Rangers Report Blog

Still, I was reading that tomorrow’s scratches will be Christensen, White and Kennedy. And since most teams go with their regular lineup at or toward the end of the preseason, I don’t think that bodes well for White and Kennedy. I could be totally wrong about that.

But Vinny Prospal is returning to center the top line with Gaborik and Frolov. And I guess that Derek Stepan gets another look … unless he’s already made the team … Or maybe I’m making something out of nothing completely.

The Rangers have decided not to make cuts until Sunday, or maybe later, which could mean they’re working on a deal. Or it could just mean that there’s certainly no harm in having a few extra bodies around until they have to get down to 23 for opening night. And though it’s not his M.O. to keep 23 around, there’s no reason John Tortorella couldn’t live with three extra players for a week or two or three.

If I had to guess, though, White and Kennedy have no place to play here, and that might go for Stepan, too, especially if they like Prospal as the No.1 center and if Drury is going to be ready for the opener, which remains possible.

Thoughts?

Some thoughts:

1) I am really starting to like the “Tenkos”. Ruslan Fedotenko is very hard on the puck and away from it, has some skill, some creativity, is a strong skater. I still don’t know who he replaces if he makes the team, but I think he could be an upgrade to the second or third lines.

Here’s what he said about his chances to make the team:

“I don’t think at all. I am just playing. If they want to keep me, they keep me. Otherwise I will move on to the next stage of my life.”

And Pavel Valentenko, the rugged young defenseman, is sure opening eyes. I am thinking he will simply be a victim of the numbers unless there is a trade that involves either Michal Rozsival, Matt Gilroy or Michael Sauer.

2) Maybe I’m looking too deeply into John Tortorella’s quote (see last night’s post) about Artem Anisimov, but it seems to me they think that, at this stage, he’s not capable of handling first-line type duty.

3) Poor Derek Boogaard. How many chances did he get against Jimmy Howard, who was awful? There was a story about him in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, talking about his 222-game streak without a goal (since his rookie year), and how Todd White, who’s now also a Ranger, assisted on it. The thing that cracked me up was the repeated referrals to him as “Mr. Boogaard.” I think that’s what the Devils’ LeBlond must have been calling him in the home-and-home last week.

4) Why do I get this terrible feeling that Derek Stepan, having this fantastic camp, is going to find himself in Hartford while the Rangers go: Christensen/Prospal, Drury, Anisimov, Boyle down the middle?
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In case you missed it, I’m going to be doing a Q&A with Sam Rosen next week. If there’s anything in particular you think I should ask him, please let me know.

Here is my column in The Journal News and on LoHud.com today.
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Nine days until the Opener.

9: Adam Graves, Andy Bathgate.

9: Roger Maris, Sonny Jurgenson, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, Maurice “Rocket” Richard.

From the Rangers:
NEW YORK RANGERS POST-GAME NOTES AND QUOTES
                                                   
September 29, 2010 – New York Rangers 5, Detroit Red Wings 1 (Pre-Season: Game No. 4, Home No. 2)
 
