Good Players...

You know who was good? Olli Jokinen from 2005 through 2007.

You know who isn't that good anymore? Olli Jokinen.

Of course, if the rumors are true, and Olli Jokinen is about to be a Ranger (along with Brandon Prust for Chris Higgins and Ales Kotalik), then he becomes the 3rd highest-scoring Ranger, behind Marian Gaborik and Vaclav Prospal.

And yes, he is a 1st-line center who can play with Prospal at left wing and Gaborik at right wing.

But the big thing is that Kotalik is making $3M for not only this year but the next 2 seasons as well. Jokinen's cap hit is $5.25M, and he is an unrestricted free agent this summer. So the Rangers effectively clear $3M off the books for the next two seasons.

(Higgins is making $2.25M this year, but that's unrelated because he'd be a UFA after this season, and the Rangers probably weren't inviting him back for another campaign. The only thing that his salary has to do with this is that it's an even exchange, just over $5M for just over $5M. Prust is making $500,000 only.)

Maybe Jokinen isn't as good as his two seasons when he averaged over a point per game, but to add more offense this year while clearing $3M for the next two years is a good move.

Keep in mind that this doesn't address the real problems of the Rangers cap issues - that would involve moving any combination of Wade Redden, Chris Drury, and Michal Rozsival. But the moves are going to have to be made before the Olympic break because there is only 1 game before the March 3 trade deadline.

Home & Home With Montreal...

Next Saturday, I will be venturing into Montreal to see the second game of the Home & Home with the Canadiens. Okay, it's a home-and-home with 2 other games in between, but still, it stands to be more intriguing than a home game against Tampa Bay and a game in Philadelphia.

So, which jersey should I wear?

Should I go with the autographed Dan Girardi jersey?
The autographed Sean Avery?
Superstar Marian Gaborik?
New addition to my collection Vinny Prospal?

I normally like to wear Sean Avery jerseys when I'm in other buildings.

I did it in Nashville last year about a month after the Rangers got him back on re-entry waivers, and a few fans yelled "Sloppy Seconds!" at me. To recap, I am not Sean Avery, I just wear the jersey. And the Rangers won that game.

I wore it in New Jersey amid death threats from the upper level (directed at me, my friends, and Scott Gomez, playing his first game in Jersey since signing with the Rangers). Those were quieted when the Rangers won the game.

I wore it in Philadelphia, where some kid tried to body check my friend. "How could you wear a Sean Avery jersey in Philly?" one cigarette-smoking man asked me. Well, the Rangers won that game.

And I wore it in Montreal on Super Bowl Sunday when the Giants beat the Patriots. As I was on the escalator, there was a man in a Mike Komisarek Habs jersey in front of me. We had an awkward silence, then discussed what it would be like to really date Elisha Cuthbert. The Rangers went down 3-0, then won that game 5-3.

Should I keep the tradition alive, or change things up?

Notes From the Garden...

:: My lead off today was going to be "Chris Higgins couldn't score at a bar near Arizona State University" until about 90 seconds remained in the Rangers/Bruins game tonight.

Still, I guess even the fat mathlete can find the drunk sorority girl every now and then.

:: To the people who said the following regarding my Steve Rucchin jersey...
- "Isn't Prospal number 20?"
- "It must be his own last name."
... is this your first season watching the Rangers? Do you know know who the best - and only competent - second-line center on the Rangers since the lockout is? By the way, both Jason Krog and Freddy Sjostrom wore #20 between The Rucch and our favorite player named Vaclav.

I understand it's an obscure jersey, but when you go to a lot of games, it's nice to dig deep into the closet once in a while.

But to the guy in the Scott Gomez jersey... please... retire it.

:: Best jerseys of the night...
- Marco Sturm #19 German Olympic jersey
- Marc Savard # 33 Rangers jersey

:: Fun game tonight, and it was a relief from the 1-0 Bruin/Ranger games we're used to, but it definitely got a little hazy in the 3rd period. My head still hurts from when I involuntarily hit it after Blake Wheeler scored to tie it 2-2.

