Joonas Korpisalo's return & Has Pavel Dorofeyev Figured It Out? | Up In The Blue Seats

We have a special episode of Up in the Blue Seats this week. If you're watching on video right now, you can see Brian and I are actually together in the same city. So we thought, let's share a screen for once. But apologies for the scheduling conflicts last week. Just to quickly recap where the Rangers have been and what they've been doing real quick. They had a five-day break at one point. Then they lost 4-1 to Edmonton on home. They beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1, snapped a four-game losing streak in the process. They beat Philadelphia 3-2, and they beat Seattle in Seattle. 4-3 to kick off this four-game road trip. Out West, they are 8-2-0 at home, picked up their second win on the road in Seattle. Pretty good couple of weeks for the Rangers, and we were pretty down on them just last time we were recording. So where are you at now? Wow. I'm kind of back where we were at, I think, in the preseason. I think this is sort of the ups and downs that you're going to see with Sort of what this roster is in the beginning part of the season. Now we thought that prior to understand or seeing Igor get hurt. So I think they are, they're playing well. I think we're going to have to say that they're playing for what they are. They are playing well. There is obviously, it was a bit of an issue on the road and they got a, I thought a really nice win against Seattle. Now let's take it back to, you know, St. Louis looks great. They should beat that St. Louis team, similar records, similar sort of, I think they're kind of in a similar spot in terms of where they are as a franchise. You have to beat Philly and they came from behind to do that. So that's a great, that's a great sign with a big goal from your big free agent. And then, you know, just taking care of business. I love the start. I love two periods and being able to see Corpus Allo come in. And play really well, I thought. Those were, I mean, you look at the positives. Are they a perfect club right now? No, I don't think anyone is. I think Carolina's probably closest to it. But this is the race to be in the top three in the Metro. First comeback win in Philly of the season, too. I mean, yeah, that's the team you want to beat. And to stay at home against St. Louis, you have to win that game. And then you have to beat the teams below you, especially in your division. So, yeah, there were parts of that. Game in Philly, they probably don't love, but not a lot. I think it was a pretty good game. I think the game in St. Louis was pretty convincing. At home against St. Louis was pretty convincing. And then, you know, the Seattle game is what it is. You have to go on the road against a team that plays pretty gritty. You know, they have a lack of superstardom, but they come at you in waves. So, I mean, so far, so good. Big test in the next game, their upcoming game against Edmonton. That's a different animal. But you win or you learn. And let's not forget how decimated this Rangers team has been with injuries and more just continue to pile up. The Rangers just placed Sean Durzi on IR after he had been battling something the last. couple of weeks, missed a few practices for some maintenance days, and now he's officially sidelined with a lower body injury, but he was skating today at the Optional Morning Skate in a red non-contact jersey, so his injury is retroactive to October 26th, so he can be activated and put back in the lineup at any time. I don't think it should be too much longer. Yeah. You know, Scott Morrow has gotten a nice look here because of that. What have you seen from Number 60, and do the Rangers have the depth on the back end to make it through this? It looks like it. You know, it's interesting, and you can get into Robertson too, but with Morrow, I do, you know, his agility, I think his edges are pretty good, and I think he's added some speed to his game. I think last year he got surprised. I'm like breakouts and they weren't good last year getting the puck out of their own end and it's not on him the whole whole team had some trouble with it, I think minus the top pair. So he looked like he looks like he has improved in that he looks way more comfortable under pressure and you know without pressure and he's jumping into place. So that's a confidence thing. If he has that confidence, he can make the simple plays. He's that'll grow. He'll continue to try to jump up and I think if he continues to get minutes and confidence. He can be a part of the offense a little bit more, which if you have a guy in sheltered minutes, number one, you want him to be able to defend. You want him to be able to exit the zone, but if you can get some bonus offense out of it, it just adds so much depth to your backend and I think improving his skating was something