By Larry Brooks
December 27, 2013 | 11:14am
The 2012 review was chock full o' milestone moments on the ice that featured a regular-season division championship, advance to the conference finals, and signal victories such as the Winter Classic in Philadelphia.
But 2013? Not so much.
1
Breaking bad
Two days after their second-round Game 5 elimination defeat in Boston, the Rangers gathered on Memorial Day at the practice facility for their exit interviews with management. Henrik Lundqvist offered cryptic remarks to the press regarding his future in New York. Two days after that, on May 29, John Tortorella was exiting the organization in a stunning, unforeseen move, fired as coach despite having recorded the fourth-most wins and second-best winning percentage in franchise history in his four-plus seasons behind the bench. Sources told The Post that Tortorella was dismissed by GM Glen Sather in the wake of a torrent of complaints about the coach by marquee players in their break-up day meetings.
2
No Captain our Captain, it is A.V.
Despite having been invited by Sather to apply for the position, as Mark Messier would later tell The Post, The Captain, absent substantive professional coaching experience, was not selected as Tortorella's successor. Rather, on June 21, the Blueshirts announced the hiring of Alain Vigneault, who'd been dismissed after seven years behind the bench in Vancouver, where the Canucks won two President's Trophies and advanced to Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final only to lose to Boston. Vigneault pledged he would encourage the Rangers to play a more offense-minded style, a philosophy hailed by the players.
Messier soon after left his position with the franchise as special advisor to Sather to work full time on the development of the Kingsbridge National Ice Center in The Bronx. Tortorella, interestingly enough, was hired by the Canucks on June 25 in the NHL's unique version of Trading Places.
3
Double O-seven
After qualifying for the playoffs as the six seed following a finishing 10-3-1 kick to the lockout-truncated season, the Blueshirts trailed the Capitals 3-2 in their opening-round series before Lundqvist made Derick Brassard's goal midway through the second period stand up for a Game 6, 1-0 victory at the Garden. The next night in D.C., The King recorded his second straight shutout with the Blueshirts blowing out the Caps 5-0 in Game 7 to advance to Round Two against the Bruins.
4
King me?
Playing the first two months of the season as a pending unrestricted free agent, Lundqvist was off to the poorest start of his nine-year NHL career and had been benched for two straight games for the first time since late in 2010-11 as questions about both his short-term and long-term status began to swirl. On Dec. 4, the club and Lundqvist agreed to a seven-year, $59.5 million extension ($8.5M per) through 2019-20 that represented the highest average salary for a goaltender in NHL history.
Lundqvist started eight straight games immediately thereafter, allowing three or more goals in the final seven — the longest such streak of his career — before sitting for the Blueshirts' final two games before the Christmas break. Vigneault refused to clarify his thoughts on the goaltending position entering the hiatus, with Cam Talbot having gone 8-2 with a 1.60 GAA and .938 save pct. as compared to The King's 10-15-2, 2.77, .905. The 31-year-old Lundqvist's extension includes a no-move clause, but the contract does not kick in until July 1.
5
Ghostbuster
The 26-year-old Talbot, who joined the organization as an undrafted free agent in 2010 following a collegiate career at Alabama-Huntsville, and who had made his NHL debut on Oct. 24 in a 2-1 defeat in Philadelphia, recorded a 1-0 shutout over the Canadiens on Nov. 16 for the Rangers' first victory in Montreal since March 17, 2009 (0-7-1), first shutout there since Ed Giacomin blanked the Habs on Feb. 25, 1967, and first 1-0 victory in Montreal since Davey Kerr's 1-0 triumph on Jan. 18, 1940. Talbot, whose mask features a "Ghostbusters" logo, also recorded a shutout in his following game, Nov. 23 in Nashville.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Top 5 Rangers storylines of 2013
Dengan url
http://solusiagarsehat.blogspot.com/2013/12/top-5-rangers-storylines-of-2013.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Top 5 Rangers storylines of 2013
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Top 5 Rangers storylines of 2013
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar