For a recap and stats, visit SNY.tv

Scoring Summary

First Period

11:08: Joni Pitkanen opened the scoring by beating Henrik Lundqvist

17:36: Erik Christensen (1) scored his first point as a Rangers by scoring a powerplay goal on a 5 on 3, from Marian Gaborik (24) and Ales Kotalik (14)

Second Period

No Scoring

Third Period

11:49: Brandon Dubinsky redeems himself after a terrible game last night by slipping a loose puck past Cam Ward to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. Assists to Gaborik (25) and Christensen (1)

Statistics

Lundqvist stopped 16 of 17 shots

Ward played well stopping 33 of 35 shots for the Hurricanes

Christensen picked up his first two points as a Ranger by skating with Gaborik and Dubinsky

The Rangers held Carolina to five shots in the first period and seven in the second and five in the third.

Ales Kotalik, Sean Avery and Christensen all had five shots on goal. Gaborik had four.

Marc Staal led the team in icetime with over 22 minutes.

Carolina outhit the Rangers 44 to 36

Special Teams

The Rangers were 1 for 5 on the powerplay

Carolina was 1 for 3

These two teams do it again on Saturday afternoon at MSG.

The Game:

The Rangers (18-17-4) try to end 2009 on a good note as they head down to Carolina to play the Hurricanes(10-22-7)

For a preview, click here

The Goalies:

Henrik Lundqvist (16-14-4) vs Cam Ward (5-13-5)

Carolina’s Key Players:

Notes:

Aaron Voros is IN the lineup tonight, Donald Brashear is out of the lineup

All Time:

Overall: 52-45-7-1
At MSG: 33-15-4-1
At Hartford/Carolina: 19-30-3-0

2008-09 Schedule Against Carolina

Dec. 21 Rangers 3, Hurricanes 1 at Carolina
Dec. 31 Rangers vs. Hurricanes at Carolina
Jan. 2 Rangers vs. Hurricanes at MSG
Jan. 27 Rangers vs. Hurricanes at MSG

How To Catch It:

The game can be seen on MSG starting at 8:00PM.

Happy New Year!!

Tough choice between Lundqvist and Jagr. Biggest difference, Lundqvist is still with the team. (more…)

USA Hockey will announce its roster for the 2010 Olympic Games tomorrow during the Winter Classic between the Flyers and Bruins.

At ESPN.com Scott Burnside and Pierre LeBrun list who they think will make team USA.

Burnside puts both Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan on his team while LeBrun just picks Drury.

….Them both picking Drury was surprising to me but he appears to be the elder statesman among that group that has been picked. Its not out of the realm of possibility that Drury is named Captain if he is picked, he could certainly be an alternate captain. Then again, I had figured Drury wouldn’t make the team and instead rest up for the post Olympic stretch run.

Callahan should make the team. He is the one guy that works hard night in and out for the Rangers and he is a clear favorite of John Tortorella who is an assistant coach for the team.

Other than that, I like the way the team looks. With Ryan Miller in goal, this team could contend for a medal.

In the Rangers dreadful game last night, center Brandon Dubinsky was a minus four. Marian Gaborik and Sean Avery were close behind as minus three’s.

Rookie defenseman Michael Del Zotto was also a minus three bringing his season total to minus seventeen.

…Wow, thats a pretty decent number of goals to be scored against you. Good thing he has 20 points and is only 19.

It is sixth worst in the league.

Tied with Del Zotto at minus seventeen is Ales Kotalik.

…Thats just not surprising.

Leslie Treff, of Hockey’s Future, has an update on how the Rangers prospects are coming along in the AHL and ECHL.

For defenseman Michael Sauer:

A defensive blueliner who plays in all situations, Sauer has been very solid on the blue line since early last season. Although he started a bit slow this season, with errant passes and positional errors, of late he is playing very well and appears to be NHL-ready.

…That is huge for the Rangers. He will probably make a big splash for people at training camp and could be the more steady defenseman the Rangers have been looking for.

