GAME OF THE NIGHT: New York Rangers at Washington Capitals, Friday, April 24, 2009 7pm ET

Good old Avery...



Tsk tsk tsk...

I did not give credence to the notion of the Rangers taking this stranglehold on Washington. I though Washington had too many snipers to be held down indefinitely.

I do believe now that Washington is done tonight(watch, calls will be made as of tomorrow morning for a name goalie to come there. Might see Khabibulin in red)

I don't give credence to New York beating Boston, so as you can imagine, they will do the polar opposite and crush the Bruins.

Now as for Sean Avery and John Tortorella. The point was made on the radio this morning that Avery is likely doing EXACTLY what Torts has set him up to do. Betcha Torts even warned Avery that he would throw him under the bus, but to keep plugging.

He's doing exactly what he's advertised as being capable of. And IMO he's doing it with his coach's secret blessing IMO

Interesting theory... his lack of EXPLOSIONS in the media about it would support that... hmmmm...

davetherave wrote:

SensFan71 wrote:I think Torts does too, this could be a match made in "dom" heaven

If there are any reports of Torts and Seanster hanging out in the 'leather bars' in the Village you'll know the answer to that one LOL...

you just queued up a big flashback for me to the police academy movies, what was the name of that bar they always sent captain harris to?

beedub wrote:I did not give credence to the notion of the Rangers taking this stranglehold on Washington. I though Washington had too many snipers to be held down indefinitely.

I do believe now that Washington is done tonight(watch, calls will be made as of tomorrow morning for a name goalie to come there. Might see Khabibulin in red)

I don't give credence to New York beating Boston, so as you can imagine, they will do the polar opposite and crush the Bruins.

Now as for Sean Avery and John Tortorella. The point was made on the radio this morning that Avery is likely doing EXACTLY what Torts has set him up to do. Betcha Torts even warned Avery that he would throw him under the bus, but to keep plugging.

He's doing exactly what he's advertised as being capable of. And IMO he's doing it with his coach's secret blessing IMO

Interesting view...
cool)

Anyone up for a game chat on this one?

davetherave wrote:Anyone up for a game chat on this one?

I would love to, however, I am going through day without home internet day 3, the withdrawal is killing me.

I'll be out at a pub... enjoying some beers...

Torts on Avery situation: It stays in locker room

Friday, April 24, 2009 Posted by Pierre LeBrun ESPN.COM

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rangers coach John Tortorella doesn't want to talk about it, but he was pressed on the Sean Avery issue again today after his team's pregame skate at Verizon Center.

After a few general queries, the Avery line of questioning began when veteran hockey columnist Larry Brooks of The New York Post asked Tortorella whether he was considering benching Avery.

Rangers forward Sean Avery has seven minor penalties in the series, six of them in the past two games.

Avery took two penalties in the third period of Wednesday's Game 4 that could have very much cost the Rangers the game. Overall, he has seven minor penalties in the series, six of them in the past two games, but New York hasn't been hurt by it yet. It leads the series against the Washington Capitals 3-1 heading into tonight's Game 5.

"As far as the lineup, when we play tonight at 7 p.m., you'll see our lineup. And we'll go from there," Tortorella said.

Your humble ESPN.com reporter then asked the Rangers coach why he wanted to avoid talking about Avery.


"You guys, because of what Sean did the other night, want to make it a Sean Avery thing," said Tortorella. "I coach the New York Rangers. I think team concept is the most important thing. That's the way I'm trying to approach this. I can't control what you guys do. You do what you do, and I do what I do. My biggest concern is a team that I feel needs to get better. Whether we're up 3-1 or it's 2-2 or we were down 3-1, we need to be better as a team. That's our whole focus."

Andrew Gross of the Bergen Record followed up by suggesting the reason we were asking about Avery is that, "it would seem that Sean went outside the team concept the last two games."

"And again, I'm not going to get into a conversation with you guys about Sean," said the Rangers coach. "I'll give you this, when Sean and I met for the first time when I came here, we both talked that we were going to handle it like men, go through the process, and I'm not going to talk to you guys about Sean Avery or anything else."

Brooks took one last crack, pointing out we would be asking the same question even if it was a different player taking two penalties in the last 10 minutes of Game 4.

"I understand that and I respect you asking the question, but I also ... couple of things came up with a couple of players earlier this year during the regular season and I told you that it belonged in the locker room," said Tortorella, who never lost his composure amid all the Avery questions. "This belongs in the locker room, too. I'm not trying to disrespect anybody here. I know what you guys want to do. You want it to be a Sean Avery story and I'm not getting into a conversation about a Sean Avery story. I'll get into a conversation about what the New York Rangers have to do to win. So I'll leave it at that."

And that was the end of Avery-gate. For now.


Crash time
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau understands why people are saying his team needs to crash the net more to make life more difficult for Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist. Easier said than done.

