Rangers Roundup — September 24, 2008

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The Staal Brothers: Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Eric Staal of the Carolina Hurricanes and Marc Staal of the New York Rangers during the NHL Media Tour on September 3, 2008 in New York City

The new NHL.com website is being previewed. Sleek.

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After last night's game Andrew Gross at Rangers Rants took a first stab at guessing the opening day roster:

G: Henrik Lundqvist, Steven Valiquette (pretty confident here)
D: Wade Redden, Michael Rozsival, Marc Staal, Dan Girardi, Dmitri Kalinin, Paul Mara, Corey Potter.
LW: Markus Naslund, Nigel Dawes, Aaron Voros, Lauri Korpikoski, Dan Fritsche
C: Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Blair Betts
RW: Nikolai Zherdev, Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan, Colton Orr, Fredrik Sjostrom.

Two variables to this: I could see the Rangers moving a forward for a defenseman; Mats Sundin is still out there.

Corey Potter as the 7th defenseman over Thomas Pock because:

Potter is just a big presence on defense and also seems active on the rush, though not at the expense of his own end. I think it's going to be a tough call between him and Thomas Pock if the Rangers keep seven defensemen.

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Now that John Dellapina has left the NY Daily News for the NHL corporate office does that mean the paper cut back on their Rangers coverage? I didn't see anything about last night's game from them? Not even a passed along AP story.

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This afternoon Zipay at Blue Notes posted the lineup for tonight's Devils game, and added:

Korpikoski, Potter, Byers "are very much in the mix" for roster spots, the coach said.

His morning story at Newsday declares that the Rangers have "scoring woes" (with half a team?) and points a finger at Redden:

For the second night in a row, a winger sped by defenseman Wade Redden along the boards, with the odd-man rush producing a goal, this one by Ryan Craig

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However, RangersReview is "embracing positivity" and is very happy so far after three games:

3 game, and in each of them we can say without a doubt, we were the better team by and large. The mistakes were there for sure, but if you look at the games as a whole, we badly outplayed the opposition in all 3 games, tonight outshooting the super-offensive Lightning a staggering 40-18. This is after outshooting the Senators 38-22 and 36-19 in back to back games. Again, recognize this is with nearly 1/2 the team not playing, and with the opposition putting out nearly complete teams in 2 of the 3 games.

Wow. ...

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Stan Fischler also was very pleased and called the Tampa Bay game a "good loss."

I can name you almost a dozen positives. So, let us start counting...

1. STEVE VALIQUETTE – The analysts can theorize 'til the cows come home about Henny Lundqvist's sidekick, and who it might be. Forget it. Steve IS the Rangers back-up goalie because The Tall One is experienced, has the goods and showed on Tuesday night that he's poised to win more this season than he did last year...

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The Rangers have loaded up with "youngsters.' Robby Krevat at the Bleacher Report can't yet fathom the notion:

The Rangers roster now only had six—yes, six—players who are or will be in their '30s this season. Two of those six have Stanley Cups...

That revelation made me realize how different the Rangers are this season from any other in the last ten years.

The Rangers were NOTORIOUS for being old, and loaded with stars—or former stars—at every position on the first three lines. The concept of players my age—who have talent that my hockey-ridden mind can't even fathom sharing a rink with—all wearing Ranger jerseys sets a new tone...

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The Rangers might have an advantage in Prague. Damian Cristodero the beat writer for the St. Petersburg Times at his Lightning Strikes blog reports: Might Vinny be held out of opener?

We read in Tuesday's paper that hockey ops chief Brian Lawton said he would not hesitate to keep star Vinny Lecavalier and defenseman Paul Ranger out of at least the season opener Oct. 4 in Prague if their rehabbing right shoulders were not ready to go. He said he might even put them on injured reserve to help the team manage their numbers. That's a big hint not to be taken seriously, especially after watching Jussi Jokinen star at center this preseason. And while Jokinen's move to the middle might have been, as coach Barry Melrose said, an "experiment," it is not far-fetched to believe it also was a tryout to see if Jokinen could contribute at the position if Lecavalier isn't ready. In Tuesday's 3-2 victory over the Rangers, Jokinen played between Marty St. Louis and Vinny Prospal and had an assist.

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FYI, Sean Avery had a good start

Stars lost their preseason opener 3-2 Tuesday night in St. Louis. Loui Eriksson and Sean Avery scored for the Stars...

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Slapshot keeps an eye on Europe, the KHL and Jagr. JJ has put all the Siberian inmates on his back, now that he's an assistant coach, and started carrying them to wins. Since he hired the coach (Wayne Fleming) he probably feels an obligation to play hard. Fleming has been delayed with visa problems.

Russian KHL:

Metallurg Nk 2-3 Avangard. Jaromir Jagr strikes again with the opening goal. The man has three goals and an assist in the last three games, all wins for revitalized Avangard.

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Are the owners gearing up to get rid of guaranteed contracts in the next CBA? FauxRumors takes some shots at Bettman and our very own Stan Fischler as they discuss: Guaranteed Contracts.. Next Grounds for War! --

1) After the last CBA was signed, ending Gary Bettman's 2nd imposed lock out of the NHL, many were quick to state that the owners had cleaned the players clocks. That they got almost everything that they had wanted (a salary cap) and the players caved and their former representative, Bob Goodenow quit in disgrace. However, we at FAUXRUMORS were one of the few, along with Lyle Richardson (Spector) and a few others who stated 'not so fast'. We reminded folks that many also thought the 1995 CBA agreement (after Bettman's first lockout) was a slam dunk winner for the owners. It turned out to be just the opposite. The players were making oodles of money(average salary of about 1.2 mil) by the time of the 2nd Bettman work outage in 2004

2) Therefore folks like ourselves (independent) who are Neither owner lackeys like Stan Fischler or carry the water for the players side like Larry Brooks looked at this agreement. After looking at the details and seeing how it worked the first year or two we came to the conclusion that the players were NOT vanquished as much (if at all) as the owners/Bettman/Fischler had believed...

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Calvin at Rangerland.net has a creative idea to firm up a couple of weak NHL franchises with "Contraction Without Contraction." -

Let’s face it: who are we expecting to be two of the worst teams in the NHL this year? The Kings and the Thrashers, right?

Let’s not have them both. Instead, let us take a naming page from MLB and form… the Los Angeles Kings of Atlanta! The money and contracts are already there for the season - take both teams, throw them into the corporate equivalent of the Large Hadron Collider, and boom! Out comes a slightly smaller NHL, and an improved team in one of the league’s most important markets. (Hint: It’s not you, Atlanta.) The Kings of Atlanta would play 30 games in LA, 11 games in Atlanta, and would be entitled to make the best roster they can out of their abysmal yet promising rosters. What would that look like?

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Ted Leonsis pumps his Caps superstar, Alexander Ovechkin. Does Dolan refer to Henrik Lundqvist as "The Prince" or even "The King"?

Ovie on the Cover of ESPN…The Magazine -- Check this out!!!

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