Blair Betts |
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Blair Betts (born February 16, 1980 in Edmonton, Alberta) is a Canadian professional ice hockey centre, currently playing for the New York Rangers of the NHL. He was drafted by the Calgary Flames in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft, second round, 33rd overall.
During the 2006–07 season Betts found success on the Rangers defensive 4th line. He was mostly paired with Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg. Betts also was a key factor on the penalty kill. He was one of the Rangers most consistent faceoff men with 52.3 percent of faceoffs won. He was first on the team with 1186 faceoffs taken. He was also 6th on the team, 1st among forwards, with 98 blocked shots and led the team with 276 minutes and 42 seconds of short handed time on ice. In the 2008-2009 season, Betts played as one of the Rangers' alternate captains while Scott Gomez was injured.
Betts is currently centering the 4th line with Colton Orr and Fredrik Sjöström. Recently TSN analyst Pierre McGuire declared Blair Betts the most underrated player in the league. Praised continued for Betts on January 24, 2009 when Larry Brooks, columnist for The New York Post, wrote that Betts and Sjöström could be the best penalty kill tandem in Rangers history. As of then, the penalty kill was a franchise high of 87.6 percent.