Unfortunately this one is also going to have to be short as I spent the last 5-6 hours watching the Yankees and then the Rangers games and it’s now 4am with me having to wake up in a few short hours for a game of my own. Anyway, I did want to talk about the kids today. In my season preview I basically said the Rangers were more or less forced to put all their hopes and dreams for this season (fairly or unfairly) squarely on the shoulders of their kids. Boy oh boy, for one night at least, they handled it with aplomb.

Let’s start with the obvious. Derek Stepan, a kid I felt should have started the year in Hartford has made me look like a fool. Granted my reasons were that the Rangers were better suited long term giving him 20+ minutes a night centering the top line in Hartford rather than 10 minutes a night here, but he’s forced the Rangers hands with his play. The kid just oozes hockey IQ, the single aspect of a player I value above all. Next you have the rock solid play of Michael Sauer who was strong in his own zone, and quiet in a good way. Michael Del Zotto also played what might have been his finest game defensively as a Ranger, looking to make smart plays instead of risky plays. Work smarter, not harder, these are words to live by. Of course doing both, working harder AND smarter, would be preferable.

Follow that up with the 2 goal performance of Brandon Dubinsky, the absolutely brilliant play of Artem Anisimov who is truly playing like a selke caliber 2-way center already during his second full year, and the dogged determination of Ryan Callahan, and you have all the ingredients to add up to, for at least one night, an impressive Rangers win.

But, we must temper our enthusiasm, as that has been the bane of this Rangers team existence since I have started watching them sans 94 and 97. The Rangers get too up when they win, and get way too low when they lose. 1 win means nothing in the grand scheme of things. But it sure is a nice way to start off the season.

See you all on Monday, time to catch a few Z’s before my own game tomorrow…

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Well, after watching the Rangers all preseason, and after carefully considering everything, here is my prediction. The Rangers will finish out of the playoff race for the second consecutive year.

I know a lot of people have high hopes for this team, and see a marked improvement with the Rangers bringing in Frolov, Stepan, and Biron, but really, besides those 3 guys, this is almost exactly the same team that struggled to stay in games on a nightly basis last year, and were only in the playoff hunt thanks to a quick start and a favorable schedule down the stretch. Other than that we looked very much like a mediocre, talentless team. The Rangers are really banking their entire season on the improved play of Anisimov, Staal, Girardi, Callahan, Dubinsky, Gilroy and Michael Del Zotto. The odds of all of them having better years are slim to none. The law of averages say that some players will progress, and some players will regress, the net result is they probably stay about the same, maybe a little bit of improvement, but probably not enough to make a huge difference. Cally, Dubi, Girardi and Staal all have extensive NHL experience, it’s not like they are kids that are brand new to this team. They have enough of a track record that you can fairly comfortably say that we know what we’re going to get from them. Anisimov and Del Zotto will probably improve some, but that will probably be offset by some vet having a down year, the way Drury dragged us down with his colossal flop this past season.

The problem here is that, even if you assume a net improvement by the Rangers, all the teams around us have also improved…many by leaps and bounds. The Tampa Bay Lightning look poised to make a playoff run. The Atlanta Thrashers look to have a good North American type team. The Devils, Penguins, and Flyers should all be even better than they were last year. The Islanders would have been better if not for their preseason injuries. And the Carolina Hurricanes were one of the best teams in the NHL down the stretch last year.

Here are my preseason predictions.

1)Washington Capitals
2)New Jersey Devils
3)Boston Bruins
4)Philadelphia Flyers
5)Pittsburgh Penguins
6)Ottawa Senators
7)Buffalo Sabres
8)Tampa Bay Lightning
9)Atlanta Thrashers
10)New York Rangers
11)Montreal Canadiens
12)Carolina Hurricanes
13)Toronto Maple Leafs
14)New York Islanders
15)Florida Panthers

Sadly, looks like it’s going to be another lost season for the boys in blue.

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HockeyBasedNYC from the HFBoards was kind enough to share this schedule with me. I thought you guys might like it.

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The Rangers were probably going to lose this one no matter what. No Lundqvist, Staal, Rozsival, Girardi, Gaborik, Frolov, Drury, Prospal, Avery, Callahan…I mean, need I say more? Those are some very good players who did not suit up for 1 reason or another, and the Rangers were still able to keep this one competitive till the empty net goals killed them. I think the lesson they can take away is that the Rangers have a fairly decent reserve core of players to bring up in case of emergency, and that the Rangers have met some mighty shoddy goaltending thus far.

I’ll do a full season preview in the next day or so. It’s almost 2 am here, so I’m going to head off to bed.

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There has been 1 prevailing factor at work in all of the Rangers preseason games thus far. None of the goalies they have played against have played well. Brodeur, Hedberg, Howard, Elliot…they have all been very mediocre. And I think that is why this probably low scoring offense looks so strong thus far in the preseason. I have a feeling once we start playing the better goalies, and once these goalies start playing up to their potential, this Ranger offense is going to look a lot more pedestrian than it has been. We aren’t generating a lot of quality scoring chances. And when we do generate some, they tend to end up in the back of the net. Over the course of a long 82 game season that is going to even out. You need to generate quality scoring chances regularly. 10, 15, 20 chances. Rangers are lucky if they get 7 or 8 good chances in a game, and are somehow scoring 4-5 goals on those chances.

Tonight I thought Erik Christensen might have played himself out of a job. He looked pretty awful out there, his game winning shootout goal not withstanding. Furthermore I thought Derek Stepan took another step forward into stealing Christensens job, because Stepan looked worlds better than Christensen did out there between Frolov and Gaborik. The real question here is, do the Rangers have the balls to start a rookie centering their top line. That might be tough to ask of the kid. Something I personally would not do.

Fedetenko also looked strong once again, and in my eye has all but wrapped up a job. On the flip side I felt Ryan McDonagh was so-so tonight, definitely having trouble containing the cycle of the Senators. Gilroy and Eminger were also quite poor in controlling the skilled Senators out there. I think the team as a whole struggled in their gap control, their cycle control was absolutely horrendous. Even the rock, Marc Staal, had a poor game in his own zone. Luckily it’s just the preseason, but let’s hope this isn’t a portent of things to come, because teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Buffalo will eat us alive if we play like this continually.

Rangers right back at it tomorrow night in Ottawa, should be their opening night roster out there more or less. I’m eager to see how they look out there.

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