Let's go to the cutting room floor: Very little of this was in today's paper, so read on:
As the Rangers exhibition schedule concluded last night in Philly with a 3-2 win on Marc Staal's goal with 1:11 left last night, what did we learn?
Lesson 1: They won't be bullied this season. If a Flyer took liberties, there was a rapid response.
Near the end of a quiet and scoreless first period, Colton Orr and defenseman Jason Smith squared off.
Then with 21 seconds left, Jaromir Jagr---who had missed the Islanders game with a hip flexor strain---was hit high behind the Philadelphia net by Mike Richards and Chris Drury immediately took exception, earning a two-minute roughing penalty, a five-minute major and a ten-minute misconduct.
When Nigel Dawes was flatted by Smith early in the second period, Brendan Shanahan dropped his gloves. On the next shift, Jason Strudwick decisioned Riley Cote.
And this was all with chronic irritant Sean Avery (groin) scratched for the second straight game.
Lesson No. 2: Rangers will have to avoid 5-on-3s, especially against the Flyers. Without veteran special-teamers Michael Rozsival and Marek Malik out (scratched), .Richards tied the score with a blast from the right circle with a two-man advantage at 10:53 of the second period, just 10 seconds after Jagr (tripping) and Thomas Pock (hooking) were sent off. Simon Gagne blasted a high slapper during another 5-on-3 with Dan Girardi (hooking) and Marc Staal (holding) off.
Lesson No. 3: C Brandon Dubinsky will make the club. He battled all night and knocked a rebound past goaltender Martin Biron on a power play at 7:15 of the second. The Rangers other young center, Artem Anisimov, was scratched for the second straight game and seems ticketed for Hartford.
Lesson 4: Dawes will be a tough cut. After a three-assist game against the Isles, he tipped in Paul Mara's right point shot on the power play at 1:47 of the third.
In six pre-season games, the Rangers were 3-2-1.
But none of them count until Thursday, when the curtain finally goes up at home against Florida.
ALSO: Here are links to my Rangers and NHL previews, which ran today:
http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/rangers/nysprang305396469sep30,0,6453676.story
http://www.newsday.com/sports/hockey/ny-spnhlprev0930,0,6462842.story
Comments (6)
I am just not so sure that Marcel Hossa has more of a right to be on this team than Dawes.
At this point, what more does the organization expect Dawes to do?
3 assists friday night, game tying goal last night.
Nobody in this organziation gets a more raw deal than Nigel Dawes.
The problem is that the team already has 2 more players of the same style in Callahan and Prucha.
You are right though. It seems that of all the "young" players, Hossa is the only one who hasn't earned his spot.
the links down work for me steve, any chance you can start putting them in link format instead of text format? im guessing your blog is html based, otherwise it would autoconvert the url to a link, it is fairly easy to do it, a search google for a href html code, and you should be set.
you are 100% correct. Dawes should make this team.
Imagine how exciting a line of Dawes-Dubinsky-Callahan would be night in and night out?
How about getting rid of that garbage called Hollweg? He is useless and is the dumbest player on the Rangers.
Nigel could have his place and make more contributions than Hollweg. I would like to see Staal make this team as a 6th d-man.