After a win last night involving a near comeback by the Flyers and an appearance by Sarah Palin, the Rangers are 4-0 to start the year. We lost some big names, gained some new faces, and are a very different team than last year. We no longer have Jagr, the man who our team was structured around. Obviously it's a loss, but it's also an opportunity to restructure how our team works. Expect it to be more about teamwork and balance than about getting one man the puck. But we have some great new faces and some returning (as well as rising) stars to look out for:


Chris Drury- The captain and the workhorse of the team. Though he'll have some great goals this season, many of his contributions go unnoticed by the scorebooks. Every time he's on the ice, it's a battle, whether he's fighting in front of their goalie for position in our power play, or fighting to intercept passes and block shots on the penalty kill. He's one of the most determined and hardest working men in the sport, and he's going to be a great captain and influence on the younger and newer players.

Scott Gomez- It's like nothing else when this man has the puck. He's one of the fastest players on the ice and I'm always thrilled to watch him skate the puck down the ice, weave through almost the entire opposing team, and fire a shot off at the other goalie or make the perfect pass. He led our points for most of last year, but most of them came from assists (usually to Jagr). I would expect to see him more to a more goal scoring position this year.

Markus Naslund- The veteran from this Canucks, this known goal scorer is a welcomed addition to our team. Though his output dipped with the more defense-based team in Vancouver, he's hoping to add new life to his career and set things off with the fast paced and well rounded Rangers.

Branden Dubinsky- A name that you probably haven't heard before, Dubes is starting his second full year as a Ranger after an amazingly successful rookie start. Every game he looks better. In his first year as a Ranger, he spent much of it centering for his once idol Jaromir Jagr, which shows the faith the team had in this young star. Dubi was probably the best Ranger throughout the preseason, and I'd expect him to really have a breakout year this season.

Wade Redden- The (expensive) acquisition of this all star defensive man represents a real desire to keep the Rangers strong in all areas. With his addition, as well as Michal Rozival, Marc Staal, and others, expect to see strong defense from this Ranger team. And expect to see our D scoring goals.

Nikolai Zherdev- A tricky young player known for his quick maneuvers and one-on-one talent, expect to see some goal production from him and some game-highlight production as well.


And did I mention the King Henrik Lundqvist!!!


Lets go RANGERS!!!

You really underestimate us, Yorke.

Actually, you're right. I forgot that there are huge hockey buffs/people from Canada here. What was I thinking?

I think you could have quoted the whole post and said the same.
Its am informative post for the rest of the forums, not so much for hockey.

Who's this Doopinsky character?

I think Jagr leaving will actually help Gomez's production.

Okay, okay, fair enough.


I was lucky enough to attend our home opener at MSG. The place was as excited as ever to see what out new team could do. Yes, we had beat Tampa Bay twice, but they're certainly not the most formidable team that we'd face this year. Chicago is a strong group, and so I was very excited to see us beat them and do so by scoring four goals. If you'll recall, we had a lot of trouble last year, especially early on, scoring lots of goals. Our goal tending won us a lot of low scoring games, but we were never really comfortable with our offense.

Our best line for the past two games has been our second line of Dubinsky (who?), Voros, and Zherdev. They've seem to have developed some early chemistry and have a good feel for each other. They're all quick, young players and their able to move the puck between each other with short passes and seem to work well as a cohesive formation. (I actually heard that they have bonded personally by playing NHL 09 together. They put together their actual line on the team and have been playing together as it.).

I'd like to see a bit more production from our first line of Gomez centering Drury and Naslund. They were good in Europe but have been unable in the past two games to maintain consistent forecheck.

I'm also excited about our power play. Last year, I'd say that our PP was pretty terrible. Yes, we did occasionally score on it, but it was never consistent and it never seemed to have any organization. This is probably because it was often centered around Jagr. Power plays work best when they're a team effort, and that's what I've seen thus far from the Rangers. We have defensemen with really strong shots, and we're really focusing on setting up an offense, working the puck around, and taking some hard shots from the outside. I think we're going to see a lot more success from our power play this year. Our PK was strong last year and should be strong again.

