Rangers Analysis: Player Ratings: Pre-Season Edition
After every game one, two, or handful of players always stick out in our minds as they either played noticeably well or just plain bad. As the unofficial on-ice analyst here at the Banter, there might not be pressing issues for me to be discussing with you constantly (hopefully), so I figured we could put some numbers down after each game as to who stuck out in your minds. Welcome to the pre-season edition of Player Ratings, where everyone can have their turn being Joe Micheletti, Sam Rosen, or Dave Maloney if they chose.
The concept of rating players based on their game-play is awfully simple, but for some reason few American sports analysts use the concept. Player ratings are used most often in soccer, as everyone has an opinion on how their team boys played and the concept is just used as a medium for everyone to get their points across. For a quality example, take a look at Jack Bell's player ratings from last season's Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona.
I have only two requests if you are to play along throughout the season. First, is that no one uses decimals. The scale is from 1 (god-awful; Malik-like defense) to 10 (gorgeous; Anisimov-like dangles everywhere). Secondly, rate players on the quality of their play when they were on the ice. Essentially, don't penalize the fourth line because they only played five shifts or two minutes. If Brashear, Boyle, and Voros roll out for their one shift in a game and cause some havoc (as they should), reward them for it.
Now, you don't have to follow my format when it comes to reasoning. If you want to go player by player, go for it. If you only want to rate one player in a comment, that's fine. The bigger picture here to me is that I am keeping a spreadsheet that will (hopefully) spit out some interesting averages as to whether a certain player is performing well or not. So enjoy and please do make your opinion heard.
Note: These ratings are for pre-season in general, not just the last Capitals game.
Forwards
Anisimov: 9
Avery: 6
Boyle: 5
Brashear: 7
Callahan: 6
Drury: 6
Dubinsky: 6
Gaborik: 9
Grachev: 7
Higgins: 7
Kotalik: 7
Lisin: 7
Prospal: 7
Voros: 7
Anisimov and Gaborik, I think we can all agree, are just plain exciting. For the rest of the game after Anisimov scored anytime he picked up the puck I thought he was going to do it again. Drury disappointed me offensively to say the least (0 points), but he still did all the little things right. Boyle worries me because he is a defensive liability for the most part; a better asset than Betts offensively, but sometimes downright brutal in his own zone. Kotalik and Prospal flashed some of their talents from previous seasons, as I hope both can find their touch quickly.
Defensemen
Del Zotto: 7
Gilroy: 8
Girardi: 6
Redden: 7
Rozsival: 3
Semenov: 6
Staal: 7
With the way Rozival is playing it hurts me to see Bobby Sangs go down to Hartford once again. Luckily, Semenov has been a pleasant surprise and I think he might prove to be a bang-for-the-buck signing by Sather coming from San Jose. Gilroy, for all the positives about his aggressiveness and offensive touch, needs to pick his spots better sometimes. He has done a great job for the most part, but he will learn when not to pinch. The rest of the defense was solid for pre-season.
Goaltenders
Lundqvist: 8
Valiquette: 7
Hank was hank and Valiquette was his usual Spiderman self. That Johnson goalie from the University of Alaska impressed me as well. I feel bad for Zaba, sort of, as he is another quality goalie sitting behind two more quality goaltenders just waiting for his chance.
As a team I would grade the pre-season a 7. Torts has laid out the plan that the boys will fight fire with fire (Best defense is a good offense), and I think all of us will welcome that change after four years of Tom Renney.
