RANGERS ACQUIRE DEFENSEMAN RYAN SPROUL

Blueshirts trade Matt Puempel to Detroit

BY: The New York Rangers

NEW YORK, October 21, 2017 – New York Rangers General Manager Jeff Gorton announced today that the team had acquired defenseman Ryan Sproul from the Detroit Red Wings in exchange for Matt Puempel.

Sproul, 24, has skated in 220 career American Hockey League (AHL) games over parts of five seasons (2012-13 – 2015-16; 2017-18), all with the Grand Rapids Griffins, registering 29 goals and 66 assists for 95 points, along with 101 penalty minutes. He was selected to the AHL’s All-Rookie Team in 2013-14, as he led AHL rookie defensemen in goals (11) and ranked second among AHL rookie defensemen in points (32) during the season. Sproul established AHL career-highs in games played (75), goals (12), assists (23), and points (35) during the 2015-16 season. He has tallied four points (one goal, three assists) in five AHL games thus far in 2017-18.

The 6-4, 205-pounder has skated in 28 career NHL games over parts of two seasons (2013-14; 2016-17), both with the Red Wings, registering one goal and six assists for seven points, along with six penalty minutes. Sproul played one game with Detroit in 2013-14, making his NHL debut on Apr. 13, 2014 at St. Louis. He registered his first career NHL assist/point while skating in his second career NHL game on Oct. 21, 2016, vs. Nashville. Sproul tallied two points (one goal, one assist), including his first career NHL goal, on Nov. 15, 2016, vs. Tampa Bay.

Sproul also played three seasons of junior hockey with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), registering 57 goals and 96 assists for 153 points, along with 134 penalty minutes in 172 games. He received the Max Kaminsky Trophy as the OHL’s Top Defenseman in his final year of junior hockey in 2012-13, as he led all OHL defensemen in points (66) and tied for first among OHL defensemen in goals (20) during the season.

Initially selected by Detroit, the Mississauga, Ontario, native went in the second round, 55th overall, in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft.

Puempel, 24, skated in 27 games with the Rangers, registering six goals and three assists for nine points, along with four penalty minutes.

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The post RANGERS ACQUIRE DEFENSEMAN RYAN SPROUL first appeared on Howlings.

     VERSUS    

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
February 19, 2012 (Game 57, Home Game 28)
Madison Square Garden — New York, NY

                                               1st   2nd   3rd   OT   Final
Columbus Blue Jackets          0      1        1       0      2
New York Rangers                 1      1        0       1      3

Team Notes:

• The Rangers defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-2, in overtime tonight at Madison Square Garden for their fifth win and the last six games, and are now 9-2-1 in their last 12 games.
• New York has posted a record of 38-14-5 (81 pts) on the season, including a 19-7-2 mark at home.

• Tonight’s win was the Rangers’ first against the Blue Jackets at Madison Square Garden since a 7-4 victory on Nov. 23, 2009.
• New York increased their lead over Boston atop the Eastern Conference standings to nine points, and are now within three points of Detroit for first in the league overall.
• The Blueshirts’ 19-7-2 (40 pts) mark at MSG is their best start at home through 28 games since 1995-96 (19-3-6, 44 pts).
• The Rangers’ .711 win% through 57 games is the team’s best start in 39 years, when the 1972-73 Blueshirts began the season with a 38-14-5 record (.711 win%), and is tied as the second best start in franchise history.
• With the win, Head Coach John Tortorella registered his 132nd victory as Rangers’ head coach to move past Herb Brooks into sole possession of sixth place on the Rangers’ all-time coaching wins list.

Player Notes:

• Henrik Lundqvist made 21 saves to improve to 28-11-4 overall, including a 14-6-2 mark at home.  He is now 8-1-0 with a 1.20 GAA, .955 SV% and three shutouts in his last nine games.
• Derek Stepan recorded the game-winning goal 22 seconds into overtime, and was credited with three takeaways in 20:29 of ice time to earn third star honors.  He has now tallied seven points (two goals, five assists) in the last eight games.  The goal was Stepan’s first career overtime game-winning goal.
• Brad Richards notched the game’s opening goal at 17:49 of the first period and registered five shots on goal in 20:56 of ice time.  He has now tallied six points (two goals, four assists) in the last six games.
• Artem Anisimov tallied a goal and registered three shots on goal in 18:00 of ice time to earn second star honors.  He has now recorded seven points (four goals, three assists) in the last eight games, and the Rangers improved to 16-2-2 when he tallies a point.
• Michael Del Zotto tallied two assists, including the primary assist on Stepan’s overtime, game-winning goal, was credited with three takeaways and posted a game-high, plus two rating in a team-high, 25:14 of ice time.  He has now recorded nine points (two goals, seven assists) in the last 11 games, including six assists in the last six contests.
• Marian Gaborik registered an assist on Stepan’s overtime, game-winning goal, and recorded five shots on goal in 21:16 of ice time.  The assist was Gaborik’s 50th point of the season, marking the seventh time in his 11-year career, and second time in three seasons as a Ranger, he has reached that plateau.
• Carl Hagelin tallied the primary assist on Richards’ first period goal and logged 19:09 of ice time.  He has now recorded 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in the last 14 games.
• Dan Girardi recorded an assist and was credited with a game-high, four blocked shots in the contest.  It is the 11th time this season Girardi has recorded four or more blocked shots in a game.
• John Mitchell registered an assist on Anisimov’s goal at 13:13 of the second period.  Mitchell is now two games shy of 200 career NHL appearances.
• Ryan Callahan registered a game-high, six shots on goal, was credited with three hits and logged 22:34 of ice time to capture first star honors.

Post-Game Quotes:

John Tortorella…

• “I thought we got underneath the hash marks and fore-checked, kept the puck and developed some scoring chances.  We played better territorially than we have the past couple of games and hopefully we can build off of it.”

Ryan Callahan…

• “They’re a talented team, they’ve got a lot of skill up front. They came at us pretty hard.  I thought Mason played well in net.  Anything could happen any night in this league, and every team is good, so it was important for us to come in and take this seriously and I thought we did that.  I think we wanted to focus on our start.”

Marc Staal…

• “They have been playing some pretty good hockey. We knew coming in that they would be playing hard in the back-to-back. We wanted to come out with a good start like we did and I felt like we continued to play hard. We got in a little penalty trouble but other than that I felt like we did a pretty good job for 60 plus (minutes).”

Michael Del Zotto (On the game winning goal)…

• “I put it out front to Step (Derek Stepan), it squeezed out to Gaby (Marian Gaborik) and he made a great play faking the shot and (Steve) Mason came all the way out. Step put himself in a great spot and I slid it over to him and it was an empty net. It was great puck movement.”

Team Schedule:

• The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at CONSOL Energy Center (7:00 p.m.), in an Atlantic Division match-up.  The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 1050 ESPN Radio.

The post RANGERS NASH BLUE JACKETS IN OT first appeared on Howlings.

       VERSUS        

NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES
February 12, 2012 (Game 54, Home Game 26)
Madison Square Garden — New York, NY

                                                 1st   2nd   3rd   OT   Final

Washington Capitals             0      1        1       –      2

New York Rangers                 1      1        1       –      3

Team Notes:

• The Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals, 3-2, today at Madison Square Garden for their seventh win in nine games, and are now 19-5-1 in their last 25 games.

• New York has posted a record of 36-13-5 (77 pts) on the season, including an 18-6-2 mark at home.  The Blueshirts opened up a seven-point gap over Boston for first place in the Eastern Conference, and own a one-point lead over Detroit for first in the league overall.  Detroit is in action later today vs. Philadelphia.
• The Rangers have won five of their last six meetings with the Capitals, having out-scored Washington, 25-10, over the span.
• The Blueshirts improved to 12-2-1 against Southeast Division opponents this season.
• The Rangers’ .713 win% through 54 games is the team’s best start in 39 years, when the 1972-73 Blueshirts began the season with a 37-13-4 record (.722 win%), and is tied as the second best start in franchise history.
• The Blueshirts’ 18-6-2 (38 pts) mark at MSG is their best start at home through 26 games since 1995-96 (19-2-5, 43 pts).
• New York improved to 7-1-1 in the second game of back-to-back sets this season, including a 5-0-0 mark at home.  Since 2009-10, the Blueshirts are 28-9-3 in the second game of back-to-backs, with a 14-3-1 mark at MSG.  The Rangers have posted a record of 14-1-3 combined in back-to-back games this season.
• The Blueshirts’ penalty kill held the Capitals scoreless in two shorthanded situations (4:00), while tallying one shorthanded goal, and finished the back-to-back weekend set 6-6 on the penalty kill.  The Rangers improved to 26-6-2 when not allowing a power play goal, and are currently tied for third in the league with seven shorthanded goals on the season.
• The Rangers out-hit the Capitals, 37-20, and were credited with 25 blocked shots in the contest.  Entering today’s game, New York led the league in hits and ranked fifth in blocked shots.
• Head Coach John Tortorella registered his 130th win with the Rangers, and is now one win shy of Herb Brooks for sixth on the Rangers’ all-time coaching wins list.  His .584 win% currently ranks second on the Rangers’ all-time coaching win% list.