•The Rangers defeated the Red Wings, 5-1, at Madison Square Garden to improve to 3-1-0 in pre-season action, including a 2-0-0 mark at home.  New York tallied three goals in the game’s opening period, the most the team has tallied in a period this pre-season.
•The Blueshirts notched one power play goal in five attempts (7:10), and are now seven-for-21 (33.3%) with the man advantage through four pre-season games.
•Henrik Lundqvist turned aside 35 of 36 shots to improve to 2-0-0 in pre-season action.  Lundqvist has stopped 60 of 65 shots faced through two games, registering a 2.48 goals against average and a .928 save percentage over the span.
•Marian Gaborik opened the game’s scoring one minute into the contest with his team-leading third power play goal of the pre-season.  Gaborik, who led the Rangers with 42 goals and 86 points last season, also added his first assist of the pre-season, and has now recorded four points (three goals and one assist) in three games.
•Sean Avery notched the game-winning goal at 4:39 of the first period, and recorded a plus-two rating in the contest.  He finished the home-and-home set against Detroit with two goals.
•Forward Ruslan Fedotenko tallied the primary assist on the game-winning goal, and finished the contest with two assists and a plus-two rating.  Fedotenko is now tied for the team lead with four assists and five points in three pre-season games.
•Rookie center Derek Stepan registered two points (one goal and one assist) and a plus-two rating in the contest, and has now recorded three points (one goal and two assists) in three pre-season appearances.  Last season, Stepan established career-highs with 12 goals, 42 assists and 54 points while skating in 41 games with the University of Wisconsin Badgers of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).
•Defenseman Michael Del Zotto notched an even strength goal at 7:34 of the third period, and registered a team-high, four shots on goal in 22:16 of ice time.  He is now tied for the team-lead with five points (two goals and three assists) in two games.  Del Zotto also registered a plus-two rating and three hits in the contest.
•Michael Sauer tallied his first goal of the pre-season at 19:01 of the first period, and blocked a game-high, four shots in 19:49 of ice time.
•Rangers’ forwards Alex Frolov and Erik Christensen each recorded an assist in the game.  Frolov tallied the only assist on Del Zotto’s third period goal, and he is now tied for the team-lead with four assists and five points.  Christensen registered the primary assist on Sauer’s first period goal, and finished the contest with a plus-two rating and won a team-high, eight face-offs in 12 attempts (67%).
•New York defensemen Michal Rozsival and Pavel Valentenko each tallied one assist in the contest.  Rozsival registered the only assist on Gaborik’s power play goal at 1:00 of the first period, and logged a game-high, 23:26 of ice time.  Valentenko assisted on Stepan’s third period goal, and recorded a plus-two rating and tied for the game-high with four hits.
•Matt Gilroy led all skaters with a plus-three rating and logged 18:18 of ice time.  As a rookie last season, Gilroy registered a season-high, plus-two rating on October 2 at Pittsburgh and October 12 vs. Toronto.
•The Blueshirts’ practice schedule for tomorrow, September 30, is 11:00 a.m. at the MSG Training Center.
•The Ranges will return to action on Friday, October 1, when they will face-off against the Ottawa Senators at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in the first game of their home-and-home set.  The contest will be televised live on MSG.

Derek Stepan:

“I felt more comfortable and I could play my game more. That makes things a lot easier.”

“Man we were all just going. Those two guys (Avery and Fedotenko) are puck-getters, and they both can score goals too. We just seemed to click. I don’t know how to explain it. But we played well tonight.”

On his first goal:

“It’s like getting the monkey off the back. I was kind of gripping the stick a little tight, so it felt good to finally tap one in.”

On his mindset:

“My thought process is still to just play, and play hockey and compete for 60 minutes. That’s just the way I’m going to keep it, and I’m not going to change the way I’m thinking.”

Is that hard?

“For sure, it’s hard. It’s really hard. You go to bed at night and you’re doing numbers in your head, you’re doing lines in your head. It’s tough. But the best way to handle it is to just not think about it.”

Henrik Lundqvist:

On the difference between this game and the one in Detroit. (you can always count on him for an honest assessment):

“The biggest reason is that they were missing the top guys. When you watch that game (Sunday), to see their first line, they’re really scary. They’re really good. They were not playing tonight, so it’s a big difference to not play against those guys, I must say. But at the same time, we did a great job. We played really solid defensively, and then offensively we created a lot of chances.

“It’s fun to see. A lot of guys with a lot of skill on this team. Definitely more guys that can do it for us, so that’s a good feeling.”

On Stepan:

“He plays very mature and solid. Sometimes when you’re young and you come into (the league) you don’t think and you just play. You just focus on doing everything right. I know when I played my first year, you’re so focused … they always say the second year’s tougher, because you start thinking.”

“I think everybody’s feeling good about where we are right now. We’re getting close.”

On having Biron around:

“What I feel is that I have to play really well to earn my minutes. I want to play, but to have Marty behind me there, he’s a great goalie and if I don’t play well enough he’ll step in. Hopefully that competition—it’s a support, but it’s also a competition, so we’ll push each other to play better.

“I’m not going to focus on a number here, how many I should play. We’ll see in the end how many it will be. But I feel already, just knowing that he’s here and knowing I have to be on my toes to get my minutes.”
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I got a chance to speak a bit with Pavel Valentenko, in a group.

He’s a character. He has a bit of a sore throat or something, so he sounds like Don Vito Corleone at the moment. He likes to laugh. He thinks his nose is broken from that high stick in the first period. He smiled that “it’s not a problem.”

He likes to talk about Darius Kasparaitis.

He admitted to being nervous at the start of the game. Somebody asked him if it helps to hit somebody to get the nerves out, and he smiled, “That is my favorite.”

From the Garden’s fifth floor:

John Tortorella:

On Stepan’s line:

“It was a good line. … I thought Stepan’s line played very well. But I want to watch the tape. I’m not a good enough coach to give you a really good judgment right after the game about individual players … Larry Brooks will let you know that, also.”

