Jag Gotta Believe!

UPDATE: Korpikoski will make his NHL debut today in place of Colton Orr; Avery has been released from the hospital. For more see Blushirts Blog, Rangers Report and Blue Notes reporting live from Pittsburgh.

When Jaromir Jagr says "Ya gotta believe!" there is more to it than just sports. Jagr has always been deeply religious, and he believes there is more at work than just athletics. You may not share his belief that a higher spiritual power is focused on an hockey game, but that's not the point -- the point is that Jagr himself believes, and that drives him even beyond the innate world class talent he already possesses.

The last time Jagr invoked his beliefs in public was during the All-Star break in 2007 when everyone had already written the Rangers off as another flop. With the help of a true godsend -- the arrival of Sean Avery -- Jagr helped carry the Rangers to the playoffs, as promised. While there was little margin for error during that playoff run, there is now zero margin for error after the Rangers let three winnable games slip away and grow into a 3-0 series deficit before finally closing one out last Thursday to stay alive. So Jagr and the Rangers will have to be perfect in Pittsburgh this afternoon if they want to extend the series to a sixth game in New York tomorrow evening.

Jagr is the leading subject in some of the news reports today -- see the Daily News, Journal News, Newsday, Times, Post, Record, Star-Ledger, TSN, and Tribune-Review. Additional notes and game previews, including Avery being released from ICU, can be found the Daily News, Post, Record, Toronto Sun here and here, Vancouver Sun, National Post, Globe & Mail, AP, ESPN, NYR.com, Rangerland, Slap Shot, and Prospect Park. The Daily News pans NBC's playoff coverage. Classy: Jagr telling Brooks Orpik his hit was clean, according to this note in a Pittsburgh paper; classless: Pens' coach Michel Therrien dismissing Malkin's slew-foot while taking a gratuitous potshot at Avery. We've developed a tic in our left hand typing "here" for all the Pittsbugh area reports, especially since the e and r are neighbors on the keyboard, so we're going to take a pass on links from there today.

It's ironic that Tom Renney is again considering giving Lauri Korpikoski his first NHL start today in Pittsburgh. That's because the Rangers drafted the 21-year-old Finn with the 19th overall draft pick in 2004 that they got in part by trading the second round draft pick they received as compensation for being unable to sign R.J. Umberger to an entry level contract that June. Yes, that's the same R.J. Umberger who scored eight goals in five games to lead the Flyers to a five-game upset of top-seeded Montreal last night -- on Umberger's 26th birthday.

Fans who remember that the Rangers owned the rights to the Pittsburgh native point to him now with some regret that we missed out on him. But most fail to recall why he didn't sign with the Rangers. There are lingering notions that he had a bad attitude or that he didn't want to sign with the Rangers. The truth is that after sitting out the entire season due to a contract dispute with Vancouver, the team that drafted him 16th overall in 2001, and being acquired by the Rangers during the great purge of March 2004, the Rangers, after having Umberger work out with the team in practice, offered him a $250,000 contract or thereabouts -- he wanted something closer to the entry-level cap of $1.2 million.

So that was his bad attitude and his refusal to consider the Rangers' offer -- he was lowballed. So the Rangers instead got a compensatory draft pick, which they packaged with the first round pick they got from Toronto as part of the Brian Leetch deal to move up from #24 to #19 to nab Korpikoski. So we have a prospect who may have a marginal chance to be a depth player in the NHL instead of Umberger and one of the players drafted in the next ten picks in 2004 -- Mike Green, Wojtek Wolski, Andrej Meszaros, or Travis Zajak.

That was also the year we drafted Al Montoya sixth overall. Ranger fans can point to the Pens getting the benefit of all those high draft picks, with Crosby, Malkin, Fleury, and Staal all taken first or second overall. While the Rangers never had any single pick that high, let alone four of them, they did have seven straight top twelve picks and have exactly zero NHL players to show for those picks, four of them busts (Brendl, Lundmark, Jessiman, and so far Montoya), one a useful but marginal NHL player for another team (Malhotra), one lost early to injury (Blackburn), and one traded away for a player lost quickly to injury (Bure).

Comments

[RobZ]

Lets see how long it takes us to get pissed at NBC. Should take about a minute........

LETS GO RANGERS!!!!!!

LeTs Go RaNgErS!!!!!!

Lets Go Rangers!!!!!!

[onetimer]

Dubi,

I didn't see it in your links, but the Boston Globe sunday hockey column leads off with some musings on the Jagr rejuvenation.

www.boston.com/sports/hockey/articles/2008/05/04/not_ready_to_call_it_a_game/

[Puluche]

Let's keep the faith and see if the series does turn with the help from a few breaks and bounces - can't count on the refs and hopefully not blame them.

Look forward to the line up. Knowing Renney - he probably won't make any changes - but Struds looked slow and overwhelmed out there last game. Would like to see Malik get a shot and maybe stabilize and help Rosival. Will Prucha ever get any meaningful playing time on the PP?

Let's get the lead and play our game and get it back to MSG! Let's go boys!

[out0fyourelement]

YA GOTTA BELIEVE!!!

STAY POSITIVE!!!

LET'S GO RANGERS!!!

[joeymole]

from tsn ice chips web page:

The Latest from the New York Rangers
Tom Renney said he would probably use the same lineup in Game 5 as he did in Game 4, with defenceman Jason Strudwick playing in place of Christian Backman, and a fourth line of Colton Orr, Ryan Hollweg and Fred Sjostrom. Rangers star Sean Avery has been released from hospital after recovering from a lacerated spleen. - New York Times /TSN

game 7 approach for rangers today?? hope they play every shift at 110%. and hope to see more rangers besides jagr and henrik carry this game!! drury? gomez? shanny? 1 hour to go and my stomach is already in knots.

