The Rangers matched the intense level of the St. Louis Blues in the Rangers opener last night and ended up winning 3-2 on an outstanding night by the Rangers new #1 line of Rick Nash-Martin St. Louis--Chris Kreider and of course outstanding goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist. Although the two points were nice, the Rangers lost top 4 defenseman Dan Boyle to a broken hand which will keep him out 4-6 weeks and since he is an older player, probably closer to the 6 week period. The game needed the Rangers to be at top form just to compete with the powerful St. Louis team, and the Rangers matched them in every step while missing Derek Stepan for at least the first 10 games of the season with his leg injury.

The Rangers have recalled Mike Kostka from Hartford to replace the injured Boyle and either Kostka or Hunwick will take the place of the injured Boyle on the roster. Most likely Kevin Klein will move up to pair with Marc Staal on the second group and John Moore will team with the replacement.

A tweet this morning by Renaud Lavoie stated, " Matthew Lombardi will be put on unconditional waivers by the Rangers. He refused to go in the AHL. He'll probably go back to Switzerland." This opens up a spot in the NHL contracts of 50 , with the Rangers now at 49. They could use it to sign an unrestricted free agent to fill the defensive hole by the Boyle injury if the organization feels that what is in the organization isn't working out.

A nice start of the season on the ice with the pace of the game and the team toughness which saw Mats Zuccarello get into a fight and the team stick together in the many scrums after the whistle against a very solid St. Louis Blues team. Now if the Rangers can stay strong while waiting for the return from injuries of Stepan and Boyle, thses Rangers can be stronger than last years Cup finalist team.

LET'S GO RANGERS!!