Hockey's Back!

I have been debating with myself, no comments, please, about whether I should hang it up as a blogger. Basically, mothball The Ranger Pundit. And the peasants cheered! Really, the last five or six years have been exhausting and frustrating. Then the other day I heard the new coach, AV, for simplicity, news conference and I was impressed.

He told a reporter, that his question, was a good question. Imagine that? A Ranger coach actually acknowledging a question from a reporter and saying, "that's a good question". Wow! No growls, frowns or nasty retorts. No, "that's a stupid question", no, "what kind of a question is that" and no, "I'm not going to answer that question." What a novel thought. "That's a good question".

So speaking of questions, what kind of team are the Rangers going to be this year? Don't know and neither does the coach. However, what seems to be the M.O. is that it is going to be an open training camp where some young guys might actually have a shot at making the team. There are three key missing ingredients so far. Derek Stepan is holding out and what I have been able to gather its for about 1 mil a year difference. I know there is a cap problem, but we should get around it. Dumping Boyle and Del Zotto should more than close the cap issue.

The other missing pieces are Callahan and Hagelin. Both are key players, but hey, who knows, some young ones may come along and fill in nicely. So well see. However, early signs are encouraging. AV, has assigned his assistants to cover the power play and the penalty kill. But he was emphatic that the power play was on him to fix. Wow!

A coach who answers questions and takes responsibility. I gotta hang around to see this. Is Emile Francis back, reincarnated? So we are off to a good start. Don't know about you but I am going to keep my eye on the young guys, the coach looks like he can handle things. Isn't it a shame that youth has to be wasted on the young. Go get 'em AV.

ICINGS: High fashion ad agency Lipman, whose roots go back to 1927, has folded and closed its doors. So why is this news on a hockey blog? It's news because one of Lipman's partners is a person named Sean Avery. Do you think those skates can be fished out of the Hudson River and are usable? Stay tuned.