For all the heat Scott Gomez takes—some of it certainly deserved—for being inconsistent on the ice and an occasional clown in interviews, the way he spent his All-Star break says something about his aspirations for this season.

Because while a bunch of Rangers dispersed for points south—some to Florida, some to Cancun, others to Jamaica—Gomez opted for the lovely confines of the Rangers practice facility in Greenburgh. I hear it’s beautiful this time of year.

“He stayed back in New York and trained really hard. I know he came to the rink every day and lifted weights and got on the ice,” said goaltender Stephen Valiquette. “He was the one guy who used our break to focus on getting stronger for the second half of the year. I know he’s going to be outstanding the rest of the way.”

At least tonight Gomez was. It was one game, and from a team standpoint, it was ugly in spots. But Gomez was brilliant, and he, Markus Naslund, and Ryan Callahan offered glimpses of what a true top unit looks like.

No, it doesn’t sound that the placement of Dan Fritsche on waivers is going to open the door for any blockbuster deal (not that the Rangers would say anything if it was. And not that saving $362,800 in cap space is going to allow the Rangers to make any blockbuster deals, anyway).

Instead, Tom Renney said it was a case of  Fritsche needing to play on a regular basis. As of now, the team can’t assign him to Hartford until he clears waivers at noon, and even then, Renney said Fritsche would skate with the team tomorrow in Pittsburgh. But just like with Patrick Rissmiller, if Fritsche isn’t claimed by another team, he’ll probably end up in Hartford before long.

“Fact of matter is, he hasn’t been playing,” the coach said. “If he has to go down to play, so be it. He’ll practice with us, until somebody tells me he’s going somewhere else.”

As for whether sending Fritsche down would allow the team to bring up a seventh defenseman, Renney said it would be his preference, but that it wasn’t up to him.

“Yeah, it would be nice,” Renney said. “At this point in time, I should really just concentrate on coaching the team.”

The Rangers have confirmed that they placed Dan Fritsche on waivers. It’s unclear whether this is a precautionary move to clear up salary cap space for down the road, or a precursor to something else more imminent.

Either way, this is probably an overdue measure for Glen Sather. But as tempting as it would be to lump Fritsche in with the likes of Patrick Rissmiller as far as offseason blunders, bear in mind that Fritsche was part of the deal that brought Nikolai Zherdev here. And chances are the team couldn’t have landed one without taking on the other.

Update, 4:10 p.m.: Thanks to Zipay’s calculations, the Rangers would save roughly $362,800 toward the cap for the remainder of the season.

Our crack research staff here at Blog Headquarters—also known as me with a dog-eared media guide—says the Rangers haven’t had home-ice advantage in a playoff series since an opening-round win against the Canadiens in 1996.

(First prize to the reader who can guess the team’s top three playoff scorers that year. If you guessed Mark Messier, Pat Verbeek, and Adam Graves, you either cheated with the same media guide, or you’re Pat Verbeek).

But that’s the team’s goal coming out of the All-Star break this season, as “detailed in my story in today’s paper.”:http://www.lohud.com/article/20090127/SPORTS01/901270392/-1/SPORTS.

“Our goal is to get well over 100 points this year. If we get that, we can get one of the top three spots in the conference,” defenseman Paul Mara said. “Right now, if you look at the first four teams in the division, it’s so tight. Every game is vitally important for us, and we’re going in with that mind-set.”

Update, 11:07 a.m.: So I was half right. Or half wrong. Lauri Korpikoski is in, and will skate on a line with Nigel Dawes and Chris Drury. But Petr Prucha is in fact out again, meaning Aaron Voros will skate on a line with Brandon Dubinsky and Nikolai Zherdev.

“It’s specific of what our team needs,” Tom Renney said of the lineup decision, referring mostly to Voros’ size.

Renney also said he spoke to Voros about the three penalties he took in the last game against Anaheim.