:: Paging Sean Avery: Eventually, you're going to have to score. You have still only scored in 2 games this year. I appreciate that in both games you scored 2 goals, but a 5th goal in forthcoming, no?

:: I know it's a little premature, but I'd like to keep Erik Christensen with Brandon Dubinsky and Marian Gaborik when Prospal returns. Christensen has found his niche - playing with superstars like Gaborik, Sidney Crosby, and Ilya Kovalchuk - and it's relieving to see him fitting in. When Prospal returns, have him center Ales Kotalik and Ryan Callahan. Have Avery play with Chris Drury and Artem Anisimov, and then have a 4th line that doesn't do anything. I'm never one to speculate on line combinations, but that sounds good, no?

Vinny Prospal Night; Accountability?...

The average ice time for a forward in a 60-minute hockey game is 15 minutes.

The average ice time for a defenseman in a 60-minute hockey game is 20 minutes.

Explain to me how, in an "Era of Accountability" (my phrase), Michal Rozsival skates 3 more minutes than the average defender (23:18 against Florida).

The original intention of the writing was to praise Enver Lisin, yet wonder about how he skated 2 minutes less than average tonight (13:05).

To be honest, Lisin skating 13 minutes is 4 or 5 minutes more than he normally skates (and he only skated 4 minutes last Monday in the shootout loss to Atlanta). And on a night where Vinny Prospal, Sean Avery, Marian Gaborik, and even Chris Drury were playing good, I guess there wasn't a ton of ice time to go around. So I'm happy with 13 minutes for Lisin.

But Rozsival rocking 23 minutes? He had over 9 in the first period! The reason Lisin didn't play much was allegedly because he was atrocious defensively.

So is Rozsival! Or was the Panthers' lone goal too early in the game for everyone to remember how awful he looked on that first goal. He played pretty poor the remaining 22 minutes he was on the ice as well, including his 1:59 on the power play. (To be fair to him, his penalty killing isn't atrocious, but he refuses to look at anyone except the puck carrier, and it almost bit him in the behind twice tonight on the same Florida power play).

* * *

My pregame prediction of a hat trick by Prospal was officially killed when Gaborik scored a shorthanded goal. I figured up 3-1, Tomas Vokoun would head to the bench, Gaborik would have an open empty net, pass to Prospal, and he'd have his 3rd of the evening.

* * *

Ales Kotalik looked so disappointed after missing that breakaway on Vokoun in the 2nd period. He's trying hard and he wants to score, it just isn't happening today. It was good seeing him on the point on the power play, though, tonight.

* * *

I'm not all negative, you know. Lisin had a really good game. He looked like Wayne Gretzky on that first goal where he out-hustled the opponent, kept with the puck, and passed it perfectly to Chris Drury, who pounded it home. Drury got credit for the goal and Avery got the biggest applause when it was announced, but Lisin did the legwork on that one.

Drury was huge on the 4th goal though; the pass from his knees to Gaborik was money. How Gaborik put that home is still a mystery to me, but that's okay.

I'm just happy they scored today. The Garden was rocking for the first time in two months tonight.

* * *

About those "Asshole" chants you heard towards the end of the 3rd period.

Two guys in Islander jerseys, one with a jacket, one without, were leaving the Garden. Instead of going out the gate closest to them, they - v e r y s l o w l y - walked halfway around the Garden and went out a different exit. Every section they passed yelled at them.

It was priceless.

And very ballsy by those guys. Some people were getting pissed. I found it hilarious.

The Good...

It's been a slow week here at The Rivalry, due to Bryan having a new baby to take care of (poor excuse) and me having work and a marathon 24 session the other night (better excuse).