It feels nice to start a year off 4-0, and the team looks good, but I think we still need to grow together before we face Detroit and Dallas in upcoming games.

Sad news. RIP Siberian Express.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=252547&lid...os=topStory_nhl

Yeah saw this over on the hf boards, pretty tragic. Such a high draft pick too, so they expected this guy to come over and perform I guess. Sad story.

Damn!

Really sad news!

I was hoping that after his contract ended this season, he'd come over and be our Ovechkin.

He wasn't even 20. Our thoughts are with his teammates, friends, and family.

From Wikipedida (no idea if this is true):

On October 13, 2008, Cherepanov collapsed during a KHL game against Chekhov Vityaz following an accidental collision with teammate Jaromir Jagr and was rushed to an intensive care unit.The ambulance that is normally at all games had already departed and had to be called back, taking approximately 15-20 minutes to get him to a hospital. He died later that day.

I've read this elsewhere too, I'll try to find a source other than wikipedia.

Edit: I've seen some stuff on other boards that's apparently been translated from Russian news sources. I don't know Russian, so I have no idea how true it is, but apparently Jagr was in tears screaming "Wake up Alexei!" on the bench.

It's a shame, he was going to be fun to watch in the NHL.

I'm not a big fan of Jagr, but I really hope for his sake that his supposed collision had nothing to do with it. Imagine the guilt he'd suffer from.



Sad news - nobody wants to see a story like this, especially about a guy with so much promise.

Wow, that is just unbelievable. My jaw hit the floor when I saw the headline on Yahoo.

RIP Alexei, it's a sad day for hockey.

Good first period by the Rangers. After killing some early penalties, were were able to get our forecheck going and every line looked strong. We got a funny one past Marty but we've also had a few other good chances. I really like the way we're playing; it's a fast paced game with consistent offense.

I don't see this on wiki anymore, but this is from an article on TSN:

"Omsk head coach Wayne Fleming said Cherepanov collapsed on the bench during the third period of the game and did not see anything that happened on the ice that may have contributed to it."

Sad, sad day for sure. RIP Alexei.

They just commented during the Rangers game. They said Jagr and Cherepanov returned to the bench after missing a two on one and sat beside each other on the bench. Then Alexei just collapsed.

It's numbing.

Dear Henrik,

Hope your knees are good. Shutout please tonight.
All my best,
Adam

Ahh, I'll live with 1GA.
Henrik is probably the best goalie in the world right now.

Better than Ty Conklin?

Well I'm UNH biased, so I won't comment.

Yeah, the Jagr rumor was untrue. Instead, it turned out that Jagr and he became very good friends, and Jagr was telling him about the Rangers and preparing him for his eventual move to the NHL. Jagr was apparently beside himself after the tragedy. So very sad.

Overall, a good game by the Rangers. Our first period was among the best we've played so far, but we trailed off a bit in the second period. We were able to hold on in the third and win the game. Again, our young second line played quite well. Voros earned himself two goals by fighting for position in front of Brodeur and deflecting pucks past the legendary goalie. Dubinsky got a goal and a last minute assist when he slid one to Callahan for the open net clincher. I thought Paul Mara also stood out and had a great game, firing shots from the outside during the power play and earning himself an assist (which originally was a goal until it was decided that Voros deflected it).

And again, our first line seemed somewhat non existent. On paper they're a great group of players, so hopefully they just need some time and practice to feel out each other's style. But I expect good things from them.





I don't know about all that, but he's certainly up there and he's playing at the top of his game right now. He certainly made some great saves and really frustrated the Devils. It's a real achievement when you show that you're the better goalie in a game against Brodeur.

Gah, could have used that for the FCHL.

Now who was that who was arguing with me that MB would still be better than Henrik this year?

I love when MB lets in a soft first goal of the game, it just supports the quotes of his I love to rub into his fans' faces.

I think the success of Brodeur is more to the credit of the defensive system than his goaltending.

The extent of his success yes. Without Lemaire, Stevens and Niedermayer he wouldn't be on pace for the records that he will own.