that he really wanted to work on in the offseason, and I feel like I have definitely noticed that. Yeah, it's evident. It's definitely evident. Yeah, and now Albert Smits is now week-to-week with an upper body injury. He was a very last minute scratch in Seattle. He took warm-ups and Matthew Robertson was telling us today, I don't know if you've heard this in the locker room, but he was talking about how he basically had already taken off all of his gear and they were like, oh, nope, you're going in. And he was like, oh God. He said he went up there and skated a really hard couple laps and then he was thrown in there. But yeah, it gives Matthew Robertson a chance to finally play in front of his home crowd in Edmonton. Remember, he was scratched last time. When he came back here after playing in a series of games, so that was pretty unfortunate for him. But he said he was super excited and has up to 15 friends and family members come tonight. So very excited for Matthew Robertson. Thank Other notes and transactions, James Reimer. Very, very brief era for the New York Rangers was placed on waivers for the purpose of contract termination with the return of Joonas Korpisalo. As you mentioned, how did Korpisalo look to you? you. 25 saves in that game. So I thought he was awesome. And there was not a ton of action in the first 40 minutes, but there was some. It was some difficult moments for him because there were deflections. There were rebounds late in the second period. You saw a complete breakdown with, I think, three seconds left? Yeah. Where I believe it was Vince Dunn on the doorstep. It was a breakdown, and he had to come across and look very confident, look very big, had control of his rebounds, made a few great stick saves that I think are positional saves. So he has his net. He knows where he's at, sometimes with not a lot of reps. That could be the problem, and he was perfect with that. Got whistles when he had to, especially in the third period because of the momentum that was mounting in Seattle's favor, and he hung in there. He made the next save. Yeah, he had two really great periods, as did the Rangers. He didn't have a ton of work. He had a ton of work in the third, and you look at it, like three goals on, was it 28 shots? He was better than what that stat line says. And I definitely think rust was expected. So the fact that it wasn't so much of a factor early on was definitely an encouraging sign. And I do feel like now that Crozier is back, the Rangers, you have to see how he settles in and what the goaltending situation and tandem really looks like before making an executive decision on what to do there moving forward. Thank you so much, everyone, for coming forward. They have been banking on him, stabilizing it, but how he performs, obviously, will likely answer the question for the Rangers moving forward. Yeah, and I think they're in an okay place right now. I think now you don't have to do anything. If you can do a tandem, a real tandem, I'm guessing, I don't have any information on this, but probably that's the ideal scenario because you have a young goaltender that... Could be a part of this going forward, giving him games where he stays in it and not long layoffs so you can almost play every other, or a couple here, a couple there. I think that's, I think big picture, that makes sense. Yeah. With the, I think, luxury of if one of their games slips, They can take a week or 10 days, get back with the goaltending coach, try to get your game back that way, and you have a viable option. So it could go any number of directions. I guess it can go two directions with either guy, but I don't think adding or bringing someone in and losing another asset for that trade piece is necessary now. So they held the fort. Dylan Grant held the fort for 12 straight games. Yeah. It's their, they've weathered that storm. Yeah, no, I agree. Thank It should at least give them. You know, some stability and a normal, a sense of normalcy with the goaltending schedule, which I feel like they have severely been missing. And last but not least, my UMass guy, defenseman Mark DelGaizo, was recalled on Sunday for the you. extra body on D, just named captain of the Wolfpack, just won less than a month almost into his first year with a new team. So says a lot about us, UMass Belk, I think. Oh, totally, totally. You know, when I came in to the American League, when you got named captain, it was like a death sentence to your NHL career. Really? Yeah, I hope so. The older guys that would get the C were just like, it's over. My dream is done. Not the case anymore. We've seen captains come up all the time. So leadership is leadership. You want the guy that's going to be there, obviously, if you can find one. But they are a younger group, I think. They have some veterans. But there are going to be some guys going up and down. He