft picks.

    Gorton has been slowly replenishing with the undrafted free agent signings and needs to continue with that now that the Rangers have first round picks again.

    As for Gernander, I am not an expert but from what i have read he was respected within the organization and around hockey. I wonder if he goes to Dallas and hooks up with his dad? It will be interesting to see who Drury brings in.

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  14. Couldn’t blame him Carp. AHL GM probably fills a couple of roster spots with the majority of the slots going to organizational players.

    I came up with a possible name that has a connection to Drury, Hartford and the Rangers: James Patrick. Jeep spent 47 games in 1993-94 as part of the Steve Larmer deal. Patrick and Drury were teammates in 2003-04 and Patrick served as an assistant under Ruff while Drury was in Buffalo in 2006-07.

    With Bereglazov, Day, R Graves and Pionk as potential blueliners in Hartford, someone with Patrick’s NHL playing and coaching experience could be a plus.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. The Gernander move was a long time in coming. Nieves, Fogarty, and the two Sweedes had very disappointing seasons. Gernander is there to develop, and those four did not.

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  16. I recorded USA vs Slovoc Sunday. Wanted to watch Hayes, and I miss hockey ( not watching CFs). Hayes was magic with Gadreau. Who on Calgary would interest the Rangers for Hayes? It was very noticeable the chemistry the two of them had, and Calgary not trading Gadreau, so maybe they would have an interest in Hayes. Who would be worthwhile?

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  17. Gernander – a career minor league player, a career minor league coach expected to produce NHL players. I can see a flaw in that scenario.

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  18. Much respect for Ken Gernander. Very polarizing figure, as he hasn’t exactly been the most…successful of minor league coaches. You could make the argument that he wasn’t exactly given the best players to succeed. But as BDL said, he’s there to develop players and instill a winning culture, and that hasn’t exactly happened. However, he’s been part of the Rangers org for no less than 125 years, so I wish him well.
    This is a fantastic opportunity to install our coach of the future. Lets get a rockstar down there that can actually be a top candidate to coach the big club if we’re ever in a position for a coaching change in the near future. I don’t want a retread, or an obligatory former assistant who needs some help from the good ole boys club. Lets get someone progressive, has their finger on the pulse, and can develop our farmhands.

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  19. Pittsburgh brings guys up who step right in and produce. The Rangers? Not so much. Hopefully they can get to where this changes. Gernander was around for a long time. I hope he finds a good job somewhere else. Not sorry he is gone.

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  25. found it interesting last off season that the Rangers mentioned that this season, The Pack was going to play the Rangers system. Why hadn’t they before this year? And was Gernander the reason why?

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  28. BDL – Two points. First off, I thought the same thing about Hayes to Calgary. They are aren’t trading Matty T, Johnny Hockey or Sean Monahan. Dougie Hamilton is probably next up on the list and his cap hit is $5.57 million. Would Sam Bennett for Hayes be doable? The Rangers could save about $1.5 million over the cap hit.

    As for Hartford playing the Rangers system wouldn’t AV have to have a system first before Hartford could play? 🙂 Sorry, but I just had to use that line.

    Liked by 3 people

  31. Anthony,
    It would be a gamble, trading Hayes for Bennett, Hayes is the better player right now. If you think Bennett will be the better player in the long run, you certainly consider it.

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  33. was being sarcastic about McDonagh, Miller, Kreider. The good prospects came through the system quickly. You can’t turn Marek Hrivik into Mats Zuccarello no matter how long you have him.

    and yes, Hartford always played the same system as NYR, or at least since Torts. I wasn’t here for Renney/Sather. And Muckler didn’t have a system.

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  40. Short of the Rangers 2017/2018 season being a total tire-fire AV is not going to get fired after next season either. I did not agree with Torts firing so I am hardly an AV apologist, but if you are going to call for his firing you have to give me a name as a replacement. Quite frankly, in keeping with the tire theme, I am not interested in hiring yet another multiple-team retread.

    If you want to have a discussion that features out of the box suggestions, then we can talk. College guys like David Quinn or Jim Montgomery would be a couple of names that would represent thinking out of the box.

    I would even be willing to consider former Oilers coach (gotta keep Slats happy) Ralph Krueger because he was doomed in Edmonton. Krueger drew raves guiding Team Europe to a second place finish in the World Cup in 2016. The only problem is Krueger has a cushy job in England as the front office box of a soccer team (Southampton).

