Scoring Summary

First Period

13:53: Marian Gaborik (31) ripped a shot through a defenseman and past Craig Anderson to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead from Sean Avery (15) and Artem Anisimov (9)

Second Period

4:57: Vinny Prospal (29) put a no-look pass right in front for Gaborik (32) to score his second of the game. Marc Staal also picked up an assist.

Third Period

9:17: Prospal (30) shotgunned a pass to Gaborik (32) who fired it past Anderson for the Hat-Trick. Dan Girardi (11) also picked up the assist on the goal

12:39: Cody Mcleod scored to end Johnson’s chance at a shutout

Statistics

Chad Johnson picked up his first career win and stopped 34 of 35 shots

Anderson stopped 30 of 33 shots

Gaborik had six shots to lead the team

Sean Avery only played 9:34

Staal played over 25 minutes to lead the team

Matt Gilroy played 10:27 and was rumored to be traded which could have been why he played little in the first two periods.

Special Teams

Both teams were 0-6 on the powerplay

Next Game

The Rangers next game is Tuesday night against Los Angeles.

Ranger Game Notes are after the jump (more…)

The Game:

The Rangers (24-24-7) in the midst of a five game losing streak, look to build on a nice third period from last night against the Colorado Avalanche (30-17-6)

For a preview, click here

The Goalies:

Chad Johnson (0-2-1) vs Craig Anderson (26-13-5)

Colorado‘s Key Players:

Notes:

Henrik Lundqvist is out with the Flu

Ales Kotalik and Donald Brashear are scratches

All Time:

Overall: 33-28-7-4
At MSG: 20-10-4-4
At Quebec/Colorado: 13-18-3-2

2008-09 Schedule Against Colorado

Jan. 31 Rangers vs. Avalanche at Colorado

How To Catch It:

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

The on-going Vincent Lecavalier saga took an interesting turn yesterday when Ken Campbell, of the Hockey News, reported that Gary Bettman blocked a trade of Lecavalier to Montreal last June.

Campbell says that the deal would have sent goalie Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec and a prospect to Tampa Bay for Lecavalier, but Lightning co-owner Len Barrie wouldn’t accept the deal which led to Bettman blocking the trade.

…Wow, Montreal was going to trade Carey Price. But the bigger part of this, is that had this trade gone through, Scott Gomez would probably still be a Ranger, or at the least, not in Montreal. Then Marian Gaborik might not be on the team and who knows where we would be then. This trade getting blocked was a great thing for the Rangers as it led to clearing Gomez and picking up the space to sign Gaborik and acquire Ryan McDonagh. At this point, Christopher Higgins was just an add on to that deal.

There were strong rumors of Vinny to Montreal last year, and it shows that Lecavalier has been and probably still on the market.

Erik Erlendsson, of Tampa Bay Online, reminds everyone that Lecavalier and his no-movement clause hold a lot of the cards in any potential move.

Last night, in a fight with Jarome Iginla Edmonton Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray fractured his hand. It is expected that his injury will keep him out past the March 3rd trade deadline.

…Well that should end all of the Souray rumors. Tough break, literally, he wanted to help Edmonton by moving on and it doesn’t seem like it can happen until at least the draft or the off-season now.

Souray will be re-examined on Monday.

This season Souray has four goals and nine assists to go along with a minus nineteen. He was rumored to have put the Rangers on the list of teams he would accept a trade to.

He has two more years left on his contract with a cap hit of $5.4 million.

Larry Brooks, in the New York Post, says that defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen, currently in Hartford, may go back overseas in the off-season because of his lack of time with the Rangers.

Rest assured the physical defenseman with offensive instincts who received praise from coach John Tortorella during a seven-game trial run in December, will receive offers of substantially more guaranteed money from the KHL, which, of course, he would be foolish not to accept.

In Newsday though, Steve Zipay says that if a defenseman is needed, Heikkinen will get the call because of other injuries in Hartford.

Heikkinen has seven goals and nineteen assists in Hartford this season.

He played seven games for the Rangers in December.

…I like Heikkinen a lot, and think he could be a solid player for the Rangers moving forward. But is he ahead of Bobby Sanguinetti, Michael Sauer, Corey Potter or Ryan McDonagh on the Rangers depth chart. At his age, he should be at least one or two on the list of defenseman who could be on the team now. Alas, Michal Rozsival and Wade Redden are clogging spots and salary cap space. More than likely, if the team trades Dan Girardi over the next couple of weeks, Heikkinen should get the call and a real look to see if he can play at the NHL level.

Chad Johnson stopped 21 of 24 shots last night in his surprise start against Phoenix due to Henrik Lundqvist‘s bout with the flu. Johnson let it three goals on the Coyotes first seven shots, before settling down to stop the next seventeen.

“I found out in the morning that I’d be playing, so I had time to prepare,” the 23-year-old Johnson told Larry Brooks of the NY Post. “Then I gave up three in the first to put us in a hole-really, even 2-0 is a hole, but after that I just tried to play as big as I possibly could.”