I wanted to write something Saturday night after the Rangers overtime loss to Montreal about how, even though they lost, there was still some good to take from the game. Mainly, I wanted to write about the good surrounding the goals they scored.

For example...

Rangers fan favorite Michal Rozsival had a nice shot on Jaroslav Halak moments before Artem Anisimov scored to make it 1-1. It was good to see Rozy shooting - I guess he finally realized there's no Jaromir Jagr to pass to and he decided he better shoot. And Anisimov? That goal was beautiful - patient and surgeon-like in accuracy.

While Ales Kotalik had a great shot on his goal that made it 2-1 and Sean Avery had a nice pass from behind the net (which he does quite often), the real credit lies with Dan Girardi. If not for him quickly catching the puck from midair and passing it behind the net from the point, the puck would've been cleared and play would've gone down to Henrik Lundqvist's side of the ice.

On the 3-1 goal, all 3 players who got points had excellent plays. Marian Gaborik fought off a defender and passed to Vinny Prospal, who saw danger coming and softly hit the puck off the boards to Matt Gilroy, who had an absolute bomb from the point. He also was patient and followed it up with a booming shot. Very good to see that.

Gaborik made it 4-2 on nice passes from Mike Del Zotto and Enver Lisin. In two quick, long passes, they sprung him for a breakaway, and of course, he scored.

Sure, there were some defensive breakdowns. I guess Gaborik's back-checking could be a little stronger. And yes, they blew two 2-goal leads before losing the game. And yes, they gave up a hat trick. And they even made Scott Gomez look good in the game. But they did have a few good plays that shone through - most notably Gaborik's offensive skills and Girardi's great play on the Kotalik goal.

* * *

I want to talk about two things now, both related to last night's win against Phoenix.

1) Chris Drury - He hasn't been playing incredibly well, and he definitely hasn't been lighting it up on the stats sheet, but I think that's okay this year. Last season, the pressure was on him to score, and he came up with 56 points in 81 games, just under his career average of 59.53 points per game. (You could even say he had a lot of pressure to score in 2007-08 when Brendan Shanahan was hurt, Jagr was hurt and slower, and Rozsival and Marty Straka wouldn't fire a puck to the net to save their lives.)

However, everyone expected more from his. Add up his giganticly inflated contract, his first year as Captain, and the departure of the other veterans (including Avery), and people expected numbers that he put up under Lindy Ruff in Buffalo (his 2 seasons in Buffalo post-lockout: 67 and 69 points... still not huge numbers).

This year, with Gaborik, Kotalik, Prospal, and Avery here, he can stop trying to score and just be a good defensive forward, which he has been. He is killing penalties and blocking a ton of shots and being a behind-the-scenes player. That's what his role always was, and that's what it should be.

Of course, Blair Betts did all that for 11 times less money.

2) Enver Lisin - The season is still young, but I would call trading Lauri Korpikoski for Lisin a good trade. Korpikoski scored 14 points in 68 games last year and looked lost for most of the season. Not very good for the guy drafted 10 spots ahead of Mike Green in 2004.

Lisin is fast as hell, and what's even more surprising is that he's keeping up with Prospal and Gaborik on the 1st line. That gives John Tortorella so many more options, including putting a struggling player - say, Chris Higgings - on the 4th line.

He's been an exciting surprise, and I'm curious to see where he goes from here. Now let's just hope Tortorella keeps him on the 1st line for a while, and doesn't "Tom Renney" him back to 7 minutes a game.

Prospal...

If Vinny Prospal actually does become 1st-line center and has a pretty decent year, it will be a huge bargain.

A "pretty decent year" for a 1st-line center in the Rangers' eyes is probably somewhere over 60 points, seeing as Scott Gomez had 58 last year (in 77 games). As in, "Oh, well, it was an improvement over Gomez."

A "pretty decent year" for someone making only $1.1M/year is somewhere around 30 points. As in, "Prospal played 3rd-line winger and scored 30 points. Not bad for 1.1 mill."

