2-0-0: Putting Up Points In Prague

Four games on the old continent, four wins. And two of them actually meant something! The last one came today in a tightly contested 2-1 battle where the Rangers hammered the Lightning with 39 shots and only scored on set plays. There is happiness for Ranger fans worldwide but it should be tempered as they beat on a bad Tampa team and they didn't do so all that convincingly. Hopefully the Blueshirts don't struggle with jet lag as badly as I have been and come out strong against the Hawks in their North American season opener. But before then, let's talk about this game:

*Why couldn't Joe Micheletti's mic be messed up again? Listening to him makes me angry.

*What a depressing way to end the first period for the Rangers. After Scott Gomez lost a defensive zone faceoff to Adam Hall, he let the former Blueshirt slip by and Hall tipped a Andrej Meszaros shot through Hank. It was a simply unacceptable play by the Rangers' first-line center. How soon until Dubi supplants the lackadaisical Gomez for the top spot?

*But on the other side of the ice, after getting stopped on an easy slam dunk goal early in the second period, Gomez didn't miss again when he got an opportunity later in the frame to bang the puck in and he put the Rangers up 2-1.

*The defensive duo of Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival looked much better than they did in the season opener. Redden didn't have any defensive gaffs and snuck into the slot to score the Rangers' first goal. Rozy finally seemed to lose his aversion towards shooting and fired away, something that he has needed to do for years and while he didn't score, the goals will come if he keeps it up. Of course, he took two terrible penalties so he ends up par for the course.

*While the Rangers dominated in shots, they were housed in faceoffs. I saw Dubi doing extra work in the circle during practice in Switzerland but the rest of the pivots clearly need more practice as well.

*Nik Zherdev has offensive skills that millions would kill for but why in the world would he choose to unleash a slap shot from the high slot on a breakaway? I am starting to think Rod Gilbert will be right that 20 goals would be a better expectation for the former Blue Jacket. But man, while he makes dubious decisions at times, he certainly can distribute the puck. Once Nigel Dawes finds his scoring touch, the two will make for a scary pair.

*Something that is really scary is that Steve Stamkos is actually living up to his No. 1 overall draft pick status. With the exception of his dumb penalty late, the kid has played with the poise of a veteran, nearly scored in each game and even had the NHL-style interview cliche's down pat in his second intermission interview with Al Trautwig. He was fun to watch and on Friday we will get to see last-year's top pick Pat Kane do the same thing.

*Blair Betts has looked great in both games, driving to the net and getting scoring chances while maintaining his top-flight defensive work. That being said, he will have to start converting some of those chances and soon with Fritsche and Rissmiller lurking. With Betts' speed and hockey smarts, 10 goals shouldn't be too much to ask for this season.

*There are good penalties, there are bad penalties. Dubi jumping on Artyukhin after The Russian Bear accidentally collided with Hank was a good penalty. The Rangers need to stand up for themselves and their goaltender. All too often last season they didn't. I had a debate yesterday with a friend about whether or not Colton Orr was a true NHL heavyweight and he made a great point - Colt may fight with the big boys, but his presence doesn't stop other teams from taking liberties. This season more guys have to step up and make a statement.

*That being said, seeing Aaron Voros and Ryan Malone go at it for no reason at center ice was pointless. I love fighting in hockey but not fighting for fighting's sake - neither were involved in the hitting that prefaced the bout. There has to be a direct reason for guys to drop their gloves, otherwise this sport becomes the Slapshot-esque joke that everyone sees it as.

*Is it too much to ask for Joe not to defend Malik Kalinin? Micheletti made excuses for the Russian's awful play in the opener and raved about his play in this one, even if the defenseman clearly has been invisible - and not in a good way.

*How soon until Tampa fires Barry Melrose? I have a hunch he won't last the season.

*It definitely seemed like a Ranger home game with the vocal fan support. On Friday we will have to show the Euros how the real home crowd does it.

*PHW Three Stars
3-Olaf Kolzig - 37 saves.
2-Wade Redden - one goal and one assist.
1-Scott Gomez - one goal and one assist.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3- Andrej Meszaros - Just over 30 minutes of ice time, an assist and constantly involved in the action. He may just be worth everything Tampa gave up for him. Maybe.
2-Blair Betts - Bettsy created chance after chance offensively (even though he couldn't convert) and was his usual stellar self on the penalty kill.
1-Olaf Kolzig - New jersey, same story for the South African German netminder. He stood his ground despite getting virtually no help from the team in front of him and he couldn't do anything to stop either of the Rangers goals.

1-0-0: A Solid Start

After mistakenly ending up in Brooklyn rather than Queens this morning, I missed the beginning of the Rangers' season opener. I arrived at the beer garden just in time to catch the first goal (I am good luck) and caught the rest of the 2-1 win from there but I waited to write this until I could catch Rangers in 60 on MSG. I didn't read any game reports though so this is all me; I apologize if there is any redundancy from the other guys.

