Keyboard Quarterbacks

FORWARDS

Everyone wants to know: How will Drury and Gomez mesh with Jagr? Well, you got half your answer if you watched Gomez and Jagr play together in the preseason -- not well so far. We'll see how Drury does when he lines up between Jagr and Straka in the season opener at MSG tonight.

The importance of the chemistry issue can't be overstated. Jagr and Nylander had a unique on-ice kinship, and while Nylander infuriated fans at times with his tendency to overpass or overhandle the puck, he was as valuable to the team as any player not named Jagr or Lundqvist. It will be important for the Rangers to find someone who can match Jagr's understanding for the game and get him the puck in open space, as Nylander so often did.

That said, the Rangers are stronger up front. Having Sean Avery for a full season should ensure the some of the Rangers' skilled players are left alone, with Avery attracting attention like flies to sheep dung. Gomez and Drury make the Rangers much stronger up the middle. It will be interesting to see how much more effective the Rangers' second line can be with Gomez currently centering Avery and Brendan Shanahan.

Last year, teams could match up their best checking lines against Jagr and Nylander, which at times frustrated the Rangers' top line. This year, if Shanahan, Avery and Gomez can pose a scoring threat, it might be the one key upgrade that propels the Rangers into the league's upper eschelon.

The third line of Petr Prucha, Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky will be a fan favorite. They're a speedy, high-energy group that lacks pure finishing power (Callahan still has to prove he can score at this level), but will work hard and be responsible defensively. A lack of size on that line is something of a concern, and my guess is that it won't be long before Renney moves Marcel Hossa onto the line to add a little more strength.

Fourth-line center Blair Betts is an underrated face-off man, shot blocker and penalty killer. The Rangers will miss heart-and-soul guy Jed Ortmeyer, but they are fortunate to have a similar player like Betts left on their roster.

Hossa, Colton Orr and Ryan Hollweg won't score much, but they can be rotated onto the ice if the game gets rough and Renney wants to settle things down. Hollweg needs to avoid taking stupid penalties, and Hossa can't sulk about being demoted after spending some time on the first time late last year.

Ultimately, this group is more talented and well-rounded, and it will be a tougher task for opponents to contain them.

DEFENSE

Who are these guys?

Rangers fans know Marek Malik, Michal Rozsival, Dan Girardi, Fedor Tyutin, Paul Mara, Marc Staal, Thomas Pock and Jason Strudwick, but you can bet a lot of people around the league will be asking that question when the Rangers are sitting near the top of the Eastern Conference stadings in December.

The Rangers' defense is often criticized, but rarely have the Rangers assembled a group with so many young, poised defenders.

Staal and Girardi are similar players (Staal is a little stronger and may be more offensively talented), which is to say they are intelligent and they play tough without taking a lot of penalites. It remains to be seen whether Staal can compete on a day-to-day basis, but so far he hasn't appeared out of place on the ice with top NHL skaters. Both players have a little offensive upside, and both are almost certain to fly under the radar because of ther understated demeanors and styles of play.

Tyutin is a valued physical presence, and has proven he's capable of playing in excess of 20 minutes a game. He hasn't turned into the blueline weapon some thought he might, but he's very tough to beat one-on-one and is rarely caught of position.

Rozsival may be the game's most underrated blueliner. Yes, he needs to shoot more often, especially on the power play. Yes, he's capable of the occasional defensive blunder or bonehead pass. Yes, he sometimes looks like he's got a shock collar on that zaps him every time he doesn't pass to Jagr. But Rozsival is a very good No. 2 defenseman on a team without a No. 1. And for a guy playing out of his depth as he is, he's done a fine job. He's the Rangers' best power play defenseman and he doesn't make many defensive miscues. Raise your hand if you expected him to play like this when the Rangers signed him in 2004. Anyone?... Anyone? Didn't think so.

Mara came to the Rangers at the trade deadline last year with a reputation as a good power play quarterback and a lousy defender. On both counts, he's been surprising. First, he hasn't been nearly as great an offensive player as advertised. He joins the rush every now and then, but his shot isn't particularly threatening and he didn't contribute much to the power play late last year.