“Talked to him about it. I think he had a tough call on one of them,” Renney said. ” And he was doing what we asked him to do.”
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The boys at the Faceoff blog tackle the question of the Rangers’ playoff chances this season. Check “it out here.”:http://faceoff.lohudblogs.com/

A couple of quick hits after practice:

Henrik Lundqvist and the rest of the Rangers are back on the ice for their first practice after the All-Star Break.

It appears the lines for tomorrow will be the same as last Tuesday’s win over Anaheim, meaning Petr Prucha and Lauri Korpikoski would again be scratches.

Mike Richter’s on-again, off-again flirtation with a run for political office is back on, or at least it is “according to this story”:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/01/24/2009-01-24_former_rangers_goalie_mike_richter_may_t.html, which says the former Rangers goaltender might make a run at the House seat soon to be vacated by Senator-designate Kirsten Gillibrand.

I’m not sure where Richter stands on all the issues. But I know he was really good on breakaways.

A stomach bug has descended upon Blog Headquarters, which is one of the reasons for the dearth of posts of late.

The good news is I’m the only member of the house currently upright. The bad news? Well, let’s just say my wardrobe has had better days.

Regardless, the Rangers reconvene from the All-Star break at 3 today. If Henrik Lundqvist is still making phantom saves in the dressing room, we’ll understand.

More (hopefully) later…

The amount of hockey I play is inversely proportionate to the amount of hockey the Rangers play.

So, for instance, when the team is on the ice every day and is in the middle of a three-in-four night stretch, I’m probably not going to have a chance to lace ‘em up myself.

And when there’s an All-Star Break and the team doesn’t play for a week, well, you have stretches like this week, when I can play at least once, and sometimes twice a day. So if you’re at the Westchester Skating Academy at lunchtime today—and I’ve already seen some of you there—that’s where you’ll find me.

As for more pressing hockey news—yes, I realize the above doesn’t count—Larry Brooks “spells out more of the salary cap problems”:http://www.nypost.com/seven/01232009/sports/rangers/no_time_for_slats_to_be_cheap_skate_151515.htm that could haunt this team down the stretch.

As we’ve said all along, the problem with Glen Sather’s summertime moves isn’t necessarily what you’re seeing on the ice right now, although that’s certainly part of it. It’s more about how this team has handcuffed itself this season and beyond.

Is there any way out of it? Well, naturally if Sather can succeeed in dumping some salary either on another team or in the minors, the Rangers could be allowed more cap flexibility. But that would involve Sather admitting he made more than a few mistakes last July, which he might not be prepared to do.

I am as guilty as anyone of poking holes in the Rangers’ record this season, as if it’s all a result of smoke, mirrors, and creative accounting.

“The most frustrating first-place team in history.” I’ve had more than one person describe the Rangers as that to me, and given their low-scoring tendencies and somewhat vanilla personality, I can understand why.

And yet, as the team disperses for the All-Star break after “an impressive win last night over the Ducks”:http://www.lohud.com/article/20090121/SPORTS01/901210383/-1/SPORTS, maybe it’s time to start embracing the Rangers for what they are.

As in…

They are a team that has only occasionally budged from their spot atop the standings.

They are a team featuring arguably the best goalie in the game, and one of the best penalty-killing units.

They are a group devoid of any one superstar skater, but they’re also a team that can expect production from various segments of its lineup on any given night.

They are a team in far better shape than they were at this same point the previous two seasons.

Look, no one is engraving Blair Betts’ name into the Stanley Cup just yet. I think we’re all aware that this team needs at least a few upgrades at the trade deadline—perhaps a gritty, top-six forward, perhaps a more commanding, physical presence on the backline (hey, why not both?!)

But there have now been 48 games this season, so it’s no longer fair to say this team’s record is merely a reflection of a fast start. Maybe that’s still not enough to get it over the hump in the playoffs. But it’s still a better starting point than it’s had in the past.
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Also, this is long overdue, but here’s the replay of last week’s video chat, which I was unable to post before.