Ranger Rants

Bring back Beukeboom...

...If for no other reason than the family's surname is perhaps the most descriptive surname in NHL history.

The Rangers' brass is currently fine-tuning its draft board for next month's picks but if GM Glen Sather and co. want to please their constituents in 2010, they'll consider defenseman Brock Beukeboom, son of Jeff.

Obviously, this is said mostly tongue in cheek since the 2010 draft is a long, long way away and it's too early to tell where Brock Beukeboom might project in the draft. But, seriously, how great would it be to see "Beukeboom" once again stitched across the back of a Blueshirt?

The reports I could find on Beukeboom the Younger all indicate he's much more of an offensive-minded defenseman than his old man. But he's 6-foot-2, 200 pounds and growing and the bloodlines suggest he'll be a big boy.

So what's wrong with the franchise doing something in the future to connect to the past? Bring back (a) Beukeboom if the chance is there next year.

Rangers sign Swiss forward with an umlaut

The Rangers today announced they have signed free agent forward Andres Ambuhl (there's an umlaut over the 'u').

The 25-year-old Ambuhl (unsuccessful in my attempts to find the umlaut key on my laptop) represented Switzerland in the 2006 Torino Games. Would love to give you a scouting report on Ambuhl but the best I can say is it looks, by his statistics, that he's a scorer. Don't know how that will translate from the Swiss National League A to the NHL (or the AHL) but it certainly is an organizational need.

The Rangers press release is below.

More on Del Zotto

Have a story in today's Record/Herald News on the Rangers signing defenseman Michael Del Zotto.

But due to space constraints, was not able to fit in all that Del Zotto said in a telephone conversation yesterday.

That would be found below.

Rangers sign Del Zotto

The Rangers announced this afternoon they have signed their first-round pick from the 2008 draft, defenseman Michael Del Zotto, to a contract.

Despite the contract, Del Zotto will return to juniors next season if he does not make the Rangers in training camp.

The text from the Rangers press release is below.

'A no-brainer'

That's how former Rangers coach Tom Renney described his decision to join new Edmonton coach - and longtime friend - Pat Quinn as the associate head coach of the Oilers. The TSN story is here.

Personally, I'm happy for Renney, who winds up close to his Western Canadian home in B.C. and with an organization that has a chance to be much improved next season (particularly if there's any way Jaromir Jagr rejoins Renney in Edmonton). Renney could have waited to see if he'd get another NHL head coaching opening next season but I'm sure he weighed the pluses and minuses of the Oilers job (one he'd been rumored to be in line for and one which I'm sure he interviewed for) and decided this was the best fit.

If you look at Renney's time in New York, I'm sure the consensus is he did a heck of a job in revitalizing this franchise. Coaches just have shelf lives in the NHL and Renney's had come to an end with this group. That's not a negative. I'm sure as a fresh voice in Edmonton, he'll once again be viewed as an enthusiastic, solid Xs and Os tactician. Not sure how Quinn will be delegating duties but I suspect Renney will be running a few practices, just as he did when he was Glen Sather's assistant with the Rangers.

Rangers history

A bit of it was lost this week when Hall of Famer Clint Smith passed away at the age of 95. Smith was the last living member of the Rangers' 1940 Stanley Cup champions and the two-time Lady Byng winner once went four seasons without having a penalty called against him.

Meanwhile, Professional Hockey Writers' Association member Russ Cohen, along with former Rangers PR director and team historian/author John Halligan, has penned "100 Ranger Greats: Superstars, Unsung Heroes and Colorful Characters."  Check out www.rangergreats.com. The book will be in stores this September. For those who can't wait, I urge you to pick up a copy (if you haven't done so already) of my friend Steve Zipay's fine read, "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: Heart-Pounding, Jaw-Dropping and Gut-Wrenching Moments from New York Rangers History."

My first novel will be in bookstores just as soon as I can motivate myself to write more than the first chapter. And find a publisher. Details, details.

But my most recent writing comes from my former beat - the Jets - and is in today's edition, a feature on a true American hero, Jets assistant special teams coach Ben Kotwica, who I covered when he played at Army. I couldn't squeeze it into my article but Kotwica's description yesterday of shrapnel bouncing off the underside of his helicopter as he flew through the Iraqi war zone was gripping. So was his story of landing his Apache with one of the three wheels shot flat.

Rangers ink Finnish defenseman

The Rangers have agreed to terms with 24-year-old Ilkka Heikkinen, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound Finn who had eight goals and 26 assists with HIFK Helsinski of the SM-liiga.

This could be insurance for next season if Bobby Sanguinetti and/or Corey Potter and/or Mike Sauer or any of the Rangers other young defense prospects don't earn a roster spot and the Rangers have not re-signed Paul Mara and Derek Morris. Or, Heikkinen could be a player. We just won't know until training camp opens in September.

First-hand report

Loyal blog reader and Section 316 season-ticket holder Dave was in attendance Friday night as Sean Avery opened his new Tribeca nightspot, Warren 77. I would have been on hand, too, except I wound up assigned to the Yankee game against the Twins that night. Dave was nice enough to e-mail his experiences of that night so I thought it might be something of interest.

Before I get to that, though, random quick thought. I was re-watching "Mystery, Alaska" the other night and I noticed at the end, after the fictional Rangers beat the Mystery pond-hockey team, 5-4, and the at-first-silent home crowd starts cheering for the upstarts, the Russell Crowe-led players skate by their bench, then salute their fans by raising their sticks, as the Rangers do now at center ice after home wins. That movie was made in 1999, the real Rangers started doing their European-styled salute in 2006. Hmmm.

Anyway, click below to read Dave's account of the Warren 77 opening. And my thanks to Dave for taking the time.

Ranting and racing

A few here-and-there thoughts as we eagerly await the start of the conference finals tomorrow.

First, in case you didn't see it in the paper or at www.northjersey.com/sports, here's my For The Record in today's edition regarding the frustrations of trying to follow the NHL playoffs now that I'm not in the arenas.

Second, regarding the conference finals, I'll take the Penguins over the Hurricanes in seven and the Red Wings over the Blackhawks in five (experience, experience, experience). Interesting that three-fourths of the final four have coaches that did not start the season with their teams - Chicago's Joel Quenneville, Carolina's Paul Maurice and Pittsburgh's  Dan Bylsma. Also, I'm sure the 'Canes-Pens series will be tough on Rangers defenseman Marc Staal since his brother Eric (Carolina) will be facing younger brother Jordan (Pittsburgh). Marc Staal often talks about how miserable his parents are when their loyalties have to be divided like that. I'm sure Marc will be going through the same thing.

Above par goal scorers and below par golfers

Did not venture into Manhattan yesterday to catch up with Sean Avery at the NHL Store, which was a calculated risk on my part since you never know what the Grate One is going to say.

However, the tireless Katie Strang of Newsday was on hand so we offer this link to her article. A lot of what Avery said is similar to his comments from the Rangers' break-up day but it is significant that Avery voiced what most Rangers' observers - impartial or otherwise - have been screaming about since Day 1 of the 2008-09 season: the team's glaring need for somebody, anybody, who can put the puck into the net on a consistent basis.

That was the first analysis John Tortorella was giving of the team after he took over, oftentimes saying after a (lost) game, "we need to score a damn goal." No doubt, this was Topic No. 1 - or at least as close to the top of the list as possible - as the team's brass gathered in California this week to plot the team's offseason strategy.