Rangers Roundup — September 25, 2008

Will Brandon Dubinsky have a breakout year?

Rangers.NHL.com:
Dubinsky ready to take it up a notch -- Young center making another a big impression in training camp

Brandon Dubinsky

One of the standout Rangers players during the 2008 preseason has been second-year center Brandon Dubinsky, who made a big splash as a rookie and appears poised to reach even greater heights this season....

Michael Obernauer at the Daily News gets on the Dubinsky bandwagon. Brandon Dubinsky ready for second shift with Rangers:

"I'm really feeling good out there," Dubinsky said Wednesday before the Rangers lost to the Devils, 3-2, in Newark. "Having that full year under your belt brings a new confidence level with yourself coming in the next year. I worked hard over the summer on a lot of different things, and I feel good right now - that's the main reason I'm skating well."

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The hype machine is also in full gear in Washington. The D.C. Poster Boy struts his stuff. This Ovie guy looks like "rough trade" in a good suit.

ESPN Magazine:
REGIME CHANGE -- What Beltway incompetence? With Commander-in-Chief Alex Ovechkin in charge, the Capitals are ready to put the hockey world on notice: the puck drops here...

How does a Russian become President?

Ovechkin will answer the phone at 3 a.m.—it's called accountability. "He's the first guy at the computer after the game, wanting to see his shifts," says coach Bruce Boudreau. "He wants to think about the game. If he doesn't understand something, he makes sure he gets it right."

Ovechkin has so much energy he's practically radioactive. On the ice, he moves from zone to zone so quickly that linemates struggle to keep up. In the locker room, he darts around like a horsefly. After the Caps won the Southeast last season, Ovechkin pulled a freshly printed championship T-shirt over his dress shirt and announced he was going out on the town. D-man Mike Green shot him a no-way-I'm-going-out-like-that look but joined the party after forwards Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov copied Ovie. "He's full of life," says Caps captain Chris Clark. "Gets everybody going, jumping around. We ask how he does it, and he says, 'I don't know what I do, I just do!'" In Ovechkin, the Caps have a leader who is ready to roll up his sleeves, a star who is still a working stiff...

And SLAM Sports adds Ovechkin set to rock the Capital. He received the key to the city in June.

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Oh yeah, there was a preseason game. Will Nedved make the team?

Nedved Star Rising?

Andres Gross takes notice, Nedved strikes again:

Twice actually, with a goal and an assist in the Rangers' 3-2 loss to the Devils tonight at The Rock. That gives the 36-year-old Czech two goals and one assist in two games and no assurances. Nedved said he wasn't sure if he was playing against the Lightning tomorrow night at the Garden.

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Sam Weinman wrote, "Renney said Nedved will play in tonight's preseason game (9/25) against Tampa Bay" at the Garden.

But Weinman focuses on the new as the Rangers move forward on youth movement.

And he blogs that the youngsters will have to produce:

I see any one of eight players scoring 20 goals on the Rangers, but three of those players—Nigel Dawes, Ryan Callahan, and Brandon Dubinsky—have never scored more than 14 in a season. Seeing how those players figure to take on more prominent roles this season, however, the expectation is they’ll have a jump in production.

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Mark Everson at the NY Post adds this on Nedved:

The Rangers . . . are wondering what to do about Petr Nedved, making the most of his tryout.

"The question would be, 'Is that what we need? Is that enough?' " Tom Renney said, having seen Nedved set up the Rangers' first goal and score the second last night.

They were impressed enough by Nedved's bid for a third stint with the Rangers to put him back in the lineup for tonight's game against Tampa Bay at the Garden.

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However, Rangers Review gives a thumbs down on Petr Nedved:

I know everyone is going to point to Petr Nedved and his goal and assist looked good out there, but I have to be honest, I thought he had quite a poor game. I think this is one of those rare cases where you can’t just look at the stat sheet to gauge how a player did. Yes, he scored a goal, but it was a flukey play that happened to flutter in, and the assist he had was a nice play, but the goal that went in was a knuckler, hardly what you would call a legit goal. Don’t get me wrong, the ugly, flukey goals are just as important as the pretty ones, but to me, in this case, they don’t do enough to nullify what was a poor game by Petr. He had a horrific turnover which directly led to a goal against (on a flukey play helped by a puck bouncing off the ref) in which he simply lost control of the puck and skated a stride and a half before he realized it, at which point it was too late and the Devils broke the other way in an odd man rush. He also didn’t generate much in the way of offense, registering the single shot on goal, and didn’t do much in the way defensively either.

All in all, I wasn’t impressed enough to put him in the lineup over Lauri Korpikoski or P.A. Parenteau, both of whom have looked better than Nedved in my opinion...

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Does "Eklund, the Pink is the new rumour blogger" show the Rangers any disrespect when he doesn't put them in his list of "The Top Four Teams in the East Will Be..."

1. Pittsburgh Penguins ...
   
2. Washington ...
   
3. Montreal Canadiens ...
   
4. Philadelphia Flyers ...
   

Or is he being a realist?

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What's a Hockeyville?

If you're like most Americans you are probably clueless if you heard talk about this Hockeyville thing. Count me in that group.

It turns out that Hockeyville is a big deal in Canada. Check out the Wikipedia entry about the Kraft Hockeyville for a summary of what's going on.

Here are two accounts of what happened at Hockeyville. One good, one not so good.

Stu Hackel at the NY Times, .... Disappointing TV from Roberval:

We recorded it and only watched the first period before sitting down at the keyboard this morning but The NHL Network, which produced its own telecast of the game, contained none of the sense of occasion that was required...

The official NHL story:
Roberval basks in the glow of NHL hockey:

Kraft Hockeyville 2008 was a smashing success, as players and coaches raved about the town that made it happen. ...

The people of Roberval spent months preparing for Kraft Hockeyville 2008, trying to show every hockey fan in Canada that they deserved those 2,198,665 votes the small town received some six months ago. But the blood, sweat, tears and money – more than $300,000 went towards improving Benoit Levesque Arena – felt like a massage once the NHL arrived on the scene on Sunday to help honor this wonderful city...

Here is the full Hockeyville coverage at NHL.com if you want all the details.

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Do you think Willie Randolph is smiling this morning? And what about Joe Torre?

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