Player Notes:

• Ryan McDonagh notched a goal, was credited with a game-high, five blocked shots, and led the Rangers with 25:23 of ice time to earn first star honors.  He registered 10 blocked shots in the Rangers’ back-to-back weekend set, and he now ranks second in the NHL with 139 blocked shots on the season.
• Ryan Callahan tallied the game’s opening goal at 11:01 of the first period to extend his goal streak to three games, registering five goals over the span.  He is now one goal shy of his career-high for most goals in a season, and is two goals shy of 100 career NHL goals.  Callahan also registered four shots and two blocked shots, and was credited with a game-high, six hits in 18:57 of ice time in the contest.
• Brandon Prust notched the game-winning goal, while shorthanded, at 6:26 of the third period, was credited with two blocked shots and posted a plus-two rating to earn second star honors.  Two of Prust’s three goals this season have been tallied while shorthanded, and he has now registered seven shorthanded goals in the last two seasons.
• Brandon Dubinsky tallied two assists, including the primary assist on the shorthanded, game-winning goal, was credited with four hits and posted a plus-two rating in 18:56 of ice time.  The Rangers improved to 14-2-2 when he records a point.
• Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves to improve to 26-11-4 overall, including a 13-6-2 mark at home.  He is now 6-1-0 with a 1.26 GAA, .954 SV% and two shutouts in his last seven games.  Lundqvist, who posted a 31-save effort in a 5-2 win at Philadelphia yesterday, has now started on consecutive days 57 times in his career, registering a 36-14-7 record with a 1.82 GAA, .935 SV% and six shutouts in the second game.
• Marc Staal recorded his first point of the season with a shorthanded assist, was credited with four hits and three blocked shots, and logged 19:36 of ice time.
• Brian Boyle tallied an assist, four shots on goal, was credited with three blocked shots and won a game-high, 13-21 face-offs (65%) in 17:55 of ice time.  He has now recorded five points (two goals, three assists) in the last eight games.
• Brad Richards registered an assist and won 7-11 face-offs (64%) in 18:08 of ice time, to extend his point streak to three games (one goal, four assists over the span).  He has now tallied six points (one goal, five assists) in the last five games.
• Anton Stralman recorded the primary assist on Callahan’s first period goal, and has now tallied two assists in the last three games.

Post-Game Quotes:

John Tortorella on today’s game…

“You look at the New Jersey game, the 1-0 game. This is how it happens when you get to 25-30 games left.  We’ve been in a lot of close games and I thought we handled ourselves well today.  I was really concerned about the energy level after having the real emotional week of playing some hard hockey, and coming back and playing a 12:30 game, but I thought we played well.”

Henrik Lundqvist on today’s game…

“We talked about not having any excuses going into this game even though it was less than 20 hours from the last game and the try to set the tone right away, so to get the first goal was big for us.”

Brandon Prust on the back-to-back weekend set…

“They were huge games for us, and we talked about that before the weekend.  We knew it was going to be long and grueling, and two hard-fought battles back-to-back.  We battled hard though; it shows the character of this team.”

Team Schedule:

• The Rangers will return to action when they face-off against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday, Feb. 14, at TD Garden (7:00 p.m.), in their third game in four days.  The game will be televised live on MSG Network and can be heard on 970 The Apple.

The post RANGERS VETO CAPITALS BID FOR WIN first appeared on Howlings.