Michal Rozsival’s Strong Play

Michal Rozsival. His name will never be popular with New York Rangers fans. It also remains a fact that at $5m per season the veteran Czech blue liner is nicely overpaid but it’s come to the stage where Rangers fans need to acknowledge how vital a presence Rozsival has become on a young and emerging defensive corps. Rozsival was poor (at best) for the first half of last year following injuries that had visibly slowed down the defenseman but following a solid, if not strong, end to last season Rozsival has continued to play well to begin this year. Rozsival has started the season making good decisions, playing well both ends of the ice and putting up good offensive numbers. Rozsival has scored twice and has 6 points in 7 games while being part of a unit that is blocking a huge amount of shots. One more goal and the 32 year old will already have matched his goal total from last year. The Rangers don’t necessarily need an effective Rozsival to have a successful season but a good season...