This is becoming an annual event. Stan Fischler spoke to John Tortorella about the state of the team.
Quote:
John's boss Glen Sather wasted no time replacing Prust's physicality and penalty-killing ability by adding muscle in Arron Asham and Micheal Haley along with the PK prowess of Jeff Halpern. The coach also expects Michael Rupp to be improved if for no other reason than he'll (hopefully) be healthy.
"Rupp will have a much better year. He needs to be on the ice for nine, ten, eleven minutes a game and I've got to find him that playing time."
A few days ago,Rupp told Jim Cerny the knee injury ruined his season. Rupp got hurt in training camp and then had knee surgery. He was playing catch up all year.
Quote:
"When you get hurt late in a season, you just grind it out, you can deal with it," explained Rupp. "But when you get hurt in pre-season and then have surgery, and try and get back as soon as you can, you just aren't right the entire year. I love to practice and I love to play games and there were times where it hurt so much it was not easy at all to get out there. It's like Man, how am I going to get through today? And that's no fun at all."
Quote:
"I am taking this summer as a time to go and get healthy," said Rupp, who signed as a free agent on July 1st of 2011. "The biggest thing was to get my knee to settle down, which meant not doing anything for quite a while. It feels good now and I'm building up the strength in my muscles around the knee. I feel like it's all in the past now, and I am just excited moving forward, especially with the team we have now."
Rupp had 4 goals in 60 games. 2 of them in the Winter Classic. Rupp had 22 goals in his 2 seasons with Pittsburgh. Rupp missed just 2 games in Pittsburgh. It would be nice if Rupp is healthy and can pop in 10 goals this season. He needs to have a better season with a $1.5M cap hit.
Torts also discussed what the Rangers didn't give up for Rick Nash
Quote:
Fortunately none of those "somethings" included artistic assets such as Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Carl Hagelin, Ryan McDonagh and Michael Del Zotto. Each of the quintet was sought as part of the Columbus-New York exchange but Sather refused to budge when it came to capitulating.
"Glen did a terrific job keeping our youthful foundation intact," Torts enthused. "We didn't want to dismantle the good things we built and we didn't."
Those players will be up for new contracts within the next 2 seasons. DZ is up for a new contract right now.
I really think Rupp can get back to 10 goals. He and Asham have solidified chemistry from playing together before and he should be healthy. He was playing on one leg pretty much all season.
Was Rupp really someone we couldn't do without if it meant him not going through that? It's really assinine when you take into consideration that we went without players of the caliber of Staal and Sauer for the year.
Rupp stated earlier in the season the he is not a fan of waiting the entire time when recovering from an injury. He believed that if you could play and help the team you should be out there. Without him, the team lacked a heavyweight and a presence both in the locker room and on the bench. I think it was more him pushing himself because he wanted to help the team. Gotta love guys who will do whatever it takes to win. I still like the signing.
Rupp is certainly a much better player than the one we saw last season. It'd be nice if he could give us better minutes, and I have faith that that will happen. He should be able to move around a bit better, which should help him on the forecheck. Hopefully he and Asham can really pin teams in for a few shifts a game.
sound like rupper is just all kinds of full of excuses!!!!!
really though. nice to think he may come back and be able to skate a little better next season and hopefully net a few more. that's something we could use in the bottom. definitely not something i considered with him
A guy that scores between 5-10 goals a year, more often than not, closer to 5.
he's a solid player in his own zone, but his skating limits his ability to be a better defensive player.
He's a guy that can and will fight heavyweights, he may not always do well against them, but he will keep teams honest as we all saw in the Florida game last season.
He's a very replaceable player. BUT, solid for the role he plays on this Rangers team.
a realistic expectation for him is 10 points, let alone 10 goals. as the only time he has scored more than 10 points is playing for a very good offensive Penguins team 2 and three seasons ago.
I have no delusions of 10 goals from Rupp. I would like 10 points, 100-150pm's, a + instead of a - and a full (72+ games) season from him.
We get that from Rupp, and I will be a happy camper. We get more than that and we should count ourselves very very fortunate.
Still not sold on any of the bottom-6 guys they signed this offseason outside of maybe Halpern. Rupp is still mostly forgiven for his tenure here since he basically won them the WC, which is a bigger deal to me living in PA.
__________________
"I used to pray for good things . I used to ask the Hockey Gods for puck luck for the NYR .
Now all I want is Torts the smug stupid goatee clown to be fired , . I hate Torts . Please hockey gods make him get fired. Please Sean punch him in face" -- Dorado
I am just hoping Haley can come into camp and win a spot because he really adds quite a bit of toughness to this team.
I think that Haley will surprise. I said during the playoffs that the oneglaring thing to me about the team was the utter lack of a mean streak. I think that Haley and Asham address that.
Seems like losing Feds might actually be the biggest blow. A Proven playoff stud, great on the PK, good for 20+points, decent skater/speed, heart above all else and adherence to Torts style.
Seems like losing Feds might actually be the biggest blow. A Proven playoff stud, great on the PK, good for 20+points, decent skater/speed, heart above all else and adherence to Torts style.
So what's our PK then?
I think Nash will surprise on the PK, he thrived in that role when used on it in Columbus.
Carl Hagelin will be part of the PK. Dubinsky was marginalized last season. He lost his PK time in February. Nash is a threat on the PK. Boyle,Callahan and Stepan were staples on the PK last season. Halpern can be used on the PK. Kreider was on the PK at BC. He had 3 SHGs last season. 5 shorthanded points.
I read a blog post the internets last week complaining the Rangers PK losing Dubinsky,AA,Prust and Fedotenko. There are 4 players on the team-Callahan,Boyle,Stepan and Hagelin-who were used on the PK last season. There are 3 other players who has been on the PK in Nash,Halpern and Kreider. That's 7 players. Torts rotates three sets of forwards. Sometimes two sets. Mostly 3 sets.
Torts is looking forward to Kreids and Hags in the lineup. Speed. Skys the limit for McD. Wants DZ to have another good year. More consistent. Wants more consistency from Stepan. Looking forward to working with Kreider.
