Day: July 22, 2013

USA Hockey has announced a list of 48 invitees for their Olympics Orientation Camp to be held in Virgina from August 26-27.  Three Rangers have been selected including first timers Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan, along with returnee Ryan Callahan.

The trio brings the total invitees to Olympic camps to five for the Rangers, with at least Henrik Lundqvist expected to join them for the Swedish national team, and perhaps also Carl Hagelin and Anton Stralman being considered.

Marc Staal and Rick Nash have been invited to the Canadian Olympic Orientation Camp scheduled for late August.  Staal is aiming to make his second Olympic Appearance for Canada, while Nash will be a good shot at making his third.

It’s anticipated at this stage that the camp, which will be held in Calgary – AB, will only include off-ice activities, as the price for insurance is likely to be too high.  Team USA has already indicated it will not conduct any on-ice training during their camp.

The Rangers have never had three assistant coaches before, unless you count goaltending coach Benoit Allaire, in which case the Rangers have never had four before.  In fact under John Tortorella there was really only one assistant, and that was Mike Sullivan, although Jim Schoenfeld pitched in from time to time.

Per Larry Brooks on Twitter, that is about to change with former Ranger forward Daniel Lacroix expected to join Alain Vigneault’s staff as a third assistant following the hiring of Ulf Samuelsson and Scott Arniel to help man the bench.