Looking To Rebound
The Rangers look to rebound from their first loss of the season Wednesday against the Sabres, when they host the visiting Maple Leafs tonight (7:00pm – MSG). Lauri Korpikoski will sit out with an arm injury, and will be replaced by Tom Fritsche in the line-up. Petr Prucha goes back to the bench to allow Nigel Dawes another shot after missing the last […]
Looking To Extend Streak
New York has gotten off to a fast start and will go for a franchise best 6-0 record tonight (7:00pm – MSG), hosting the Buffalo Sabres (also undefeated). The Sabres are already struggling with injuries at the center position, and will be without Jochen Hecht who underwent surgery on his finger yesterday. Winning streaks are nothing new for Chris Drury, who was part of […]
Rangers Match Franchise Record With 5-0 Start
The Rangers have extended their winning streak to 5-0, tying the mark for the franchise’s best ever start to the season, set back in 1983 when they also went 5-0 (and started 9-1-0 in their first 10). Perhaps it was just a little sweeter too that it came at the expense of the Devils, whom were handed their first loss of the season. At […]
A Season Of Change
Well I’m finally back from a long summer that finished up with a two week trip to Europe and the back to back games in Prague. I certainly apologize for not having everything ready to go for the start of the season, but as you can imagine there are things in life that sometimes take […]
Some Things Never Change
by Mark Owens Let’s get one thing out of the way: Chris Drury will be the second-best captain the Rangers have had in the past 30 years. He is more than ready to lead this team, especially with seven new players and legends Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan out of the picture. The team’s average age is now 26, down from […]
Turnover, Speed, and Leadership Void
by Mark Owens Chris Drury and Scott Gomez, along with Henrik Lundqvist, take over as the team’s leaders. Jagr’s offensive production ‘ hopefully ‘ will be replaced by the speedy, enigmatic, underachieving, high first-round pick Nikolai Zherdev (sounds a little like Alex Kovalev, doesn’t it?). Replacing Shanahan’s 23 goals, theoretically, will be Markus Naslund, whose production the past two seasons has […]
Pennywise And Pound Foolish
Going into today’s annual free agency period, I was relatively calm. The Rangers had several key players free to sell their services to the highest bidder, but the Rangers appeared in a relatively decent position cap-wise and had some room to make some deals to improve the team. On top of the wish list was […]
No Such Thing As A ‘Free’ Agent
In a way it’s ironic that the NHL and NHLPA use the terms “Free” Agency. Judging by some of the projected offers for the few marquee players on offer, they’re about as far afield from that designator as you can be and still sign a valid contract. Tampa Bay (complete with new ownership) has gotten […]
Rangers Get No Respect
by Eric Vecchione It’s been about 36 hours since Joffrey Lupul’s OT winner against Cristobal Huet of the Capitals determined that the Rangers would face the Penguins in the Eastern Conference semifinals. And it’s been about 35 hours since nearly every hockey pundit on both sides of the border started calling this series for Pittsburgh. […]
Penguin On The Menu
Since the Penguins came into the league back in 1967-68, the two teams have met in the finals just three times. In each of those three series, the Penguins have come out victors, winning in 1989 4-0, again in 1992 4-2 on the way to their second Stanley Cup and again in 1996 by the […]