*Man, am I glad I did watch it on MSG. Otherwise I would have missed Joe Micheletti's best work on MSG. His microphone was messed up so he couldn't be heard over the air early in the first period and it was fantastic. Sam Rosen called the game Vin Scully-style (by himself) and it was a vast improvement from the norm. There was nothing lost in not hearing from the colour man and much gained. One can only wish that the brass watched and felt the same way.

*Another tv note - MSG's talent were in Prague but they picked up the signal from the European broadcaster so that is the reason why Sam would mention things that you didn't see.

*Is it me or did Henrik Lundqvist pick up Garth Snow's old shoulder pads? Those things were huge. And they seemed to help because he showed a lot more poise than he did in the Victoria Cup; he just seemed more confident.

*As good as Hank was, his counterpart was better. Even though Mike Smith was beaten for two goals and at least two posts, he stood on his head and made at least a dozen huge saves, even after his arm got hurt. Remember, he dominated the Blueshirts last year on both the Stars and the Bolts so it really was not a surprise.

*The first time Smith was beaten came on Markus Naslund snapping a wrister from the off-wing a la that Messier guy who used to play for the Rangers. Naslund had at least three other great scoring chances so that was a really pleasant sign. For the one that went in, Scott Gomez made a nifty little pass over a few sticks right to the open Naslund on the wing, something that should happen many times this season.

*Something that will unhappily happen many times this season is Dmitri Kalinin getting beaten. Malik Kalinin was roasted along the outside by the speedy Marty St. Louis - a player he should have manhandled - and the mighty midget tied the game at one. I sadly think it will be a competition between Kalinin and Wade Redden to draw the most ire from the True Blue. Although, in all fairness, Redden played better than he had in preseason so maybe it was the start of something good.

*Brandon Dubinsky = Jason Arnott crossed with Jaromir Jagr. Big, skillful centerman who is solid in his own end while using his size to get into good scoring positions on the other side of the ice before unleashing a deadly wrister.

*Dubi's game-winner came on the power play, which was impressive to watch - primarily because of the absence of the aforementioned Jagr. The players cycled, moved the puck and shot at will; hopefully they will be able to keep it up even against better teams than the Bolts. But they do need to finish better as they got just one goal on seven chances, granted that was primarily because of Smith but still ...

*The monstrous Evgeny Artyukhin (6'5, 255) was something to watch. Barry Melrose mistakenly gave Artyukin just 9:!5 of ice time and you could see him out there for every second of it. He gave the Rangers some troubles and will definitely warrant more attention as his skills continue to improve.

*Speaking of ice time, Matt Carle was on the ice for 29 minutes. 29! By contrast, Redden was out there for just over 22. Going back to the Rangers power play for a second, Redden and Rozy did not look as good as Mara and Girardi, which is worrisome, even if it was the first game. There is a lot of money tied up in the top two guys and they need to produce.

*And on the other side of the coin, Chris Drury didn't score at all but still looked good as the newly-branded captain of the New York Rangers. He played a typical Drury game by working the boards, working the crease, backchecking and hustling. He is leading by example, now we just need to hear from him as well ...

*PHW Three Stars
3-Henrik Lundqvist - 20 saves.
2-Markus Naslund - one goal.
1-Brandon Dubinsky - one goal.

Scotty Hockey Three Stars
3-Dubinsky - Dubi scored the go-ahead goal and was back on the ice moments later to kill a penalty. You can't ask for more from this kid.
2-Mike Smith - 39 saves behind a inexperienced and, frankly, lousy defense.
1-Naslund - The Swede was a scoring threat all game long and he played much, much better than he did in the preseason. Performances like this will go far to justify his contract and the 'A' they put on his chest.

Killin' Time: Friday Afternoon Edition

As I've done a few times in recent weeks, posts of random observations/news will be called "Killin' Time" because, let's face it - that is all we are doing at this point of the year. There is some hockey news but no hockey games ... and that sucks. So, onto this afternoon's edition:

*This week the NHL Network is commemorating the Gretzky trade with a week of Wayne programming and in response, Going Five Hole is doing a week of Super Mario. While they are both glorifying their heroes, I feel the need to point out that with the good, there was the bad. Gretzky used to cry and whine to the refs as bad as - if not worse than - Cindy Crosby. He also got the crap beat out of him when he tried to fight. As for Mr. Lemieux, 1984 was the first televised NHL draft and he refused to put the Penguins jersey on when he was picked first overall because he wasn't happy with how contract negotiations were going. These guys were both incredible hockey players, but they weren't perfect and history should remember that.

*I had the privaledge of covering FC Barcelona when they came to New York this week and there are a lot of similarities between the Spanish soccer team and the Rangers. The media and fans expect the team to win every year. They finished behind their rivals in the regular season last year and failed to win any trophies so they tore apart their roster and rebuilt it in the coach's image. Their best player, Ronaldinho, was allowed to leave and they set off on a ridiculous preseason tour that forced them to do a lot of travelling. The key difference? The players they brought in are all young with a huge upside.