So imagine if he does score 65-70 points at only $1.1M? It will make a failure to trade for Brad Richards - a highly rumored, if possibly majorly incorrect school-of-thought - seem like the best thing that never happened.

No, before you attack and ask how many points Gomez would've had with Gaborik on his wing instead of the Ukranian Harry Houdini and an older, slower version of Markus Naslund, the answer is "a lot."

Gomez probably would've hit 80 points with Gaborik knocking the low-angle shots from the perimeter that he always took. But, with Gomez's money on the books, there is no way Gaborik in Manhattan ever would've happen. Thanks to the Great Fleece of '09, Gomez is wearing #91 next year in Quebec and Gaborik resumes the storied career of #10 on Broadway (as long as he triples Nigel Dawes' career-high of 29 points, I'll be happy).

Okay, I've said enough. All I meant today was that I do like the thought of Prospal playing for the Rangers, and if he happens to bounce back from a poor year last year (to be fair, everyone in Tampa Bay had a poor year - St. Louis, 80 points, Lecavalier, 67 points) than that would be fantastic.

And, yes, a great deal.

Rangers Fill Their Quota of Players Named "Vaclav"...

No, his real name isn't Vincent. He isn't Italian; he's Czech.

With the signing of Vaclav "Vinny" Prospal, the Rangers have added one more 3rd/4th line player, to join Artem Anisimov, Tyler Arnason, Donald Brashear, Enver Lisin, Aaron Voros, Brian Boyle, and anyone who might join the team from Hartford, namely Dane Byers, Pat Rissmiller, and P.A. Parenteau.

That's a lot of people for 6 or 7 roster spots. The Rangers also have 7 players for the top 2 lines: Drury, Higgins, Gaborik, Callahan, Dubinsky, Avery, Kotalik.

What am I saying? I'm saying something's got to be up, unless Sather forgot what happened last year.

Last year, he traded away Ryan Hollweg for a draft pick. Excellent move, especially when Hollweg got suspended during the preseason for checking from behind. To replace him, he signed Voros and Rissmiller with Colton Orr, Lauri Korpikoski, and Freddy Sjostrom already on the team. Bad move. That resulted in a salary cap ordeal, with Rissmiller being sent to the AHL and Voros riding pine until he was needed as an injury replacement for Drury and Blair Betts.

This year, there are a lot of forwards again. As the players keep signing and there is only 1 real scoring threat - Gaborik, obviously - the mind gets going.

Trade?

Probably something is in the works.

I'm not going to say that Dany Heatley will be a Ranger in the next 48 hours. I don't even know if I want that or if it's going to happen. But there is a glut of forwards for 13 or 14 roster spots, and that doesn't include a surprise that might happen, like Dale Weise or Brodie Dupont.

I am saying that this situation does lend itself nicely to a trade. It would appear Sather is stocking up forwards to package a few to get a superstar. Maybe not even a superstar, but a first-line center to feed Gaborik the puck, or a second-line sniper to take the defensive pressure off the first-line to free up ice for Gaborik. Of course, we can never underestimate the fact that this is Glen Sather we're talking about, and he might have no actual clue of what he's doing.

Of course, Dubinsky is the name that will be floated around, but don't be surprised if a Voros, Boyle, or Anisimov is included in the mix.

* * *

On Prospal: Prospal himself isn't a bad player, despite being bought out by Tampa Bay. He would've been great as a Ranger in 2005-06 as one of the Czech Mates, when he scored 80 points in 81 games. But since that is not an option, you have to assume that John Tortorella knows enough about him from their time in Tampa that he thinks he can contribute in New York.

He didn't score much last year - 19 goals, 45 points - but he does come at a discount. He had a 4 year, $14M deal with Tampa Bay ($3.5M/year) and since he was bought out, he is still getting $1.67M for the next 6 years, so him being a Ranger at $1.1M for one-year really isn't bad at all for either party.