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  42. Carp, a fair number of legitimate prospects have gone through our farm system only to never be heard from again. And I can point out more than a few guys who have been through our farm system that became players once they went somewhere else.

    The only non-first round success stories he’s had in the past five years are fourth liners (Fast and Lindberg) and arguably Zuccarello.

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  46. If Dodie is correct about Arniel being on the ropes, what about this scenario? Jeff Buekeboom goes to the Wolf Pack as the head coach with an assistant who has coaching experience to help him in Hartford.

    James Patrick would replace Beuk in NY and run the PP and work with the d-men. The Rangers could then hire someone like Doug Jarvis (fired in Vancouver when Willie Desjardins got axed) or Craig Ramsay (consultant in Montreal) to coach the forwards and run the PK. Jarvis would be a bonus because he could help tutor the Rangers centers and learn them how to cheat, er, win faceoffs.

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  47. they same system? Gernander played Glass on the first line while new prospects like Stromwall & Kovacs languished on the third and fourth line. Gorton/Drury just signed a bunch of college guys. I wonder what Drury told them?

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  48. “Gernander played Glass on the first line while new prospects like Stromwall & Kovacs languished on the third and fourth line.”

    That is incorrect. Glass maintained a fourth line role in Hartford in order to best prepare him in the event of a call up.

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  49. Tomb – I saw someone had posted that on Facebook. I tried to find TOI stats for the Wolf Pack, but I do not think the AHL or its teams release that information. If that is the case, then Denmark isn’t the only place something was rotten.

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  62. Eric

    I’m not surprised you picked them to lose.

    I am surprised that you are surprised when they did lose. Maybe it’s a superstitious thing for you to pick them to lose while not really believing they will lose.

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  63. Please can we stop talking about Tanner Glass. I for one have had enough!

    I want to be optimistic about the future of the organization, I’m just so use to something going wrong year after year. Watching Ottawa and the dirty birds causes me to believe if the Rangers got past the Sens anything could have happened. We just never seem to get that big goal or big save when it is really needed. Is it the players, the coaches, or both? When are the fortunes of the NYR’s ever going to change? Here’s hoping we all get to see another cup while this blog is still rolling what a blast that would be! Maybe I’m just an idealistic dreamer!

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  66. Who left here and did well after Hartford? Seriously. I have no idear.
    .
    Let’s face it, if the players are any good, they can make it up to the big show. This isn’t Detroit in the 90s.

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  67. Weisse, Pyatt, Korpikoski, Zidlicky,and Prucha are the only names that stick out on the list of NYR draft picks who played over 200 games somewhere else.
    .
    Over half are europansies 😉

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  73. SN – The Rangers have had too many swings and misses at the draft table. You can survive that based on quantity, but when you end up with a draft like 2012 when you have four picks, you can’t – and 2012 was good because they drafted Skjei and Nieves.

    From Sather’s first draft in 2000 through 2007, four 2nd round picks never played in the NHL and one (Ivan Baranka) played just one game – out of 12 picks, and some of those guys did nothing with the Rangers for the most part.

    During that same period, the Rangers drafted nine players in the third round. Six of them never played a game, one played one game (Brodie Dupont) and two played in the NHL (D. Moore and Garth Murray).

    Granted, Sather did hit on players in later rounds during that time, but you can’t keep blowing your 2nd and 3rd round picks – especially when you don’t gave first rounders or have tragedy strike (like it did with Alexei Cherepanov).

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  75. The problem with that deal with the Wild is we don’t know if they are Nash’s acceptable list and Staal has a NTC, not too mention the Wild have a lot of centers on their roster. They would probably want someone who can play the wing (J.T. Miller?)

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  77. I don’t think the Rangers and Devils have made a trade since the Devils moved to Jersey. To get Kovalchuk the Devils would have to do a sign and trade.

    I think he goes to Brooklyn.