Evgeny Grachev:

As the No. 1 prospect in the Rangers organization and coming off such a dominating OHL season, there were high expectations for Grachev coming into the Rangers training camp this fall. He played well and almost made the NHL team. It was decided, however, that some seasoning in Hartford would be advantageous for Grachev’s development. What Grachev did not expect was that many of the ways that he played in Brampton would not work with the men in the pros.

Read more about Bobby Sanguinetti and the such at Hockey’s Future.

The most anticipated part of anything Rangers related last night was John Tortorella’s press conference during MSG’s postgame show.

With the postgame from the Rangers last terrible loss, against the Isles, still fresh in our minds, it wasn’t far reaching to expect another expletive filled affair.

Instead, Tortorella was calm and direct about how the team and how it performed last night:

“If we have to have a coach losing his mind and making an idiot out of himself every five games, then we’re beating our heads against the wall,” he said. “It cannot be that way. We have to be more consistent. I don’t have an answer as to why we played the game that way. I thought we practiced well, I thought we got enough rest, they were in good spirits. I just don’t know why.”

Read more about it at Newsday.

…I have to say, from an entertainment point of view, it was disappointing. From the point of view of the teams best interest, this was the right way to go about it. He can’t scream and yell in the postgame after ever loss, the team will just tune him out.

During the Rangers timeout in the first period, Tortorella turned BRIGHT RED and was screaming at the team. That made sense, trying to rally the team at the point in the game where it could still be salvaged. But in the postgame, stay a little calm but once and a while, it is necessary to blow up.

Christopher Higgins has four goals this season. He has taken 102 shots, third on the Rangers behind Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan.

His shooting percentage, an incredible 3.9%.

According to Larry Brooks that is the lowest percentage for skaters with at least 75 shots.

…It’s almost impressive to take that many shots and not score more. That percentage is just atrocious.

Sean Avery has the second worst percentage at 5.5% but he only has four goals on 73 shots.

With the Rangers down 3-0 last night, Chad Johnson replaced Henrik Lundqvist to start the second period. His first ever NHL time. 23 seconds later Johnson faced his first shot. That same shot was also the first goal that Johnson gave up in his career, to Simon Gagne.

In the end, Johnson played the rest of the game and stopped 17 of 20 shots.

In the midst of the Rangers lackluster effort, Arthur Staple of Newsday says that Johnson was the only one that cared:

There may have been 19 other Rangers who played as if they didn’t care, but one did. There will not be any commemorative pucks from this debut, but Chad Johnson showed the Rangers he can play. That’s something to take from a night to forget.

Tortorella told Sam Rosen in the Rangers pre-game show that Johnson will play two to three games in January.

…I liked how Johnson played and kept his composure as the Flyers were pounding him with shots and the Rangers didn’t do anything to stop it. He certainly looked capable of being the backup of the future. I am still not sure he is the right backup for now, but he certainly looked pretty good behind a listless and terrible Rangers team last night.

The message that was continued to be spread following last nights rout by the Flyers, was that the team was ready to get back and play tonight in Carolina.

In his postgame press conference, John Tortorella spoke of starting over:

“We start over. That is the best thing for us right now is to get on a plane and play. Some things, obviously, there has to be some discussion on certain situations but we have to start over. We have to start over. The best thing for us is to play right away.”

…Its tough to start over in less than twenty-four hours, but the Rangers need to get back to basics and, well, start over. Its tough to do without Vinny Prospal. One player that should rebound, you would think, Brandon Dubinsky. He was a minus four and terrible last night. Wouldn’t be too far off to expect that he plays a better game tonight.

They just need to keep it simple. Its easy to say that, I am watching the game, not playing, but making simple and harder passes rather than soft fancy ones would benefit the team. Going to the net like Ryan Callahan ALWAYS talks about would be nice. A simple basketball type play of pass-pass-shoot might even work on the powerplay. Simple, just keep it simple and hopefully that can erase the feeling of last night.