O.K., it’s not really one week. It’s just five days, but it sure feels like a long time until we see hockey again. The good thing is the next time we see the Rangers play, it’s for real.
We’ll finally see what this team is all about because it won’t be about players fighting for roster spots. They’ll be here, or not. Although it could be quite some time before we know what this team is quite capable to do.
Who we know won’t be with the Rangers is Evgeny Grachev, who was sent to Hartford after Sunday’s preseason finale. Grachev showed a lot of promise in the preseason and NHL talent. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back at some point.
The cut brings the roster to 22 players, including 13 forwards. Part of the issue is Sean Avery’s injury, which means Prospal has to play wing. Artem Anisimov, who had a brilliant goal in preseason action, gets to stick around. So does Matt Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto. Del Zotto, though, is only 19 and still juniors eligible. If the Rangers choose to send him down, he’d have to go back to his junior team.
Seems like a lot of prospects making the team, no? Promising to me.
I think it’s a little hard to gauge how well this team will do this season. It’s been a sport on our forum to gauge how many goals the team will score by subtracting the goals traded away or allowed to walk, like Gomez, and then added, like with Gaborik. But it’s all on paper, and there have been so many changes on this team I don’t know what to think.
It almost feels like that season coming out of the lockout all over again. The Rangers had a handful of stars, most especially one super star named Jagr, and a lot more unknowns. Hey, that was an Olympic season too.
One of two things is going to happen. This team is going to come out and win a bunch of games early, causing fans to overreact and think the Rangers will win the Stanley Cup. Or the Rangers will lose early, causing the NYPD to add extra patrols to the area bridges because the fans will bemoan their team is worse than the Islanders.
Rangers fans never take it to extremes.
Last Week
Monday: Detroit 2, Rangers 4
Thursday: Caps 2, Rangers 3
Sunday: Rangers 3, Caps 4
This Week
Friday: at Penguins (season opener)
Saturday: versus Senators (home opener)
Full Rangers schedule
Weekly Poll
Highlights of the Week
It was hard finding something for this week. Not the best, but I wanted to get the highlights of Gaborik and Dubinsky against the Caps.
Rangers blogs
Blueshirt Bulletin
Rick Carpiniello’s Rangers Report
Andrew Gross’ Rangers Rants (Gross on Twitter)
Hockey Rodent
Michael Obernauer’s Blueshirt Blog
Steve Zipay’s On the Rangers Beat (Zipay on Twitter)