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  86. When asked about his system Muckler replied “I don’t listen to music in the car jackass! Now where’s Malhatter? I gotta tell him he’s scratched tonight”

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  88. Wanted to take a moment to offer a very big thank to you, Rangers Report 2.0, (even if I haven’t been posting much lately) for jumping in and providing this site in the wake of the Journal News electing to perform a lobotomy on itself with a rusty spoon last fall. A disappointing (if predictable) and hard to accept outcome to the season. I’ve been a fan far too long and witnessed this far too many times to have chirped it up before we hit the rocks at the bottom of the cliff (AGAIN). But it still most certainly has been a great place for me to read, get a finger on the pulse and scream at the bloody computer display (fortunately my laptop is still in one piece)!
    .
    And last but not least I am grateful that Carp has landed at MSG and I sincerely hope that it is a place that appreciates a truly gifted and insightful sportswriter who has added tons to the culture of the greater NYC community and that it proves it can provide a way for him to make a decent living while continuing to be a go-to-guy for hockey for all of us! I can’t imagine plodding through the NHL marathon season without having you to read, Carp!
    .
    I raise my glass to Gorton’s using the expansion draft to plant the seeds of a real reboot for the 2017-2018 season (my 51st as a long time fan)!
    .
    And so, er, carry on, all!!

    Liked by 3 people

  94. I’d love to have kovalchuk at this point in his career. Became a complete player with the devs. Both sides wanted out of the contract. Don’t blame him for it

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  95. I’m a fan of dumba/Nino. Don’t know if I’d be willing to trade Stephan. But that would be clearing an awful lot of cap space. Would allow for another signing which would make it dumba/Nino/signing for step/Nash/staal. I think minn is a great spot for staal. The rangers aren’t turning back in terms of how they want their d to play. I think the wild and Boudreau play a style that will allow staal to play to his strengths more. Probably be a top3-4 alongside a puck mover which will help him and his partner immensely. Step if he’s going, you know wants to go to minn.

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  98. Good morning, boneheads!
    Pretty good hockey last night. Nashville could be for real this year. Their long lasting investment in drafting great defensemen, and building from that on is finally paying off. That, and fleecing Washington in the Forsberg/Erat trade, and coming on top in the Weber/Subban swap didn’t hurt either.

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  99. The problem with the Kovalchuk thing is we’d have to deal with the Debbies and no way are they giving us an elite scorer (albeit an older one) and taking our bad contracts off our hands. They will want something of use for Kovy, like high picks, young player or top prospects (if we have any?)

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  100. Arguably Drury is going to HFD due to him being a bit of a draw and i guess its also a test to see how he can handle all aspects of being a GM, coach recruitment, player recruitment and mentoring etc..

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  101. Wolfpack is pretty much at rock bottom so it gives Drury a chance to build a team from the ground up. He’s close to home too. If he’s any good they will have to let him interview for other jobs at some point because Gorton isn’t going any where unless there is a complete meltdown. If Slats ever completely retires maybe Gorton is President and Drury GM?

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  102. Kovalchuk? Not only he has to sign with NJ before he is moved in a trade, he also won’t come cheap. The main reason he wants to go back is because of free-falling ruble. He can otherwise enter the NHL without any restrictions in 2018-2019.

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  103. I say no to Kovalchuk, we have been down that road how many times? SN it would be more like Step/Miller/Staal for Dumba/Niederreiter. They are not going to take Nash IMHO!

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  104. Nashville are going to have to lay out the green carpet for Johansen this summer too. Upwards of $7m per. Plus replace PaPpy and Mike Fisher – but they’ve got $18m to do that and add a couple of spare pieces. Mostly because they don’t have a pair of abatrosses flapping around in front of their netminder…

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  105. I think Marc Staal to the Wild makes some sense, in a brother kind of way. I like Nederieter, but we have one of him already. Dumba would be a great get, but that is going to cost you.

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  107. Disagree about Nash. One year left on his deal. I think teams with a small window to win, would prefer Nash (Zucc as well) to Stepan and 4 more years on his deal. Now a team that is just starting to win, (Toronto and Edmonton)probably would prefer Stepan.

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  110. BDL

    I don’t see Toronto or Edmonton wanting Stepan and that contract and complete lack of speed among other deficiencies.

    UK

    Every contract we have north of $ 5 million is an albatross. The least burdensome is Nash only because he has 1 year left.

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  116. Step is an overpaid 2C but with a winning pedigree and with the right pieces around him will be seen as a viable 2-way 2C who is good in the room (I keed)
    .
    Agree, teams on the rise looking for a steady presence who is a reliable 50 pt scorer who plays a responsible game will be attracted to Step. His deal may require swallowing some salary depending on what else is in the mix.
    .
    Lundquist + Nash + Step + Staal + Girardi = $34M next year or 48% of total cap – OUCH!!
    Would trade everyone of them if they had takers.