is clearly one of them. Johnny Brodzinski would like a word. Oh, Moving on to some hot topics from the last couple weeks. Something new the Rangers have tried the last three games. my Not so sure it will be the case tonight in Edmonton, though. But Will Cooley at third-line center. God. What do you make of that move, Brian? And how do you see it when a player makes a positional change like that? I think Valino going down is why different things have to happen. And it is not a straight line in development for any player. And Noah Laba offensively has not produced. So taking a little bit off of his plate to simplify and ask him to do very specific things to help the team win might be part of that. Will Cooley is a good skater. He is aware and conscientious defensively. He plays a hard brand and has been taking face-offs. You know, for, I think, off and on for a couple of years, especially on his, on the left side. Now, defensive zone draws on the right side, on a penalty kill or whatnot, it's a totally different animal. And I don't think he's in that position very often because you'd have to troll him, but who's going out taking that draw? But it's so much more to the position. Having said that, the game has evolved so much where... It's not center, left wing, right wing as much. It still is to an extent, but it's not as much. It's more F1, F2, F3, offensively and defensively. So if you're F3 in the offensive zone, you're F1 on the way back, right? That's your low forward. And in meetings with coaches in the past, watching tape, watching video, it's our low forward is here, we want him here, or this is our low forward doing a good job. That could be any one of the three forwards. Usually it's the center. And you want it to be the center for that coach, but everyone needs to understand we're seeing more teams do man on man defense. It's, it's a five man concept. It's a five man unit. We've heard Mike Sullivan talk about fives playing in fives, being around in fives. That's part of it. So I don't know if the adjustment is that difficult. I'm a center who could easily go to wing and I played some D I'm biased. I think centers, you have to be able to think a little bit more, but you're in the middle of the storm. Regardless of how well you can skate, it's your brain. It's your anticipation. It's where your stick goes. That might take a few reps. I think he's fine. I don't think it's long-term, but it could be as he continues to progress, depending on what they have with center depth, which it's thin right now. Yeah, I didn't hate it just under the circumstances, and I thought that of all the players on that team to... Make that ask of Will Cooley is probably the most perfect guy, just in terms of, I mean, you could see it in that first game that he was skating in the middle, how hard he was working to make it work, you know, how much effort he was putting into the role. Physically, it is the hardest position. Yeah. And again, I played all of them. So regardless of what anyone thinks, I mean, that's why defensemen can play 24, 25, sometimes 28. Center playing 21 minutes is still harder. You're burning way more calories. So it's just, you've got to play 200 feet. It's the whole rink. I think what I liked the most about the move is that it allowed Noah Lapa to drop down to the fourth line center. Luke Glendening came out. Tim Mellash comes in. Matt Rempe comes in. And I thought that that fourth line was just considerably faster the last few games. Making way more of an impact with their limited ice time than I felt like the Rangers were getting before Hamel Ash was on that line, was returned to that line. That's just my observation. Thank you for that observation. They're asked to get it out of their end, get it in the other end, and leave it there if you can for the top lines to go in. And if you can play with it and have zone time, that's a bonus. I thought they played fast, they played physical. They did absolutely what you would... Picture, that's what you would draw up. This is what you need to do to help us tonight, and they did that. It does look like Luke Glendening will be back in the lineup tonight against Edmonton, but don't quote me on that until you see it on the ice because you never know with these things. But another great story from the last couple weeks, Ty Cartier. Absolutely fantastic. Three goals and five points in his last five. games. He makes his return to Seattle for the first time. The very team that gave up on him and waived him last year to the Rangers' benefit. What do you like the most about Carter's game, Brian, and how much of a steal has he been? Oh, well, he has been a steal. Jason Bottrell, we connected in Seattle. He's managing Seattle now, and he just knew. He told Sully because they have a relationship from Pittsburgh. You're going to love this kid, and they just couldn't