Air Canada, Gate A7, LaGuardia to Toronto, 6:55 AM
Yawning like a lion, long and lazy.
Air Canada and I are never in synch: I'm always early; they are regularly late. Why should today be any different?
Settle in with coffee, blueberry muffin.
Nearby, a young boy chatters with his mom who resembles the lovely Joni Mitchell in the 70s.
They're headed for Montreal, Gate 7. More families arrive with cherubic, but cranky kids.
Plane for Toronto flight arrives at 8, when we are scheduled to board. Flight to Montreal delayed.
On board, the cabin announces a runway delay. Our 8:35 departure is fiction, the staccato grinding noise while taxi-ing on the runway is a tad unsettling, so time to put on the headphones and shutter the world with Fleetwood Mac's classic "Future Games" and voila! we land on time.
Unfortunately, Rangers have moved morning skate to 10:30, an hour earlier than previously announced.
Translation: Scramble and skip hotel, cab right over to Air Canada Center.
The news: Henrik Lundqvist will make his first start here, says he'll be too focused to worry about the Hockey Night in Canada crowd.
D Marek Malik remained behind in New York, undergoing triple-root canal, sort of a dental hat-trick, I guess. Can't believe he practiced yesterday.
Sandis Ozolinsh looked pleased to be here. Aaron Ward, who played with Ozo for five months in Carolina, says Sandis is in tremendous physical shape, but added "it's understandable"
that he's nervous. "It's good for him to start on the road, there's less pressure in Toronto than New York,"
Ward said.
The coach is sticking with the juggled lines unveiled in practice yesterday. Prucha-Straka-Jagr; Cullen-Betts-Shanahan; Dawes-Nylander-Ward, with Hollweg centering Hall and either Hossa or Orr. But after the skate, Renney said he wasn't committed to those combos the whole game. As for Lundqvist rather than Kevin Weekes, who started both games here last season, Renney said he wanted to have his breadwinner (my term) exposed to the atmosphere in this rink, which will be rocking. When asked if it also made sense because if Lundqvist didn't play, he would have had six days off before the next game (Wednesday at home against the Panthers), he said "That's a part of it, sure."
In his post-practice presser, Leafs coach Paul Maurice had some things to say about the Rangers, too. We'll get to that later.
Cheers for now...