The Rangers announced their pre-season schedule this morning, featuring what seems like far more travel than usual. Among the highlights: a home-and-home with Ottawa beginning Sept. 20, another trip to Tampa Bay on Sept. 23, and of course, the two exhibition games in Bern Switzerland against European clubs SC Bern on Tuesday, September 30 and [...]

Update, 9:30 a.m.: While we’re linking to Newsday blogs, the addictive Watchdog (by way of this blog) mentions the possibility of former Ranger Matthew Barnaby taking over for Barry Melrose as lead hockey analyst at ESPN. Which brings up my post below regarding Brendan Shanahan. Was one of the media jobs turned down by Shanahan [...]

Like a crafty goal scorer who refuses to be budged from the front of the net, Brendan Shanahan still hasn’t abandoned his hope of playing for the Rangers next season. This is according to SI’s Michael Farber, who also notes that Shanahan has already declined job offers from various media outlets.

But wait, has he heard [...]

At yet another crucial crossroads in his his young career, Hugh Jessiman was re-signed by the Rangers.

I have a hard time seeing Jessiman as a serious candidate for an NHL job this year, but one would think he might be a possible call-up during the season. Of course, it all depends on how he fares [...]

Update, 10:30 a.m.: The Rangers have re-signed Greg Moore, ensuring more trips on the Greg Moore Highway. No word yet on terms…

Earlier: One of the side effects of a job covering the Rangers is that when you go to a barbecue or the beach or even a golf tournament, people are likely to ask you [...]

OK, thanks to everyone for joining us for our second live chat. We’ll have a moderator in place right from the start, which should help. Again, the plan is to field questions for the first 30 minutes or so, but I’ll continue to answer until about noon.

One small housecleaning item is the Rangers did finally [...]

I conveniently schedule chats for days when it’s 95 degrees outside and I have to sit in an air-conditioned office rather than mow the lawn.

Again, we’re going to do a better job of getting to more of your questions, but ask them early just in case.

Possible new discussion points: the trade of Ryan Hollweg; the [...]

Update, 6:19 p.m.: Yes, a double bogey to me (and that should show you where my head is these days) for failing to mention Sean Avery’s return to the Garden on Oct. 20. Do I sense a video montage set to the music of Barbara Streisand?

Earlier: Thanks to sports editor Susie Arth for jumping in [...]

The NHL schedule comes out today, probably around noon. I remember last year at this time I was mostly interested in how the Rangers’ schedule was going to conflict with the birth of my second son (Will was born Jan. 4, a few hours after the Rangers were losing to Markus Naslund and the Canucks).

This [...]

Mark your calendar. Cancel that vacation (actually, please don’t cancel that vacation. I can’t handle that kind of pressure).  We’re coming back with another live chat here on Friday at 11 a.m. We probably won’t do one every week like this all summer, but there’s enough to go around for this week, and besides, there’s [...]