find a place for him. He knew he was giving up a quality human being and a quality player, and now, again, we say it all the time, but luck is when preparation meets opportunity, and he's obviously prepared. He obviously works extremely hard in his craft. He's developed, so you'll see the doggedness and just the relentlessness. He looks like the old 24 that I played with, really, honest to God. The guy will not be stopped, and he'll put himself on the line just to help the team. He plays in straight lines. He plays physical, but he has poise, and, you know, there's been plays in the Philly game where he's back-checked and gotten ******* high ice at his own end and made a poised play that's created another chance. His goal against... play, the game winner, he's the one in the corner getting the puck out of the zone in the D zone. And in seven seconds, he has the puck on his stick and it's in the net because he sees the play bump back. He finds ice. He notices it's Adam Fox. So he gets open with speed. It's on his tape. He flies in and scores. Like his IQ is higher than he's got credit for because of his work ethic. And that's, you know, he's a second line player now. Mike Sullivan's put him on a power play because he's leading the team in five on five points. It's like, am I crazy? Am I overthinking this? Why don't I put him on? That was great. That was an answer to my question. And yeah, I just, I loved, I loved the way that Sullivan was like, am I crazy for thinking this? Like, just like bouncing it off the coaching staff. Like, I'm not insane for thinking that we should put Ty Carter in the second power play unit right. But I mean, if I feel like, especially Sullivan, the whole organization has preached, you know, Getting the results and getting rewarded for it. And I feel like Ty Carter is just such a perfect example. And even Sullivan said it himself, like, what a great story he's been this season. And yeah, he's earned that second power play and those man advantage minutes for sure. And he's been a pleasure to watch. And of course, in Seattle, you ask him, you have any extra motivation coming into this game? The team that gave up on you? Nope, not at all. I'm a member of the New York Rangers. I want to play well for the New York Rangers. We were like, Sullivan was like, yeah, he's, I don't buy it. It was like, he's, he's a nice kid, but I'm sure there was some added motivation in there. And, and he was, he was a big part of that Seattle game for sure. Thank Another guy who is starting to heat up, Pavel Dorofeev, has his first big moment in a Rangers jersey, the game-tying power play goal in the third period against the Flyers. But what comes to mind about that game was Mike Sullivan you. talking about how he's consulted former Rangers head coach John Tortorella, who had Dorofeev in Vegas at the end of last season. Just consulting with him on how to get Pavel going and what he should be doing to try and put him in a better. I mean, what did you make of hearing that? I was a little surprised with how forthcoming Mike Sullivan was about that, you know, for a guy who's not in coaching in the league right now, too. Well, so big moment, right? Tying the game up on a beautiful shot. That's what. We know, the league knows, everyone knows that is what Dorofeev can do, and that's what he does so well. He can beat goalies from distance with that shot. If you want to, as a coach, you want to get the most out of every player, and you don't want any player to think, this is what I am and I can't improve. There's so many great stories of players having long, great careers who always want to improve, like a Sidney Crosby's that type of player. You have so many more examples. Marty St. Louis, who was still trying to get better when he was in New York his last two years. These guys just constantly want to improve. So I think everybody wants that for Dorofeev. But I'm not saying he doesn't. But there's ways Mike Sullivan is trying to get through to him, saying you can be better in these areas that will give you more chances to have the puck in scoring areas. And there's a battle level that is expected. And he plays. Bit perimeter, he wants to find quiet ice, get the shot, score, and that is what he has needed to do. That's why they got him. But you still have to pull on the rope that everybody else is pulling on, and I think that's what they're trying to get out of it. And remember in that game, I think he played the first six minutes of the third period. He wasn't having a particularly strong game. He was losing some battles. Reaching a bit, and I think they just, I mean, you want to see a player in a battle where it's a 50-50, kind of get over that puck and protect it. You don't even need to necessarily skate away with it. You just can't let the other team skate away with it. And that happened a few times in the Philly