On maturity if Gilroy and Del Zotto:

“I think Gilly has tried to be more aggressive … that’s a point of contention with us, as far as just defending harder. He’s trying. Michael I thought made some good plays tonight, stayed within himself. He’s looking for the long pass and made some good stretch plays.

“Sauer, again I don’t want to get ahead of myself because I want to watch tape, but I know Mike played within himself which he’s done all camp, which is why he’s still here.”

On Anisimov:

“I wanted to see Artie play with Kennedy and Callahan tonight. I thought they were a really good line in Jersey. … You have to be careful, at least I have to be careful with Artie, and not skip a step here, and throwing him in between (Gaborik and Frolov) because last year I moved him up and it just seemed to be a little too much. I think he’s playing with a ton of confidence right now and I don’t want to screw him up by giving him too much. But it could happen. I tried it with Derek Stepan, and he handled himself well in that situation, and I think Artie will too. But I want to look at some other things with him and a couple other players.”

On Stepan:

“He has an inner confidence about himself. I think he feels good about himself. I think he’s gone through some situations in his (college) career, the World Championships, things like that, it’s helped him grow as far as the mental maturity. I think that’s helped him through our camp here. … He reacts very well to a lot of different situations. He’s not flamboyant. I think he’s very respectful of the game and handles himself nicely in these situations. So we’ll see where it goes. I know I keep saying that, but we just want to see this through as we go through camp here with a couple more games.”

On Prospal being able to play this weekend vs. Ottawa:

“I think he will be. The thing that’s hurt Vinny is, we’ve skated hard in camp and that has reacted with his knee. He’s felt great, but it’s just hat we’ve done so much skating his knee hasn’t been able to handle that. We’re doing different things with it. I talked to him today after practice and we’re hoping that—he feels good—that he’ll be able to play. 

“If he’s healthy enough, I’d like to see him play both of them. If it reacts OK. And he wants to. He’s so frustrated because he wants to play. He’s not a guy who wants to sit out any exhibition games at all. He’ll play them all if you want him to. I’d like to have him play both, just to get him some game situation that he can look at. And I want to try him at wing and at center, so it’s going to take me a little time with those two games to give him those opportunities.”

On Fedotenko:

“Feds flies under the radar (Tortorella then talked about how tough he’d been on Fedotenko over the years together). Even tonight, he made some really subtle plays that a lot of people won’t see or recognize. But he’s a solid guy offensively and defensively. He’s a guy, as a coach, when you’re looking down the bench in situations and you don’t have a lot of people, or whatever the situation may be, you can put him in all those spots. He continues to fight for a position and we’re still looking at him here, and he deserves the length he’s been here in camp.”
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… more to come shortly, from some players.

Here are tonight’s lines, according to our buddy Andrew Gross:

Alex Frolov-Erik Christensen-Marian Gaborik
Tim Kennedy-Artem Anisimov-Ryan Callahan
Sean Avery-Derek Stepan-Ruslan Fedotenko
Derek Boogaard-Todd White-Brandon Prust

Matt Gilroy-Pavel Valentenko
Michael Del Zotto-Michal Rozsival
Marc Staal-Mike Sauer

Lundqvist in goal.

Andrew also had a chat with the captain this morning, and Chris Drury told him he is not ruling out a return in time for Opening Night (which you know is 10 days away).

Yep, just checked my pulse. I’m still alive.

Actually having a great day. On the train into the city I ran into one of my favorite all-time ex-bosses and we had a nice chat.

Then I went into see the best—and when I say the best, I mean THE BEST—hockey producer/director tandem on the planet in the MSG HD truck. It’s like the Starship Enterprise in there, only with a few hundred HD monitors.

Anyway, producer Joe Whelan just got married, so congrats to him. And director Bob Lewis is in his 40th year as a Garden employee. Wow. Those guys spend every game night in that truck with, oh, 22 or 24 of their closest colleagues. Very cool.

Then I got into the Garden and had a nice chat with Mark Howe—and how’s this for a ridiculous commentary: I went in and didn’t need to identify myself to pick up credentials, and Mark Howe, great player in his own right and son of Gordie, had to ID himself. We spoke about his dad, and we talked about the old days in those little arenas, and the noise and how you never saw a bad game in those small rinks.

He also told me he had just gotten to Detroit when the Wings came in here one night, and he didn’t know the history and wasn’t aware of what was to come, but he saw Bob Probert snarling and chomping. That was the night Probert beat the carcillo out of Domi.

So that was fun.

The other thing is, I believe, we’re going to have a pre-season Q&A with Sam Rosen next week. We’re working on the details now. So if there’s anything you really want me to ask—seriously, not stupid stuff—let me know.

