Gotham Power Rankings: January 8-14

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Matt Moulson is the Most Underappreciated Man in Hockey

Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images

Over the last three seasons ('09-'10, '10-'11, '11-12):

Player A: 76 goals, 50 assists, 126 points
Player B: 76 goals, 64 assists,  140 points
Player C: 81 goals, 76 assists, 158 points

Player A makes $3.13 million dollars per year (3 years $9.4 mill), Player B  makes $5.27 million per year (11 years $58 mill), Player C makes $5.4 million per year (5 years $27 mill).

Player B was a 1st round pick and has one All-Star appearance, Player C was a 1st round pick and has one All-Star appearance, and Player A was a 9th round pick with no All-Star appearances.

It should not be difficult to figure out from the title of the article that Matt Moulson is Player A. But if you could not figure it out, Player B is Jeff Carter and Player C is Phil Kessel. Both Carter and Kessel are considered stars in the league with Kessel being a borderline "superstar" and yet Moulson would be lucky to get a call for the All-Star game.

If you break it down to points for each million they make per year, Moulson scores 13.42 points per million, Carter scores 8.86 points per million, and Kessel scores 9.75 points per million. Moulson is giving the Islanders way more bang for the buck than these two All-Stars and he doesn't just score.

He has 206 hits over the last 3 seasons compared to 129 for Carter, and 30 for Kessel. He has 115 blocked shots compared to 86 for Carter, and 41 for Kessel. Lastly while Carter is on the worst team in hockey right now, but Moulson's team is not very far behind, and Kessel is on a very good one yet Moulson leads the three of them with a +5.

I know this article is going all over the place, but I am trying to throw as many stats out there as possible to show just how good Matt Moulson is.  Moulson is one of the most talented forwards in the league with a serious knack for putting the puck in the back of the net.  Moulson's career 14.3% shooting percentage is well above the 11.8% of Alex Ovechkin, the 13.3% of Marian Gaborik, and 12.5% of Evgeni Malkin—three of the most prolific scorers in the league.  If Moulson had played a few miles away for the Rangers instead of the Islanders he would no doubt be considered a star.

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Montoya and Ullstrom Add to Concussion Total

The other night against the Winnipeg Jets, both Al Montoya and David Ullstrom were injured and are now out indefinitely with concussions.

Ullstrom went down in sort of a freak injury, but Montoya was taken out in brutal fashion by Jets' winger Evander Kane, who crashed the net hard and then lifted his and made contract to Montoya's head.

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Nicholas Pugliese: This marks the 5th and 6th Islanders to go down with a concussion this year. Combine that with the two New York Rangers to be affected and that is eight New Yorkers out for part of the year with a concussion. A bit ridiculous if you ask me.

The Ullstrom and Michael Sauer one's were unfortunate and caused by the boards, but that play on Montoya was just terrible.  I understand it is hard for a player to stop when driving to the net, but you can not cross-check the goalie to the head. That is simply unacceptable under any circumstance. How he has not been suspended I don't know.

I'm also pretty upset the Islanders pulled a Buffalo Sabers and did not go after Kane. Not to mention Kane is 5'10", not a monster like Lucic

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Gotham Power Rankings: December 19-25

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Gotham Gameboard: December 17th, 2011

Knickerbockers:

Nice way to start preseason against those New Jersey hooligans.  Stat got into a little bit of foul trouble, but Melo looked amazing and I really enjoyed the way a lot of the secondary players performed.  Iman Shumpert was lighting it up and had a couple of cuts to the basket that were just beautiful, Jefferies was getting it down defensively, Jorts looked like he could contribute off the bench this year, and I don't think I have ever seen Balkman play a better game.

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Isles:

Leave it to the Al 'Freakin' Montoya led Isles to take it to the best team in the best team in the league. It was actually a good game for the Isles who outshot the Wild 15 shots! But no worries they'll go out and lose to a bottom 5 team in the league soon enough.

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Blueshirts:

Brad Richards Tebowed the Coyotes tonight. Possibly the finish of the year. :00.01 left on the clock. Not even :00.1, :00.01 just think about that for a second.  I am sure Olivia Munn will give him a warm welcome home for that when the Rangers return from their road trip. The Rangers were simply the better team all night and deserved the win despite a couple of letups at the end of the 1st and 2nd.  What revenge to get a goal with .01 seconds on the clock after the Coyotes had scored their goals with :09 and :52 seconds respectively. Crazy game.

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Gotham Gameday: December 17, 2011

Knicks

vs

Nets

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2:00pm

First preseason basketball game of the year for the Knicks. That is about all I could ask for. It is about time.

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Islanders(9-14-6)

vs

Wild (20-8-4)

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8:00pm

The last place team in the Eastern Conference takes on the first place team in the Western Conference... These are the type of games that usually don't end well for teams like the Islanders.

Prediction: Islanders lose 4-1.

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Rangers(17-8-4)

vs

Coyotes(16-12-3)

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8:00pm

The Rangers play a bit like the Giants where they will lose two in a row and then rally the next game and spank a team.  That is exactly what I see happening against this Coyotes team that is 1-3 in their last 4 games.

Prediction: Rangers win 5-2

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