game, but he got his opportunity again because you have to do that with star players. And I think it was an emotional thing for him because it was he understands he was fighting it and those things can happen with confidence you can you're if you have confidence it's crazy but you skate faster you are stronger it's there's no doubt and there's no wasted energy stressing he was better in Seattle scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal on a beautiful finish and so that is momentum he is stats look great but his game is coming as well which is like that For a streaky guy, that's where you can end sort of a streakiness. If you bring that every night, you're going to get chances every night. And Sullivan touched on it in that post-game press conference about... You know, the adjustment that is probably coming with moving from a team like Vegas with talent like Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner, those, yeah, those guys being the ones feeding him the puck, it's a different team. It's a different, we built team. It operates much differently. And for a guy with his skill set, I'm sure that was an adjustment. And I agree. I think it's also about like also pulling in the same direction as. Yeah, as the rest of the team is at the same time. It's an area that needs to improve. That's But starting to heat up a little bit and starting to find a bit of a groove, which is always a good thing for the Rangers and hopefully can carry over into a game against the Edmonton Oilers tonight. All right. But going back to the Seattle game. true. And they obviously almost blew a 4-0 lead. You kind of touched on that third period a little bit, but they gave up three unanswered in the final 20 minutes and were holding on for dear life. Part of me felt like it truly felt like the jet lag had just hit them in the third period because they really played such a strong 40 minutes of that game. And it felt like they had a big enough lead. momentum swings, and it was completely swung against them. Yeah, and you shouldn't have too much going from east to west, to be honest with you. And the game certainly turned, and it turned, you know, Dunn scores that goal at the end of the second that we talked about. Corpuz al makes a big save. Who knows, right? But it could have benefited them. It could have snapped them out of it with 20 minutes break, but it's a 4-0 game. There were a few... Times I thought they let Seattle off the hook with lateral plays in the middle of the offensive zone that were not 100% plays. Listen, you have a 4-0 lead and it's a younger team, so they're going to have to learn this. A 4-0 game, unless you are 200% sure, you just roll it back down the wall. If you make a team defend and win a battle and then have to come 200 feet, the clock is your best friend. Nothing matters other than make them come the whole way. And the Rangers got a little loose with that. Some guys trying to make plays. You don't need 5-0 or 6-0. You just need the zero. And when the one goes in and then it's power play, they get on the board again, and it's a great give and go. And Beniers finds Eberle on the backside. They had adjusted their power play, Seattle did, which I thought was a nice adjustment. They wanted to play in the high ice. The Rangers took that away. So they played low and made a great play. Now it's 4-2. That's a way different mental scenario. And so now you're forced to use less of your bench. Sullivan's mixing and matching. Guys are thinking about exactly who's up next. And the rhythm of the game is different. That's how momentum happens. And then everyone in Seattle woke up because it was a very quiet building for 40 minutes. Yes. Oh, completely. I mean, when Dunn had the goal that made it a one-goal game, the building went absolutely insane. And I was somewhat preparing. to be heading to to overtime but no they absolutely pulled that one out and I'd wrote that written this yesterday just about how I feel like they do need to improve the way that they manage those momentum swings because I even go back to the first time they played the Oilers Connor McDavid flying down scoring 50 seconds into the game immediate momentum swing in Edmonton's favor and it there was no answer for it. He he's different. Of course. That's one thing is it's against the, against the upper echelon teams in the league who have guys like that. It could be Kaprizov. It could be Matthews, you know, whoever it is. Cause. There are more teams that have that than the Rangers that are going to come in and single-handedly swing the momentum in their favor. And I feel like the Rangers do need to find a better way to manage it and to find an answer for it than they've shown this season. Puck placement. Puck placement is so huge. Obviously, you need to win the battles, and you don't want to be on your heels giving the team space. So