But he also wasn't nearly as bad defensively as some had predicted he would be. He's a watered-down Rozsival. As long as he can continue to play well defensively (he'll need to if he wants to stay in Tom Renney's rotation), he should be a solid secondary contributor from the blueline.

Malik. Ok, everyone hates Malik. He makes some truly stupefying plays at times. But in two years with the Rangers, he's plus-60. Plus-60, folks. That doesn't happen by accident. You can attribute some of that to spending most of his time in a five-man unit with Rozsival and Jagr's forward line. But not all of it. The fact is, despite all his shortcomings, and his terrible puckhandling, Malik is a valuable defensive player. He's big enough to contain most of the league's top power forwards, and he does a lot of little things well around the net. He just needs to learn to get the puck off his stick as quickly as possible. Sometimes he could stand to be more physical, and fans will probably continue to boo him, but he'll continue to quietly go about his business, making the Rangers a better team.

At the end of the day, the Rangers' defense will be criticized by outside experts, who will cite their lack of a bruising, stay-at-home defender, and a true No. 1 power play quarterback. But lacking those things, this is a very good group. And they're young (Malik is the oldest at 32). They fit perfectly into Tom Renney's defense first style, and with Girardi and Mara on board for a full season, they'll be better at transitioning the puck quickly from defense to offense.

GOALTENDING

What can you say about Henrik Lundqvist? He set the league afire in the second half of last year, singlehandedly carrying the Rangers to a playoff spot. At 25, he's already won an Olympic gold medal and proven he could carry the heavy workload of a No. 1 starter. What's left for the young Swede? Plenty.

He's been a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy twice in the past two years, and this year if things break right, he could be the front-runner. (The Rangers haven't had a Vezina-winner in 21 years.) Martin Brodeur's Devils could be on the downswing, and the all-time goalie finally showed signs of wear and tear during last year's playoffs. Calgary's Miikaa Kiprusoff and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo could challenge, but no other goalie has the combination of popularity and exposure that Lundqvist does.

It's also time for Lundqvist to prove he can carry a team in the playoffs. He was outstanding in last year's postseason, but he never quite lifted his team to a higher level. Every championship team, no matter how great, needs its goaltender to steal a few playoff games along the way. Lundqvist didn't do that last year. He's certainly capable, as he proved in the 2006 Olympics, but until then, he'll never rise to the level of all-time elite NHL goaltender -- a level already achieved by Brodeur and Dominik Hasek.

Another question about Lundqvist is his desire. He showed up to camp looking tan, and happily so. He's a young, good-looking, rich and single guy in New York City, and it will be vital for him to maintain his focus all season long. The Rangers can't afford another slow start, like the one they had from Lundqvist and the whole team last year. They don't have a reliable backup option (not that Kevin Weekes was ever that reliable), so he'll be counted upon like never before.

One final, critical point: If Lundqvist goes down for an extended time with any type of injury, the Rangers are finished. It's absolutely essential that he stays healthy, and that Tom Renney finds time to get him rest against weaker teams. Jagr, Shanahan, Drury, Gomez and Rozsival will all be important players for the Rangers this year. But no one will be more crucial to the Rangers' success than Lundqvist.

FORECAST

If Lundqvist stays healthy and plays well, there's no ceiling on what the Rangers can accomplish. They will need Jagr to play well and develop chemistry with one of his new centermen.

Naturally, they'll need to avoid injuries, but they have some depth in Hartford (Nigel Dawes, Artem Anisimov, Dane Byers) that could help them in the event a key forward goes down.

Tom Renney is very good at understanding his team and his players, and designing a gameplan around them. This will be a different team from the previous two he's guided. They'll be dealing with high expectations, and the additions of Drury and Gomez should fundamentally change the Rangers' offensive flow to a degree.

But the Rangers have all the pieces in place to put together an inspired season. Renney's defense-first style has stuck with his team, from Jagr all the way down to the rookies in Hartford. For the first time in more than a decade, it's not a stretch to say the Rangers have rebuilt a winning organization.

Now they just have to deliver on all that promise, before Jagr and Shanahan are too old to lift the Cup themselves.