*Every day this month Puck Daddy is putting up "5 Ways I'd Change the NHL" from random sports media and hockey personalities. Today's was from XM Radio's Mike Ross and I agree with all five of his. I don't know if referee communication would get into my five, but more access to players and less idiot fans are both huge.

*The coach of the Swiss team that the Rangers will play as part of their preseason tour, SC Bern, had a heart attack earlier in the week. Best wishes to John Van Boxmeer on a speedy recovery.

*NHL Premier is less than two months away and the Rangers ticket office still has no clue as to if they will offer packages or tickets to fans willing to fly halfway around the world to watch their team.

*I still have much love for Sean Avery. He and I seem to see eye to eye on the Ranger offseason moves. The Devils are lucky that even though they lose a home sell-out with the Rangers, they will likely get one with the Stars. Granted, it will still be a building full of Ranger fans but they don't care.

*And finally, for now, is it late August yet?

Killin' Time: Friday Night Edition

Killin' Time is the title for my random observations/news posts at this point of the year. There is some hockey news but no hockey games ... and that sucks. So, onto this evening's edition:

*As the Rangers have yet to come out and make a public decision with Brendan Shanahan, and he clearly wants to come back (via Puck Daddy), here is an idea: make him a player/coach. The player/coach position disappeared from the NHL for several decades, but why not bring it back? It was a role I suggested for Jason Strudwick a number of times and Shanny would be even better at it. He could easily supplant Perry Pearn in working with the power play and would be more-than-capable filling in when the injury big hits ... on any line. Admittedly, I am grasping at straws at this point because Sather loaded the roster with third and fourth line guys and what is where Shanny would be best considering he isn't the fastest of skaters anymore. But to lose Shanny to retirement or, even worse, the Devils would be a huge loss to the team and the sport of hockey.

*With Marty Straka back in Czech Republic and Jaromir Jagr in Siberia, I can't help but wonder what is happening with Marek Malik. Is it possible that no one, in the entire world, wants him??? As mentioned in our sponsorship of his Hockey Reference page, we do wish him the best ... as long as it is not on Broadway.

*Speaking of people heading far, far away: Do svidaniya to Sergei Brylin. Fire & Ice, probably the best of the Devil blogs - even if it is MSM - spoke to him and he confirmed that he will play next season in Russia. Brylin was always a good soldier for the Devils and one of those opposing players you can respect (unlike Mmmmaaaarrrrtttyyyy). Happy trails.

*Am I the only one enjoying the blogging by Colton Orr? The Rangers tough guy is teaching kids hockey but seems obsessed with lunch. I think he should keep this up throughout the season to give fans an inside look at the team and at restaurants around the NHL cities.

*Scotty Hockey favourite and fantasy hockey stud Dan Carcillo re-signed with Phoenix. He made a huge impact in the few games he played two seasons ago when he was called up so I drafted him in late rounds of fantasy drafts and was truly awarded. While I appreciated all of the PIMs, I honestly think that a good number of the penalties that Carcillo got - game misconducts primarily - were unwarranted. He got himself a bad reputation and the refs were looking to call something (Ryan Hollweg anyone?). I honestly think that if Carcillo calms down a bit, his upside is in the neighborhood of Cam Neely - who was a bit of a tough guy himself when he broke in with Vancouver. Carcillo showed that scoring touch and nose for the net and the Coyotes are putting him in a good position to go that way by bringing in Grats and Fedoruk to take the burden of defending teammates off of him. He will definitely be a player to watch this coming season.

*This coming season will start in Sweden (with the Pens and the Sens) and in the Czech Republic with the Rangers and Lightning. The Lightning are still offering their travel package while the Rangers still have details pending. Of course, I don't see packages offered for Pens or Sens fans to go to Stockholm, but who cares about them anyway?

*As for the preseason, the Rangers still haven't released their schedule. They are playing eight games for sure, six here (three home, three away) and two in Switzerland. Here is a great thread on HockeyFights where people are posting schedules as they are announced. It has the Rangers playing Tampa Bay twice in preseason (Tuesday Sept. 23 in Tampa and Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Garden) ... for some reason I can't fathom, as the two teams will come together in Prague to start the year. As mentioned, the two games in Switzerland are set - against Bern and Metallurg. With some random searching (hey, I'm bored), I found that there will be a home and home with Ottawa on the 20th and 22nd (the latter being at MSG). So what's taking so long for the last two games of the preseason schedule? We are less than two months away! My guess is a pair against the Isles or Pens but who knows.

*Even closer is the Traverse City prospects tournament that the Rangers' kids will be taking part in again at Center Ice Arena in Traverse City, Michigan. The tournament is scheduled for Sept. 13 to 17, will feature entries from the Atlanta Thrashers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues and host Detroit Red Wings. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the Rangers win again.