At 4:03 AM, the sound of my cell phone woke me up. Immediately, I knew it was Zach.
At least once a week, I wake up to a late-night text from this site's co-conspirator. It's fun, mostly because I usually sleep through them and they're often humorous. One time, Zach texted me at 3 AM to ask me how to change lines in NHL 09. Zach's off in Vegas, so I wasn't expecting to hear from him, but he said he had his buddy Dan do a write-up of last night's Rangers-Bruins pre-season game for our site. I turned on the game with about a minute left, just in time to hear the entire broadcast crew gush over Matt Gilroy, so I'll take Dan's word for what happened.
And here, my friends, is (I think) the first guest post we've ever done on this site - a look at the Rangers' first pre-season game, completely unedited, courtesy of Dan.
***
Pre-season game 1 summary: Bos. 2 – NY 1
-Valliquette started and already looked in mid-season form, stopped 18 of 19 including some pretty tough shots (Torts plans on him getting about 15-20 starts this year)
-Brian Boyle (even with his 6’7" frame) did not impress, took two dumb penalties in the 1st period, one lead to the B’s first goal
-Brashear was booed heavily the first time he touched the puck, but it lessened as the game went on, esp. after he flattened a Bruin and got some cheers
-Dane Byers hustled, had some good forechecks and didn’t take any stupid penalties like his linemate Boyle, but that was about it
-Alexei Semenov (the kid from San Jose getting a tryout) looked ok, he is massive which means he’s not the quickest guy in the world (Scotty Hockey called him a "traffic cone" on ice), but he cruched a few B’s and got an assist on the only goal by wristing a shot from the point, so there’s maybe some 7th D-man potential
-the Brighton Beach line of Lisin-Anisimov-Grachev looked comfortable together, fast, and aggressive to the net (especially Grachev, Sam & Joe feel he’ll be on the roster), during one hard forecheck in the 2nd they drew a penalty
-Gilroy and DelZotto got the most of my attention, especially on the PP, they both love to jump in the play (with the encouragement of Torts), and don’t hesitate to unload a shot if they have it (Gilroy had about 3-4 shots, DelZotto hit the post on the PP)
-Kotalik will be a point-man on the PP this year, has a rocket shot and fires at will, his pairing on the PP was DelZotto
-Matt Zaba took over in net for Vally around half-way through the 2nd period, made some very good saves also, and wasn’t at fault for the 2nd goal, (defense vacated the crease to go to the corner and hung him out to dry vs. an open man)
-Matt Maccarone (another bruiser) hustled and such, but I had to laugh at the retro 1970’s pornstar mustache he was sporting
-Higgins got our only goal by camping out at the crease and banging in the rebound of Semenov’s shot, he was on a line with Drury and Kotalik for most of the game
-the Rangers came out and controlled play early in the 1st, but then they took 4 penalties which killed their momentum for the rest of the period, they took 6 total in the game (which led to both goals allowed), the B’s were only called for 2 penalties
-MSG showed a taped interview with Sather addressing the Dubi situation, and he basically said that Dubi has no leverage and will have to either give in and accept whatever offer he gets by the RFA deadline or he won’t be playing at all this year, (they also had Boston’s GM live in the studio at intermission talking about Kessel, pretty much the same thing going on up in Beantown)
-Rangers play the Devils wed. night at the Rock, Lundqvist will play half of the game, no mention of who gets the other half (Wiikman? OchoCinco?)
-players who sat out against the B’s and most likely playing against the Devs:
Prospal, Redden, Rosy, Voros, Avery, Potter, Heikkenen, Kundratek
-Gaborik already has a sore groin (go figure), so not sure yet if he’s going to play
At least once a week, I wake up to a late-night text from this site's co-conspirator. It's fun, mostly because I usually sleep through them and they're often humorous. One time, Zach texted me at 3 AM to ask me how to change lines in NHL 09. Zach's off in Vegas, so I wasn't expecting to hear from him, but he said he had his buddy Dan do a write-up of last night's Rangers-Bruins pre-season game for our site. I turned on the game with about a minute left, just in time to hear the entire broadcast crew gush over Matt Gilroy, so I'll take Dan's word for what happened.
And here, my friends, is (I think) the first guest post we've ever done on this site - a look at the Rangers' first pre-season game, completely unedited, courtesy of Dan.
***
Pre-season game 1 summary: Bos. 2 – NY 1
-Valliquette started and already looked in mid-season form, stopped 18 of 19 including some pretty tough shots (Torts plans on him getting about 15-20 starts this year)
-Brian Boyle (even with his 6’7" frame) did not impress, took two dumb penalties in the 1st period, one lead to the B’s first goal
-Brashear was booed heavily the first time he touched the puck, but it lessened as the game went on, esp. after he flattened a Bruin and got some cheers
-Dane Byers hustled, had some good forechecks and didn’t take any stupid penalties like his linemate Boyle, but that was about it
-Alexei Semenov (the kid from San Jose getting a tryout) looked ok, he is massive which means he’s not the quickest guy in the world (Scotty Hockey called him a "traffic cone" on ice), but he cruched a few B’s and got an assist on the only goal by wristing a shot from the point, so there’s maybe some 7th D-man potential
-the Brighton Beach line of Lisin-Anisimov-Grachev looked comfortable together, fast, and aggressive to the net (especially Grachev, Sam & Joe feel he’ll be on the roster), during one hard forecheck in the 2nd they drew a penalty
-Gilroy and DelZotto got the most of my attention, especially on the PP, they both love to jump in the play (with the encouragement of Torts), and don’t hesitate to unload a shot if they have it (Gilroy had about 3-4 shots, DelZotto hit the post on the PP)
-Kotalik will be a point-man on the PP this year, has a rocket shot and fires at will, his pairing on the PP was DelZotto
-Matt Zaba took over in net for Vally around half-way through the 2nd period, made some very good saves also, and wasn’t at fault for the 2nd goal, (defense vacated the crease to go to the corner and hung him out to dry vs. an open man)
-Matt Maccarone (another bruiser) hustled and such, but I had to laugh at the retro 1970’s pornstar mustache he was sporting
-Higgins got our only goal by camping out at the crease and banging in the rebound of Semenov’s shot, he was on a line with Drury and Kotalik for most of the game
-the Rangers came out and controlled play early in the 1st, but then they took 4 penalties which killed their momentum for the rest of the period, they took 6 total in the game (which led to both goals allowed), the B’s were only called for 2 penalties
-MSG showed a taped interview with Sather addressing the Dubi situation, and he basically said that Dubi has no leverage and will have to either give in and accept whatever offer he gets by the RFA deadline or he won’t be playing at all this year, (they also had Boston’s GM live in the studio at intermission talking about Kessel, pretty much the same thing going on up in Beantown)
-Rangers play the Devils wed. night at the Rock, Lundqvist will play half of the game, no mention of who gets the other half (Wiikman? OchoCinco?)
-players who sat out against the B’s and most likely playing against the Devs:
Prospal, Redden, Rosy, Voros, Avery, Potter, Heikkenen, Kundratek
-Gaborik already has a sore groin (go figure), so not sure yet if he’s going to play
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