Rangers Report Blog

Walked into the practice rink today and was met by 20 or so familiar looking middle-aged men. That’s right, many of the Rangers’ fathers bear a striking resemblance to their sons.

My personal favorite was meeting Jaakko Korpikoski (aka Mr. Korpedo), who approached me to say he’s a big reader of the blog back in Finland. Who knew?

Anyway, come back at 1 for our next video chat. Follow the “link here to take part.”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/MOGULUS0103/399990019

Both Zipay and Obernauer are busy promoting their own live chats, which I certainly won’t discourage you from checking out.

But remember, mine tomorrow will have the added allure of video. If that sounds too good to be true, I should remind you that the person on the video will be me. Sorry if I got your hopes up.

Anyway, it’s been a while, so definitely come by if you have the time. You can access it “by following this link”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/MOGULUS0103/399990019

Some quick notes from today’s non-practice:

Just a quick off-ice workout for the Rangers today. Tom Renney said he wanted to mix things up, and didn’t even have the video session he was planning. That part will come tomorrow, and it sounds like there will be plenty to discuss.

That said, no lineup changes are expected, making this one of the longest streaks of the same line combinations all season. That’s good news for everyone except for Aaron Voros and Dan Fritsche, both of whom were scratches last night, and are expected to be scratched again tomorrow in Chicago.

I asked Voros about his time out of the lineup, and the forward was both honest and diplomatic.

“It’s bittersweet obviously,” he said. “You want to be in helping the team and you consider yourself valuable, but obviously we’re performing well. So here’s no reason to change anything. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I understand. I’d be lying if i said i wasn’t disappointed with the way things have gone, but I hope when I get my opportunity, I’ll be ready to play.”

One of the ways Voros hopes to stay ready is by continuing to work on his fitness. You may recall Tom Renney said that had dropped off a bit before taking taking the player out of the lineup. When I asked Voros about his conditioning, he paused for a few seconds before answering.

“Obviously the coach wants what’s best for the team,” he said. “They have no other prerogative than getting wins. So if the coach has decided your fitness level has slipped, they obviously have the most to gain by having you perform at the highest level. So that’s something they noticed and felt I needed to address. And I have addressed it.”

The team is having its annual Dads Weekend on the trip to Chicago and Pittsburgh. Eighteen fathers of players will be traveling with the team and staying with their sons, including the fathers of Henrik Lundqvist and Markus Naslund (coming from Sweden) and Lauri Korpikoski (from Finland).

Strange sight of the day: Lundqvist, Chris Drury, and strength and conditioning coach Reg Grant being put through a yoga workout in the fitness room by a visiting female instructor.

More later..

The Rangers reversed course and opted for an off-ice workout session today, but the plan was to still have an extensive video review of last night’s “adventures and misadventures against the lowly Isles”:http://www.lohud.com/article/20090114/SPORTS01/901140386/-1/SPORTS.

I’ll check in with news then.

In the meantime, don’t forget we’re coming back with a live video chat tomorrow at 1. Follow “this link”:http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/99999999/MOGULUS0103/399990019 to take part.

…unless you’re Aaron Voros or Dan Fritsche. Both players are again scratches, as expected.

Markus Naslund’s groin is fine.

Beyond that, not a lot of hard news to report. The Rangers are obviously leery of taking the Islanders lightly, which is easy to do against the team with the worst record in the league.

As for an explanation for their better defensive play over the weekend, Tom Renney cited something you might not have considered: shift lengths. The coach said the team has been better at keeping shifts shorts, which enables players to maintain a higher pace.

Rick DiPietro is again out for the Islanders.

The AP’s Ira Podell and I are both about to lose our minds after hearing a Harlem Globetrotters promo for the 87th time in the last hour…

More in a bit…

Update, 7:40 p.m.: And to think, it had actually been a pretty good start for the Rangers. They outshot the Islanders by a 6-1 margin early, but that quickly turned. By the end of the period, they seemed overwhelmed by the opposing forecheck, and were lucky to get out of that period down only 1-0.

Update, 8:40 p.m.: Bring back Mike Dunham! It’s not my place to wish injuries upon anyone. But maybe Yann Danis could just have a blister on his foot, forcing Dunham out of retirement and into the net for the third period. OK, probably not going to happen. But one can dream.

Update, 10:30 p.m.: So this is how the Rangers say they need to play. Not the scrambling, overwhelmed style at the end of the first period. But the patient, prudent style that marked most of the rest of the way. Hey, no yawning allowed.