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  118. While the Rangers need a scorer like Kovalchuk, they need the Kovalchuk of 10 years ago. If you trade Nash for him then you give away a 25 goal scorer (if he plays an entire season) who is defensively responsible for a guy who might score 25-30 goals and not play any defense at all. I wouldn’t call that a fair trade, so Sather would probably tell Gorton to do it.

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  121. A few things here….
    Re the preds, let’s not forget their most important move of getting a 1C by trading a very good young D man (position of team strength) to get johannsen (sp?)

    Toronto and Edmonton are two teams that I feel need experienced D and if you could get staal to waive his nmc, would both be viable destinations. Toronto has cap space. Edmonton would need to send back $$$…RNH anyone?

    Lastly, I still think you need to get a centre back for Stepan (preferably a 1C…step would be part of a “package”), unless of course for some odd reason the rangers have acquired a 1C already, then trade him for whatever you need.

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  124. Every team has their big contracts SN:
    Giroux, Voracek, Schenn, Filpulla, Mason = $31m
    Krejci, Bergeron, Chara, Backes, Rask = $34m
    Hall, Zajac, Cammalleri, Greene, Schneider = $28m

    I’m pretty sure only 3 or 4 of those 5 guys you listed will be on Broadway next year anyway.

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  126. NJD will certainly not add 25-30 goals to the Rangers roster without taking away something of value – and they definitely won’t want Dan Girardi!

    Also, how does he Kovalchuk thing work? Wasn’t his contract till 2024 or was that voided?

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  127. UK – Didn’t the buy him out? I don’t remember the particulars, but because of the way it was structured they didn’t have the massive cap hit if they bought him out.

    I do have a question though. If he was bought out, why does NJ still own his rights? Wouldn’t he be a free agent?

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  128. He shows as a cap recapture penalty of £250k on the Devils cap – i also read they still own his rights regardless of the contract status. Confusing!!

    Presumably sign and trade..?

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  134. Difference with those other teams is most of the players can still play; some more than others, none to the low level of the anchor twins
    Bruins:
    Chara – $4M in last year of deal. Good riddance.
    Rask – $7M per – modified no trade starts this year – another stupid goalie deal (see Henk)
    Bergeron – $6.85M per – prefer over Henk, Step, Staal, Nash and Girardi
    Backes – $6M per – that deal stinks but take him over Girardi and Staal (Backes MNT in 2 years)
    Kreiji – $7.25M per – ugh, too long but still compares better than Step, Girardi, and Staal
    .
    Facts are Offense rules the day and NYR is #4 in Cap for D and #5 for G position.
    D salary cap %; Ott #7, Preds #13, Ducks #16, Pitt #30 (!!!)
    G Salary Cap %; Preds #7, Ducks #15, Pitt #16, Ott #23.

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  136. Well, I guess that’s my answer – they didn’t buy him out.

    “Because Kovalchuk voluntarily — and shockingly, considering he was in the third season of a 15-year, $100-million deal — retired from the NHL following the 2012-13 season, his rights are maintained by the Devils “

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  137. I don’t see Drury being much of a draw for the Wolf Pack. Hartford has a bunch of fans who blame the Rangers for A) The Whalers leaving B) Preventing the NHL from returning. Frankly, I am not so sure how long the Rangers stay in Hartford. One of the selling points Cablevision has in trying to rebuild/run the Coliseum was the promise of a hockey team (their AHL affiliiate).

    With Albany losing the Devils to Binghamton, it would not surprise me to see the Rangers move to Albany with St. Louis jumping into Hartford considering the Blues lost their affiliate (Chicago Wolves) to Vegas. The Blues will still send some players to Chicago and probably other AHL teams as well.

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  141. Not for nothing, but Poile better win the GM of the year award … he’s a finalist with Dorion and Chiarelli. Dorion’s team simply isn’t that good Chiarelli’s team is very good, but he just added parts to a young nucleus that was there. No way he should win it, IMO. Poile built Nashville from the ground up.