That said, you still wont have that kind of success without the skills to take advantage of it. Brodeur/Roy and especially Brodeur/Belfour (except for the cough syrup game lol) were the best goaltenders' finals Ive ever seen.

A decent win against the Leafs. I'm really not too excited about the fact that we didn't score all game. I thought we did have some decent chances (and so did they), but we're going to need more than chances to go far in the league. In terms of points, we're off to a great start, but I think certain things still need to click before I can be really excited about the team.

Valiquette was great in goal. I always like to see him do well.

GL to the Rangers tonight against Detroit.

I didnt see the first two periods..From what I heard the leafs played really well until the 3rd where we got decimated with penalties, Toskala's superb play and a couple of lucky posts saved us...

Rangers v Red Wings might be the game of the night, both teams hope it's an early preview at the SC finals. Hoping this one is a good one.

Well I'm not biased towards either of these teams but the Rangers got robbed on an awful too many men call which the Wings got a PP goal on with roughly 3 mins left in the game to tie it. Then the OT winner. Obviously they still have to go out and get the OT winner, the Wings that is, but probably shouldn't have gotten that far.

weaksauce call in an otherwise great game. the Rangers forecheck/cycle is so much more fun to watch than third man high.

Valiquette was a monster in the 3rd/OT/shootout v Toronto. He looks quicker than last year, and his positioning has always been good.

Agreed. Toskala was a beast that game.

Tonight's game was sucky as heck. I went to the garden really excited to cheer and boo Avery. He did get hit hard a few times which really seemed to excite the crowd and he almost got into a fight with Dubi. But the game itself was extremely blasé by the Rangers. We scored in the first few minutes and didn't get another goal the rest of the game. Our team looked tired, and I think some rest will do us well. The only players who seemed to be awake were Dubi and Gomez. Drury really needs to step up at some point offensively or our team is going to be mediocre for a while.

Ugggggg


We must blow more 2 minute 5-on-3's than any other team.

Weeeee

It's a game again.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH





YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

bad bad goal by Fluery...he makes so many good saves then he gives up one like that. A good shot but Fluery went down waaay to eary.

An amazing game by Lundqvist! What a crazy win. Coming back from 2-0 in the third period, scoring the final goal with about 5 seconds left on the breakaway after Crosby misses the empty net. Lundqvist saves our butts several times in OT and then shuts out the Pens in the shoot out.

LET'S GO RANGERS!

It would have been a great game if it ended 2-1 Penguins. It was unreal after the tying goal. 3rd period, OT and shootout was amazing. How do we shoot the bleeping puck from the blue line on a 5-3? Wen't to the game with Zach. Fedetenko glanced over at Zach during warmups and saw the penguin jersey, then turned his head away but tossed a puck right to Zach so non-chalant. It was so cool how he did no-look style. Zach would have never lived it down if he dropped it. Legends will be made about the after party. Let's just say zach was feeling no pain with the Penguins loss. Zach's friend got really lucky with this hot Venezualan chick that I would have jumped in a heartbeet but I had no chance. At 400am it was finally beddy time for Zach. Had to bribe the taxi driver to take care of him. Zach took NYC by storm and it will never be the same

Haha that is an awesome trip report.

qft

wtf..What a life this guy leads..

Vegas, New York...NHL game in every city..

making money playing poker...Zach is the ultimate playboy..

way to go man.

All hail ZACH, all hail ZACH

qft to all of those

Random note: The Rangers have the best goal horn/song/celebration I've ever seen.

(HOOORN! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORN HOOORN HOOORN)


GOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-AAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLL


(Pump Fist)

HEY! HEY! HEY HEY HEY!

HEY! HEY! HEY HEY HEY!

Good game tonight by the Rangers after two pretty horrible losses. I'm glad we could definitively snap our losing streak. Our power play seemed to work tonight, generating us three goals. Drury had a short handed goal along with two power play goals to send the hats flying. It's good to see Staal score with a beautiful one-timer from the outside. It's also good to see Callihan generate some offense.

Lundqvist, as usual, was superb. Washington this weekend should be both exciting and difficult.