Oh, also got to see Mama today at the office. 

See youse later.

Good mornin’ Boneheads.

It’s a game day. I’ll be heading into Manhattan later on, and hope to have a lineup in a little bit.

I want to thank our buddy, tr-808, for sending along this pic in regard to yesterday’s No. 11.

Adam Graves wore it for one game, but he also wore it during the preseason, and tr-808 had this classic photo of No. 11 checking the Kings’ No. 99 (unidentified) during an outdoor game in Las Vegas. Note the hooking and holding-the-stick infractions which weren’t called in the good old, pre-wussification days.
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Ten days until Opening Night.

10: The Scooter. Chris Chambliss.

10: Walt “Clyde” Frazier.

Fran Tarkenton. Eli “Lefty” Manning.

10: Oooh-La-La Duguay. Pierre Larouche. Esa Tikkanen.

See youse later.

Some thoughts as we stand in the middle of the preseason:

1) Are you a little concerned about the number of goals allowed in the first three games? I know, it hasn’t been the whole team, and maybe they haven’t worked on system enough, and certainly you don’t put a lot of stock in results of exhibition games anyway. But aren’t we seeing some of the same sloppy away-from-the-puck play we saw last year, from some of the same people?

2) On that note, there was a goal the other night on which Erik Christensen made an dreadful defensive attempt in the neutral zone and Marian Gaborik made an even worse one in the defensive zone. What I wonder is, while Christensen and rookie Derek Stepan have gotten so much opportunity between Gaborik and Alex Frolov, why hasn’t defensively-responsible Artem Anisimov had his shot?

3) Who are the final cuts? Below is the current roster, including Chris Drury. There are 25 forwards and defensemen for a maximum of 21 spots (more likely 20 or 19 since John Tortorella doesn’t like having extra bodies around; but perhaps that changes with cap room now). Are we to believe the last cuts will be anybody other than Michael Sauer, Pavel Valentenko, Tim Kennedy and Todd White? Or will there be a surprise or two in there?

Here’s the roster as it stands:

Goal (2):             Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist

Defense (9):      Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Matt Gilroy, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Michal Rozsival, Michael Sauer, Marc Staal, Pavel Valentenko

Forward (16):   Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Derek Boogaard, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Frolov, Marian Gaborik, Tim Kennedy, Vinny Prospal, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Todd White.
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Eleven days remaining until the Opener.

11: Hector Lopez.

11: Adam Graves, Kelly Kisio, Vic Hadfield, and some other guy who also wore the “C.”
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Finally, thanks to the esteemed Doodie, who tipped us off to the Rangers being put on waivers.

From the Rangers:

RANGERS TRIM TRAINING CAMP ROSTER BY 11

27 active players remain with the club

New York, September 27, 2010 – New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the following five players have been assigned to Hartford (AHL): goaltender Chad Johnson, defenseman Wade Redden and forwards Evgeny Grachev, Dale Weise and Mats Zuccarello.  In addition, forwards Dane Byers, Kris Newbury and Jeremy Williams will continue training camp with Hartford, while defensemen Garnet Exelby, Brandon Manning and Alexei Semenov have been released from their tryout agreement.

The Rangers now have 27 players remaining in training camp, including two goaltenders, nine defensemen and 16 forwards.  New York continues their exhibition schedule on Wednesday, September 29 at 7:00 p.m. when the team will face-off against the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden (7:00 p.m.), in the second game of their home-and-home set.

PLAYERS ASSIGNED TO HARTFORD (AHL) ON 9/27/10:

Goal (1):             Chad Johnson

Defense (1):      Wade Redden

Forward (6):      Dane Byers*, Evgeny Grachev, Kris Newbury*, Dale Weise, Jeremy Williams*, Mats Zuccarello

• Player must clear waivers prior to being assigned to Hartford

  PLAYERS RELEASED FROM TRYOUT AGREEMENT ON 9/27/10:

  Defense (3):      Garnet Exelby, Brandon Manning, Alexei Semenov

  PLAYERS STILL IN NEW YORK RANGERS TRAINING CAMP:

  Goal (2):             Martin Biron, Henrik Lundqvist

  Defense (9):      Michael Del Zotto, Steve Eminger, Matt Gilroy, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Michal Rozsival, Michael Sauer, Marc Staal, Pavel Valentenko

  Forward (16):   Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Derek Boogaard, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, Erik Christensen, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Ruslan Fedotenko, Alex Frolov, Marian Gaborik, Tim Kennedy, Vinny Prospal, Brandon Prust, Derek Stepan, Todd White