Ok, maybe the title should really have been, “Everybody but Jaromir and Pock”, but either way, you get the drift. The Rangers played a very strong game, looking particularly good was Paul Mara, and Henrik Lungfist Lundqvist. Dawes, Staal, and Dubinsky all made strong statements tonight that they belong. Staal scoring the game winner, Dawes tying it up, Dubinsky opening up the scoring.

Of particular interest to me was the play of the Flyers. As a division rival, it was good to see them ice their A team, against our A team, and have us win. They are going to be very good this year fellas. They will finally get some good goaltending, and when you couple that with some tough play, and scoring from the top line, youll have a dangerous lineup. The problem with them, at least to me, is that outside of the top 3, they really don’t scare me much at all. I would probably split those 3 up to get a more balanced attack, but I want them to lose, so im ok with that setup.

One has to wonder how much the hip flexor bothered Jaromir Jagr. He spent more time in the penalty box for stupid lazy penalties, than he did with the puck on his stick. He and Drury showed almost no chemistry whatsoever, except for when Drury saw his captain get hit, and came to his defense. I would need to see at least 2 more games with those 2, especially with a healthy Jagr, but we might end up seeing something crazy like this:

Either way, we need to give them more time before we panic and start throwing bizzare combos like that out there.

Now, the tough part, having to wait till Thursday, with no meaningful baseball for the Yanks to play, and nothing else but work to keep me busy.

I need my hockey!

-Inferno

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Now, I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I believe the Rangers have been down 2 men about 6 times this preseason. Thats in 6 games (counting tonight). That is a bit worrisome, discipline is something we need to live by, not ignore.

Still though, 3 on 5’s aside, the Rangers have looked fairly solid, with the exception of Jaromir Jagr, who is just playing terribly so far today, and throughout the preseason. Its a shame, but these games don’t count, so who cares (right?).

I thought Dubinsky looked very good in that period, but the Shanny-Gomez-Dawes combo has not looked that great, so as I said before, I would pick Dawes to get the final spot if he outplayed Dubinsky tonight, or if the both played great. If Dubinsky outplayed Dawes, or they both played poorly, I would give the nod to Dubinsky. Right now, its Dubinsky. Which is a damn shame for Dawes.

-Inferno

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If you ever wondered how Chris Drury got his reputation as a great leader even though hes so damn quiet, well you saw why just now. Jaromir Jagr got run, and Chris Drury skates right into the guy who threw the hit (was it Eager?) and throws down with him. Sure Chris lost the fight, but you know what? When Chris Drury will drop the gloves for your team, youve got a club that lives and dies for each other. They arent a bunch of overpaid prima donnas, they are a team.

Also, in the period the Rangers basically dominated the game. Literally. It wasn’t even close. The Flyers got something like 6 shots on goal, and the Rangers probably around 15. I can’t say for sure, since none of the sites out there seem to have any stats for this game, not exactly sure why.

Scotty Gomez also made a really beautiful end to end rush, which I think we will be seeing a lot more often, that really got me juiced. You also saw a lot of the “backupability” that he has, where the entire opposing team takes a collective 3-4 steps backwards to avoid having him blow by you on the rush. Thats a big deal. Getting free territory like that, just because you have this guy on the ice, is HUGE.

Jagr was kinda invisible out there. I wonder if it is because of his hip flexor, or rust, or being outta synch with his players.

Either way, I’m sure he will be fine.

-Inferno

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