"It's been well documented by everybody that that is something we have to do, but it's a pretty generic term because that's what every team wants to do," Boudreau said this morning after his team's morning skate at their suburban practice facility. "Their defense are doing a really good job of blocking us out and we've got to find a way to not allow them to block us out."

More one-timers might be an option in order to give Lundqvist less time to set up.

"Well, we have told them that he gets set up, so the quicker you can get the puck off, the better it is," said Boudreau. "People are nitpicking on what we should do and what we shouldn't do. We want to get traffic in front of the net, but if we got traffic in front of the net, how are we going to win the battles in the corner. They already have two defensemen and a forward in front, and that would be five guys, and we would never score a goal. It's a tough situation, but we have to find a way to do a lot of things like that, but maybe not exactly like that."


Veteran center Sergei Fedorov said the key is try and block Lundqvist's vision a little.

"Any goalie in the National Hockey League can stop the shot from any position if he can see it," said Fedorov. "If we block his view a little bit and add a little bit more traffic and make simple plays, any power play will succeed."

Speech time
You wonder what Boudreau will tell his players tonight before the game. The motivation is pretty obvious, isn't it?

"I think they have always known what is at stake, now it's just the sense that this is the last stand," he said. "It's like, 'The exam is today, we better start studying.' It's there. You always had a little breathing room because it's never been the finality of what could happen, but today the proverbial things that you want to say, the back's against the wall, all those things, that's it. I don't want to stop coaching and I don't want to stop teaching, but at the same time, the players know exactly what is at stake."


Brooks Laich said his team knows. But now it's time to deliver.

"We've talked enough, we've said enough, we've looked at enough video," said Laich. "All four games have been pretty much the same pattern, it's just in Game 3, we were able to get a couple of pucks past their goalie. We've talked enough and we know what we have to do tonight. We just have to make sure we show up and do it."

Rangers not perfect
With the Rangers outshot 149-99 through four games but still leading the series 3-1, Tortorella sees a mixed bag in his team's play.

"I thought we played better in our end zone [in Game 4]," he said. "I thought the middle of the ice was much better in our end zone. We're still having major concerns with turnovers. I think sometimes players feel once they enter a blue line from the opposing team, that it isn't a turnover if they turn it over there. Against this team and the way they transition, you turn over pucks at the top of the circle, it's dangerous. And I think we're still doing that.

"We're not playing underneath the hashmarks enough, so that's a concern. Again, we can't keep on being in the penalty box six or seven times. It's just a matter of time. And, to me, the heading of discipline falls under both of those -- that's being sharp through the neutral zone as far as getting it in and also staying out of the penalty box. We've been there too long and it's going to kick us in the teeth here eventually."


Where's Zherdev?
Talented but enigmatic winger Nikolai Zherdev of the Rangers has zero points so far in the series and played only 6:59 in Game 4.


"Again, with Nik, I'm not going to get into being critical of him here in this venue [with the media]," said Tortorella. "But some of it had to do with my decision with what we did with the lines, too. When they loaded up their line [Alex Ovechkin-Nicklas Backstrom-Alexander Semin), I changed the lines around and some guys fell out of the mix. So some of it had to do with that.

"I thought Zherdev early in that game skated pretty well. He's one of the most talented guys we have. Eventually we're going to need him to score a goal in this series if we want to win it or keep competing in it. I don't know what the lines are going to be tonight. We'll put 'em together as we start."


Dubie, Dubie
Tortorella said having a training camp next September and starting right at the beginning of the season with his players will be a huge benefit. He said he simply hasn't had time after taking over in February to address certain issues with certain players. Impressive young forward Brandon Dubinsky is an example of that.

"Dubie is one that I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into," said Tortorella. "I think he has a tremendous upside. I think he can do a lot of things. I don't think he has a clue what it is to be a pro. And I don't say that in a negative way; it's not a negative, I just think he has a lot to learn. But we can't force-feed that with 20 games left and fighting for our lives to get into the playoffs. So, he's one of the players that I look at with our team when we start next year that they will go through the process and understand the other parts of the game, which will make them better people and better players."

The Caps have capitalized on some early errors by the Rangers...and lead 2-0 with seven minutes left in the first frame.

The stuff of more drama.

avery is a scratch tonight

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:avery is a scratch tonight

hey the chatroom is open if you want to log on

Good for Torterella benching Avery. He needs to learn what will work and what is just plain dumb.

Unfortunately they may be missing Avery's $hitdisturbing skill.

Henrik is proving he is human.

wprager wrote:Henrik is proving he is human.

Bad turnover by the Rangers on that PP...

and yes, The King is human.

cool)

A VERY tight defensive game. Just 9 shots in total after one period.

Caps have driven another nail in...off the faceoff, Semin. 3-0.

Similar to what we saw in Philly with the Pens, perhaps?

Avery will not sit next game.