by James DeBerardine

Hey All, thanks for stopping by. This week From the Pulpit will be analyzing the Rangers camp decisions and discuss the early part of the season’s calendar.

The final cuts at the end of camp are always especially hard to make; this year Nigel Dawes became the latest victim. I found this surprising because he had made the team out of camp last year but was sent down, however with the new additions there just wasn’t room. If Hossa continues to big enigmatic and doesn’t play well along with Jagr (I hear their thinking of play Straka in his place.) Then he should be sent down as his role on the team would diminish to a shoot out specialist.

The fact Dubinsky made this team is terrific; we now can field a high energy 3rd line that is a scoring threat as legitimate as a normal teams second line while stacking the top two lines with veteran scorers. However we will have to see how he adapts to the NHL before we get sold on him and this idea. Marc Staal is a great asset to any team, especially us with our lack of defensive depth; he should play with Girardi as he is the most responsible defenseman.

The window on Dubinsky should be around 15 games, if he cannot produce at this level by that point, we should return him to the pack; by produce, I mean that he should have a similar season to Matt Cullen did last year. Staal should have a slightly longer window, 20 games; his is a year younger and plays defense so we cannot forget that.

The Rangers will play mostly at home during the first month and a half, of the first 15 games, 9 are at MSG, highlighted by a 6 game home stand at the end of October. The Rangers should consider it a priority to rack up points during this time, they are playing at home with a stacked offence so goals should flow like Niagara Falls, however they must keep defensive awareness in mind and make sure not to concede lots of goals, one of our issues early last season.

That’s all from me until after opening night, for those going, enjoy the game and make sure to cheer very loudly. All the rest of us, we can look forward to Sam and Joe for a whole new season and hopefully we will hear Sam’s signature phrase: ‘It’s a Power Play Goal!!!’ many times Thursday night, Lets Go Rangers!!