Brad Richards News

For the last five years I have experienced the same, sad post season experience of watching teams I don't truly care about battle and grind for the cup, all while having to put up with the jabs and snide comments about "How's your team doing this year? Oh, what's that? They didn't make it again? That's a shame." Bunch of tossers.

How do you make a $12 million man disappear? John Tortorella isn't performing any magic tricks, yet New York Rangers alternate captain Brad Richards finds himself buried on the fourth line and reduced to a near-spectator as the Blueshirts stare down the possibility of a four-game sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins .

The Boston Bruins ' fourth line of Daniel Paille , Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton are everything the New York Rangers are not in the Eastern Conference semifinals: Tough, tenacious in the offensive zone, clutch and, above all else, goal-scoring. The trio factored in on both Bruins goals in their 2-1 Game 3 victory over the Rangers at MSG on ... (more)

The time, ladies and gentlemen, is fast approaching. If the New York Rangers ' organization expects to realize the full potential of a host of young and talented players and capitalize on an all-world, in-his-prime goalie in Henrik Lundqvist, John Tortorella , their feisty, brusque, irreverent and stubborn coach, simply must go.

Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers stops a shot in the first period against the Boston Bruins on February 14, 2012 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts.

If you're a Rangers fan, you have probably hit the panic switch repeatedly through Games 1 and 2 at TD Garden.

Coach John Tortorella delivered a cryptic message relating to adjustments "not on the ice" the Rangers require in advance of this afternoon's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Bruins, but alternate captain Dan Girardi wasn't cryptic at all in assessing the club's performance in Thursday's Game 1, 3-2 overtime defeat.

The Boxford native and former BC star was playing in front of friends and family, and against the Bruins, the team he grew up rooting for.

NY Rangers coach John Tortorella said the Blueshirts' 0-3 record in overtime wasn't "playing with [his team's] head at all." Yes, much has been made of the Rangers' 0-3 record in overtime this postseason, including Thursday night's loss to the Bruins in Game 1. But John Tortorella doesn't think that's going to have an effect on his players.

The Rangers had an opportunity to jump on top of the Bruins and steal the first game of the series.

In Seaford accident on Sunrise Hwy/NY Rt-27 EB at Rt-135/Seaford-Oyster Bay Expy and before Washington Ave.

Nearly everything about the Rangers' Game 7 victory over the Capitals was improbable, and yet the 5-0 drubbing they authored on Monday wasn't even the most surprising result of the night.

Nearly everything about the New York Rangers' Game 7 victory over the Washington Capitals was improbable, and yet they won 5-0. On the karma scale, this matchup of Original Six teams is pretty much a dead heat as these classic clubs get set to meet in the postseason for the first time in 40 years.

It was exciting for a game or two -- as the Wild clung to whatever chance they had to extend this thing past the standard 5-game loss, the NHL's way of telling a team, "You did pretty well to get that one win but you still got clobbered." This was actually a pretty good series.

As a longtime Rangers hater, someone who once rooted for the Russians to rout the Broadway Blues during their tours many years ago, I always found goalie Henrik Lundqvist's nickname disturbing.

Despite being down 3-2 in the series, the Rangers posted back-to-back shutouts to come back and win the series.

Look at the scoresheet from tonight's 5-0 Game 7 win and you'll see that depth was the story of the victory -- and for the entire series against the Capitals -- and how they dug out of a 2-0 hole.

It was a strange and somewhat sad sight. Brad Richards, 32, was on the ice for an optional skate before a back-to-back game, an event generally reserved for fourth-liners, rehabbing players and spares.

It's even in large part because the Caps keep insisting on getting even. They still apparently believe the way to retaliate for a bitter one-goal Game 7 loss to the Rangers a year ago is to continue to retaliate.

They haven't met in the playoffs in 40 years. They haven't meant when it has really mattered since Emile Francis was coach and Glen Sather was one of his Rangers players.