Blog Archives
A night of debuts as Rangers take on Isles in preseason opener
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of MSG Photos.
After a long summer of waiting following a first round exit, New York Rangers hockey is back with the team beginning preseason play against the New York Islanders tonight at Madison Square Garden.
This marks the first of six preseason games that will be played before the team opens the regular season on October 13 at MSG against the Islanders. Following a lot of offseason moves and the development of young prospects, Alain Vigneault has a lot of new players to watch as he works on finalizing his roster.
Tonight, 11 of the 20 players on the ice for Vigneault have not appeared in a regular season game for the Rangers, including some exciting young prospects as well as offseason acquisitions. The top line features longtime Ranger Chris Kreider alongside Mika Zibanejad and highly touted Russian Prospect Pavel Buchnevich. And according to AV, they’ll be tough to play against. Read the rest of this entry
Jeff Gorton deserves credit for a successful offseason
Bobby Bevilacqua
Photo courtesy of the New York Rangers.
Following the Rangers elimination from the playoffs, I had a feeling that this offseason would be extremely important, with the chance to have an impact on the long term future of the franchise and determining if they would compete or be forced to rebuild.
Keith Yandle was a free agent, the team had departures and deficiencies on defense, there were serious cap constrictions and a ton of really important, young RFAs to lock up with new deals. Honestly, I didn’t have high hopes for how the team would turn out heading into next year.
But in a situation with his hands tied behind his back, Jeff Gorton did an admirable job maneuvering through a very tough situation and making the absolute best of it for the Rangers. Read the rest of this entry
therangerzone.com 