John Tortorella was also impressed with how Johnson handled himself after the tough first:

“I thought it was positive the way he came back so well after struggling in the first,” coach John Tortorella said. “He stayed within himself, didn’t get into a panic mode and battled through it.

…That first goal was a little tough to see, as Johnson seemed to be a little on edge that Shane Doan split two Ranger defensemen. The second one, he was left alone on a three on one and Mikkel Boedker made a nice nifty move to beat Johnson. The third goal, a long point shot through tons of traffic that Johnson didn’t really have a chance on. He rebounded and kept the game relatively close as the Rangers tried to mount a comeback. He has a nice future ahead of him, it would just be much better if he could play the whole year in Hartford and not get shuffled around as much as he has.

Update:1:48PM: Jim Cerny has his thoughts on the deal at his blog Rink Rap.

Update:1:09: PM: Dreger says that Giguere to Toronto is done. Toskala and former Islander Jason Blake are going to Anaheim.

Update:11:57AM: For the PHANEUF trade, Darren Dreger is reporting that Toronto will send Niklas Hagan, Matt Stajan, Jamal Mayers and Ian White for Phaneuf, Sjostrom and Keith Aulie

Update: 11:45:AM: Dan Tencer reports that the Leafs and Ducks swapped goalies, Jean-Sebastian Giguere to Toronto and Vesa Toskala to Anaheim

Pierre LeBrun confirms the deal but that Giguere hasn’t waived his no-trade clause.

Giguere has one more season on his contract after this at seven million, while Toskala will be a free agent on July 1st.

Update: 11:33AM: Daren Millard says that former Ranger Freddy Sjostrom is part of the package going with Phaneuf to Toronto.

…I’m a little shocked that Phaneuf was traded. It seemed like he was going to be this years guy who gets rumored around for some reason, but isn’t moved. Turns out, it wasn’t the case. The Leafs get another tough as nails big defenseman that the Rangers surely could have used.

Update: 11:27AM: Darren Dreger and Bob McKenzie of TSN are saying that Dion Phaneuf has been traded from the Calgary Flames to Toronto.

…WOW. Rumors were that this was going to be a BIG move and that certainly is one.

Earlier reports on this are after the jump: Buzz: Leafs Making A Big Move (UPDATE: Acquire Phanuef, Giguere)
(more…)

Bruce Garroich, in the Toronto Sun, reports today that the belief around the NHL is that Glen Sather will step down as GM after this season and Mark Messier will replace him.

Sather would remain as President of the Rangers.

…That has been rumored for a long-time, the only part missing here is that Wayne Gretzky takes over as coach. This is the way that people believe the Rangers future management will take place, but I have my doubts that it happens after this year. Messier is in his first year back with the team, and still needs more time to fully understand how to work things out as a GM. Again, this is only a belief and not a report of something concrete. But many people that I have spoken with, think that this will happen at some point, probably over the next three seasons, so that Messier can have a better understanding of the day to day and overall work that needs to be done.

This would be a nice present for most Ranger fans, though, who knows what Sather would do still as President and probably having final say on moves.

The Rangers put up an inspired third period last night, while down 3-0, to cut the lead to 3-2 on Marian Gaborik and Sean Avery goals. Inspired or not, the Rangers put up another close but no cigar game last night, a game that Michael Del Zotto told Michael Obernauer, the team thought it should have won:

“It’s one of those games we felt we should have won,” said Del Zotto. “The penalties and the first 20 minutes killed us.”

…Penalties and a bad first period, that would be the story of the Rangers season.

Del Zotto though, was a big party to the bad first period. He was on the ice for all three of Phoenix‘s goals:

“I take responsibility for the first goal,” Del Zotto said. “I thought I had the puck, it just bounced off his chest – he beat me there. I’ve got to take the puck or take the body, I can’t miss both. The other one, just got caught. It killed us.”

Even with the comeback, Del Zotto told Larry Brooks that it can’t keep being this way:

“I thought we showed good character in coming back the way we did, but we can’t fall behind every game and expect to come back.”

…Especially when Henrik Lundqvist isn’t in net, every mistake the Rangers make seems to come back to bit them. The penalty kill was 7 for 7 last night, but taking penalties, especially in the third, hurt the play that the Rangers were establishing and gave Phoenix more chances to bury the Rangers. Tonight has to be a better effort in Colorado, hopefully for sixty minutes.

Two first period goals by Danny Briere (18) and Scott Hartnell (12) along with solid goaltending throughout were too much for the Islanders to overcome yesterday afternoon against the Philadelphia Flyers, as they fell 2-1. The Islanders cut the lead in half in the second period with a tally by Josh Bailey (13), but weren’t able to get another puck past Ray Emery, who made 31 saves in the contest to claim his 15th victory. The Isles have now lost four straight games, to fall back to 13th (two points out) in the East.