if you have puck placement, that's – Mike Sullivan says it all the time, dictate the terms. If I know my winger's putting it soft into the strong corner, I don't have to think. I'm going straight to that corner. For an altercation, there's going to be a physical, I want that puck to stop there. I don't want that if I can get there fast enough. If I can't, I'm still going to bump the guy, but I have to get back into play to support if it goes to the weak side. F3 is coming down. The guy that dumped it is now F3, and I'm going to help him in the corner. And that all starts because I know my winger is putting it there. When you want to make lateral plays, you're not quite sure. And then, oh, now he dumped it in. All right, well, now I'm stickling late. And that depends. He doesn't have to keep it on the wall. He can put it on the other defenseman's tape. Now we're back up. Yeah. So puck placement is so huge. Yeah. No, it's, I think it's. Did my, did my hands paint the picture? I think so. They're big enough for sure. Sure. All right. We got three more games left on this road trip. Which city are you looking forward to going to most? I mean, I'm going to, I'm here in Edmonton and then we go to Calgary, but then I'm leaving. Oh, you're not going. So I would say on this road trip, Palm beach is my excited destination. We're going hockey tournament. Must be nice. Must be nice. Now I'm actually excited for Vancouver. Vancouver is always really fun. We're going to go out for some steak in Calgary. Yeah. Getting a nice steak in with the media, dumb media. We don't know any. That's funny. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's kind of funny how this, uh, This Western swing has changed over the years. Like I feel like the Rangers should win at least two of the next three games. So that is why winning in Seattle was so big. If you win a couple at home and then you leave and you can get more points than games, think at five, six, seven points, that's a great road trip. And you're putting yourself in a spot where, you know, Carolina's Carolina. The Devils are, I think, a legitimate. playoff team. If you can try to get to the two spot as close as you can, yeah, that's great, because I think Washington is coming. Then I think that's kind of, it's a three-team race for two spots. The Atlantic is first and second in the wildcard, and third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. So, or third, fourth, and fifth. the top five wildcard teams are all the Atlantic division right now. As I looked at it two days ago, it might have changed by one, but it is a gauntlet. So you're going to get you're going to get three teams in the Metro. You got to get a hundred percent. So these are big games, every single one of them. But I think I mean, obviously, the Oilers are playing pretty ridiculous right now, but they. You know, you want to see the Rangers start to pick up some wins against the top 10 in the NHL because they haven't played all of them, but the only team that I wrote this, I don't think it's changed, but the only team in the top 10 they have wins against is Tampa twice. Twice. And Tampa's a jet. And it was two convincing wins, too. So that's nothing to sneeze at, but it's, you know, achoo. It's over. It already happened, so we have to look forward, right? Right. Listen, Edmonton. This game is, this is the best team they'll play. They have done what they've done without two or three forwards that they count on in their lineup. They've missed Matthias Ekholm at times. It is a healthy Edmonton team. Surging. And Devin Levi looks like he's playing pretty confident. So the holes that Edmonton, Cup finalist Edmonton have had in the past, this team is a much better team than those teams. And it's not because Connor's on a record-setting pace. It's not because Leon looks like he's going to get 160 points and lose to Connor by 50. It's crazy. That's crazy. But now Zach Hyman's back, and Jason Dickinson is back, and Kapanen looks like he has a good role. And they're getting Podkolz, this guy who is a unicorn because he'll fight anyone. And he's a top six player, but he's playing on the bottom six. So they have depth, they're being used correctly, and they have, I don't care what everyone says about a brilliant head coach. Yeah, it should be a good one. So we'll see how that goes. And I think that puts a bow on our first episode in the same screen together. Live. Give us a thumbs up, like, subscribe. Tell us if you like this format better. We'll try to take it into consideration when we can. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty hard, but we do our best. We do our best. Um, let us know what you think of how Ty Cartier is doing. Let us know if you think Jyrki Jokinen is going to be the savior in net and how the Rangers should do on this upcoming road trip. And we'll chat again next week.