“Just look at our last couple of years: we don’t score a lot of goals,” said Nigel Dawes, who scored the game-winner on the power play at 14:27 of the second period. “There have times this season when we’ve scored a lot of goals, but those are the games when we’ve also given up a lot of goals. So I think our team is really content in winning 2-1 instead of 5-4 or 6-4.”

More tomorrow…

Due to popular demand (or because my boss said I have to), we’ll be bringing back the live video chat Thursday at 1.

Tell your friends! Bring a date! (Actually, don’t do that. You’ll give the rest of us a bad name if that’s your version of a good date).

Meanwhile, I’m already at the Coliseum, where there are some pee wees on the ice surface below. I haven’t checked the Islanders’ roster, but I’m pretty sure none will be playing tonight against the Rangers.

More news in a bit….

Larry Brooks has the story this morning of the “Rangers beginning contract talks with Nikolai Zherdev”:http://www.nypost.com/seven/01132009/sports/rangers/blueshirts__zherdev_talk_new_contract_149935.htm.

Zherdev is due to be a restricted free agent at season’s end, but if the team has aspirations of preventing an offer sheet extended to him from another team, they could lock him in before then.

“This is where I want to be,” Zherdev told The Post yesterday. “I don’t want to play in Russia next year. I want to stay here and play in the NHL, in New York, with the Rangers.

“I’m very happy here. I like the team. I like the guys. I like living here. Everything is good.”

As for other impending free agent wings, here’s “my story in today’s paper on Petr Prucha”:http://www.lohud.com/article/20090113/SPORTS01/901130385/-1/SPORTS.

I won’t take it personally that Petr Prucha says he doesn’t pay much attention to what’s being written about the team, or more specifically, him.

If anything with Prucha it’s a necessary measure of self-preservation. During most of the last few seasons and definitely during the Mats Sundin Saga, Prucha’s name has been mentioned in trade rumors. But because he’s been able to shut most of it out, he hasn’t let it affect him.

“I’m not reading newspapers, so I don’t know what’s being said,” he told me today. “If you start reading the bad things about you, then you start thinking it’s true. That’s not going to help you get back in the game. You should be focusing on hockey, not the other stuff around hockey. So I was just trying not to focus on what I was hearing in the locker room from (the media) or my friends. I think that helped me. It would probably lower my confidence if I read some of that stuff.”

I’ll have a full story on Prucha in tomorrow’s paper. The kid has been great the past half-dozen games. One would think he’s earned himself a job for the time being….

For a team that is riding a scintillating one-game winning streak, the Rangers were a buoyant bunch at practice today, a mood best encapsulated by an impromptu 55th birthday celebration for trainer Bruce “The Masseuse” Lifrieri. After the entire team gathered in a trainer’s room for the surprise, Paul Mara brought in a cake and the entire group broke into a hardy, if woefully off-key version of “Happy Birthday.”

“Needs work,” I said after players filed out of the room.

No one was in a position to disagree.

As for their performance on the ice, the Rangers say they are content to be back to the defensive style that defined the early part of their season. That may not be what people want to hear if they think 2-1 hockey games are a tad on the dull side. But it’s very much what the team thinks it needs to be successful.

“The last three or four games we’ve really gotten back to working,” Markus Naslund said. “We weren’t making lazy plays, but now we’re more on our toes. It’s a work in progress, but we’re headed in the right direction.”

Some other notes:

Naslund didn’t skate today because of a tweaked groin. He worked out off-ice and is expected to be fine for tomorrow.

For months a collection of Brendan Shanahan sticks have sat in a spot right inside the door to the Rangers’ dressing room. Those sticks were finally gone today, and now presumably sit in a similar spot in Newark.

Great line from Lauri Korpikoski when walking past a bunch of us in the Rangers’ dressing room. “Goal-scorer coming through,” he said.

Marcel Hossa had a “hat trick in the KHL All-Star Game yesterday”:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rumRSWRIQ0.

I’m going let that thought sink in for a few moments.

In other news, three outstanding individual efforts highlighted the Rangers’ win in Ottawa last night: Petr Prucha’s persisence in setting up Brandon Dubinsky’s first goal; Nikolai Zherdev’s artistry in setting up Lauri Korpikoski’s second goal (and the Korpedo’s shot wasn’t bad, either); and of course, Henrik Lundqvist  pitching his second shutout in three games.

The team is off today, but will be back on the ice tomorrow…

Update, 4:20 p.m.: It was fun while it lasted, Bobby Sanguinetti. The defenseman was sent back to Hartford after his false alarm promotion yesterday. Maybe one of these days he’ll make it past warm-ups.