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Rangers Report

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Getting past the honeymoon phase

September
27

Update, 12:16 p.m.: Pretty much a full NHL lineup today, with the exception of healthy scratch Dan Girardi. That makes it an important game for Corey Potter, who will get a chance alongside Paul Mara.

Earlier: Plenty of new Ranger line combinations have followed a similar pattern: optimism, euphoria over early success, a subtle leveling off, and then separation after it fizzles out.

With that in mind, when you watch Chris Drury on the wing today with Scott Gomez, or Brandon Dubinsky centering Nikolai Zherdev, think not about what happens today, or even what happens a week from today. Try to envision it working over the long haul of a season.

That’s not easy to do, mind you. And let’s also remember that Tom Renney has traditionally been fairly trigger happy in reconfiguring his lines. But it’s also important to remember that one game isn’t the only measure.

That said, today against the Devils will be the closest the Rangers have come to producing a full NHL lineup, so I am interested to see how they look.

More from the Garden in a bit…

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 27th, 2008 at 10:02 am by Sam Weinman.
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15 Responses to “Getting past the honeymoon phase”

  1. dr house

    since the rangers are leaving in about 5 hours what are they gonna tell Shanahan?

  2. bob

    Shanahan should have gotten a clue by now, he is like an uninvited guest or a guest that overstayed his welcome.

  3. Cliff

    At 1pm today Shanahan will hit the ice for the Rangers, wearing the “c” on his sweater. It’s the best kept secret ever.

  4. dr house

    nice joke cliff.

  5. Pete

    why is prucha scratched today, has he already lost a roster spot.

  6. Septemous

    I think shanny pretty much has a clue .. they let nedved go – that should give him an idea of the club’s direction

  7. dr house

    i dont think he has a clue at all.

  8. Beer Me!

    pete – where did you see him scratched?

    cliff – I will litterally sh*t my britches if he takes the ice.

    Thank GOD they gave Girardi the game off. I hope Potter plays well today. He seems like he’ll turn into an “all-around” type dman. Girardi has been playing his ass off. Save some for NEXT Saturday Dan.

  9. dr house

    Beer Me that would be really cool no offense if that did happen. that would basically be the coolest thing ever.

  10. Beer Me!

    I meant that in a good way House!

    Pete – I found it over on Gross’s blog. Also read there that Betts gets an “A” today. Not much has been written about his play thus far really. Just mentioned in the stories of ‘will he make it’. To me, on the ice so far he’s looked like the same Blair Betts. I know that he’d never make it through waivers. And I will also tell you what his next jersey would look like. He’d have that throw-back style of the Blues…JD loves that guy. So there’s no “sending him down”.

  11. dr house

    i wish it would happen.

  12. bob

    If JD loves Betts so much then we can give him this scrub, I would even throw in 5 1st round pick so I never see this guy in Rangers jersey ever again.

  13. beth

    well here I am at the game. I’m so stoked!!

  14. bob

    What will it take for Betts to be finally gone. How clueless do you need to be to see that he sucks? Renney and Sather can’t part way with this scrub just because he was following orders and didn’t have any confrontations with any teammate.

    Rissmiller looks good

    The refs that threw Korpikoski out of the game need to be either fired or punished. The refs are getting away with anything without any punishment. Can NHL hire competent refs?

  15. jszivos

    The Rangers coaching staff has to figure out a way to generate more goals…

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Rick Carpiniello leads the Journal News team in covering the Rangers and the world of hockey.
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Rick CarpinielloRick Carpiniello grew up in Harrison and began working in The Journal News' sports department (back when it was The Reporter Dispatch and eight other newspapers) in October of 1977 after a year of covering high school sports as a stringer. For more than 20 years he covered the New York Rangers and the National Hockey League. Carpiniello has been writing columns on everything from local sports to the big leagues since 2002. READ MORE
Josh ThomsonJosh Thomson Josh, who is 26 and a native of Carmel, graduated from Boston University in 2002 and began working for The Journal News the following March.
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