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  148. We can lament lack of production from the top guys (salary -wise) but we got a lot of goals from our 2nd & 3rd lines to off-set that. Not every team has Kreider, Miller, Hayes, Z, mini Z, Veezey to provide secondary scoring

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  149. These conference finals are far more entertaining and better hockey than that crap the rangers were trying to play the first 6-8 weeks of the season.
    –
    Speaking of crap hockey, where’s norm? I miss the guy. Is he all distraught that all star game hockey doesn’t work? I hope he’s real world ok!

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  152. People seem to place no value on the NMCs that players like Staal and Girardi have. Why would they go to Dallas who is about to rebuild with a new coach. Also they take on Lehtinen’s cap hit and still have to go out and pay a D to take Dan or Mark’s place. Raanta’s a better goalie. Do they just forget about him or carry 3 goalies (and $15million cap hit) like the Isles did?

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  154. What that writer is forgetting is that Dallas might be able to dump a non-Bishop goalie because I think there are some teams that need veteran goalies to expose in the Expansion Draft.

    Of course, never mind the fact Girardi and Staal both have NMC and Lehtonen has a modified NTC. As someone who writes a blog (well, every now and then anyway) I always try to make sure I do my homework in terms of speculating with trades. If I ain’t sure about something, I say it.

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  155. Honestly Doodie, I don’t think most people who spew trades either A) don’t even realize who has what in terms of trade clauses B) don’t understand how they work C) don’t care about them.

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  157. UK

    agreed. that deal makes no sense from Dallas side unless we eat a lot of dollars. one year of a problem contract is a lot less than 3 or 4 years of a problem contract.

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  168. THE IMMEDIATE AND LONG-RANGE QUEST TO IMPROVE THE RANGERS FOR THE 2017-18 NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE SEASON HAS BEGUN.

    Where it stops, only the Blueshirts’ high command — Glen Sather, Jeff Gorton, Alain Vigneault — will know after the Expansion Draft (June 21), Entry Draft (June 23-24) and Free Agent Frenzy play out their scripts.
    http://www.msgnetworks.com/2017/05/17/rangers-restructuring-underway/
    ——————

    Interesting how Stan puts Glen Sather’ name in front of the names… I thought Sather was gone?

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  174. 77 years and counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…counting…

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  185. Carp’s favorite team is losing and Carp’s favorite player (BGB) is on the score sheet again…11 points (4 goals) in 14 playoff games…not bad for a mailman guy, eh? 😉

    Liked by 1 person

  188. Kyle Turris’ cap hot was $3.5 this year. He’s going to be a UFA on July 1st and should get a big raise.

    Ottawa is usually pretty stingy, but I’m thinking they’re going to try to lock him up.

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  194. Someone check on carp, brass was sweating. Carp will never believe it. We need to post the interview brass did with Pierre after the game.
    –
    Anyone see brass’ face off percentage for the game?

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  196. If Murray starts in net I think Ottawa is toast! Watching this series really hurts. I am so tired of what if’s year after year. Rangers have perfected snatching defeat from the jaws of victory! Oh yeah Good morning Boneheads!

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  197. Good morning, boneheads!
    MAF had his can’t-stop-a-beach-ball game that he is guaranteed to have every now and then during playoffs. I also think that injuries are starting to take its tall on Pittsburgh. I believe that list includes Crosby. He isn’t himself.

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  199. Sens may be team of destiny. They continue to get every good bounce. OTOH if the Pen continue to score 1 a game they won’ win the series. Maybe the Caps took a lot out of them and they were soften up for the next opponent. It really make the loss to Ottawa even worse.

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  200. Fluery was terrible. Three of the four goals he let in were atrocious. The only one that he really had no chance on was BGB’s goal. Pittsburgh has weathered the storm of injuries so far and should be commended for it, but it looks like it has finally taken its toll. Maybe if the refs have managed the game by penalizing the boarding, slashing, cross checking, etc. these injuries might not have happened.

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  209. Carp
    No one wants him in the HOF but at least he showed up in the playoffs, which is more than we can say about future former ranger Stepan 😉

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  213. Agree Crosby doesn’t look right. We really may have blew the chance of a lifetime. What a freaking disgrace.

    By the way any truth to rumor rangers and habs discussing Alex galychenuk trade?

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  217. Karlsson is great – and he’s fun to watch..

    But I’m sorry, enough with the comparisons to Brian Leetch. He’s not Brian Leetch.

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