LET'S GO RANGERS!!!

[Mark W.]

Come onnnnnnn Rangers let's do it!

[Puluche]

Korpikoski in for Orr - only changes...

[LisaMY]

One moment at a time
One shift at a time
One period at at time

LGR!!!!

Let's go boys! Win one for "The Jagr"!

[Scott]

Let's Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[paularensburg]

!!!!!

[Matty]

game time ... err after NBC does all their commercials and Pro Crosby Penguins promotional stuff ...

I'm nervous, excited and ready ... Let's get it done boys and bring it back to the Garden, I want a hockey game tomorrow night!

[pj]

Shift by shift
period by period
game by game

I HATE Mike Douchebury. Why do they have to have an inverterate ranger hater as the broadcaster of our game today?

I am not ready for the end of the hockey season today.

Make our dreams come true boys!

[Matty]

PJ I think it's done on purpose to try and prove a point that he isn't biased toward the Rangers even though he obviously is ... but ever since he dissed Jagr a few months ago and the Rangers have refused to give NBC access to Jagr, by his request, Milbury always starts getting all the Rangers assignments(which aren't many)

Who was that dude interviewing J.Staal? "Are you looking to squash the life out of the Rangers?"

I wonder what's the over/under that another Penguins, perhaps oh I don't know Crosby? Gets interviewed before the game starts ...

[Jed Orts]

a little frustration, not at all?

liar!!!!!!!!

[Matty]

Hey! I guessed right ... that was hard ...

Ok can they stop all this already and get the game started ... ugh

[rangerbill94]

While I don't believe for a second that God cares about hockey, He does care about the gifts He gives to His human creations and how they are used. The full use of those gifts are give glory to God and that is why the gifts were given in the first place.

[HawksHockey27]

Oh Jags :( We dont need to give them a pp.

[ant]

Where was a hook??

[Jed Orts]

they gotta be aggressive on the pk

[HawksHockey27]

Lets go Dru!

[Jed Orts]

did he say first shift of the game? are we watching the same game here?

[bx mike]

nice looking shot there for korpo

[HawksHockey27]

Is Lauri wearing the 22? Nice spray to Flurey if he is.

[Zach]

korpikoski looks good.

[rangerbill94]

22 is Korpo...and that was a good shot!

[max]

and that wasnt his first shift I think I have seen him on the ice before

[Josh]

korpikoski is looking good with a nice shot there

[HawksHockey27]

Lets go boys! ITS A POWER PLAY GOAL!!!

[iceycup]

shanny needs to retire. he CANNOT be on this team next year.

[HawksHockey27]

....or not....

[max]

typical the pens have the best scoring chances on the rangers pp

[rangerbill94]

Sure looked like interference behind the Pens net with Jagr knocked down? Dubi had the puck!

[HawksHockey27]

Oh come on! Control the puck!

[zach]

straka's gotta go.

[bx mike]

CMON NIGEL!

[Jed Orts]

dawes??? omg

wide open net

[rangerbill94]

How did Dawes miss that one?

[john]

Good first period.
Lets go Boys!

[HawksHockey27]

Anyone else think the Ice looks aweful?

[pj]

Dawes??? Should have scored. We had two PP and they both sucked.

Hit from behind on Jags by FAGINA Malkin. Starting to think he is as dirty as cindy crybaby.

[Shawn]

The ice had looked awful in Pitts the entire seasons, the first couple of the games the puck looked like a beach ball bouncing around out there.

[HawksHockey27]

That net was wide open for Dawes. I cant beleive he missed that.

[Joe in DE]

Not a bad period, could have been a lot worse. The D is looking pretty good at the blue line.

We just gotta get the pucks to the net. Big shots from the point aren't going to work here. Get the shot on goal, crash for a rebound. Pittsburgh is keeping everything to the outside. Towards the end of the period our puck movement was looking a little sloppy. Passes weren't as crisp and lots of juggling, unlike in the first half of the period. Keep the pressure on and play smart, we'll be OK.

Let's Go Rangers!

[HawksHockey27]

As I watch the Nothing But Crosby coverage I cant help but wonder what kind of trouble Sean Avery is causing in the hospital while watching this game...

[Jed Orts]

did the penguins buy exclusive rights to NBC as their home broadcast??

[Matty]

Dude Nigel has got to BURY that!

Specially since Gomer had a little spurt there and looked a bit like he did in the Devils series ... Gomer is the BEST skater on our team and better than most on the Pens and he needs to use that to his advantage specially with TWO speedy wingers on his line ...

However, Strong period for Henrik and the Rangers(except for the PP) ... while the Penguins tried to crash the net and did a few times he is out challenging instead of being deep in his net ... Henrik being ON is the most important thing other than Jagr being on ...

That Penalty on Jagr, which is fine he had his stick across the Penguin dude's midsection ... BUT what annoys me is that Penguin players attempt to stop Jagr doing the EXACT SAME THING but he barely flinches and as such the penalty goes uncalled ... in any case I think we need to get in Fleury's kitchen a heck of a lot more than we did in the first ... he looked scrambly and out of position when we were driving to the slot but we couldn't bury it(Dawes wide, Shanny missed deflection) ...

Now like game 4 we need to continue to chip away, continue to play smart defensively and get it going!

Go Rangers!

[Alan]

according to sam weinamn, sean was released. i'm surprised by that.

that moron with the other moron milbury makes me yearn hopelessly for mcguire. that's pathetic.

[HawksHockey27]

I know Sean was released from ICU, but I think he is staying in the hospital to monitor his condition for the next week or so.

[HawksHockey27]

Are they seriously talking about penguins like actual birds durring a hockey game?!?! Somehow I'm not suprised

[ant]

Why the announcers talk about Fluery like hes the best goalie in a league