Gaborik-less Rangers visit St. Paul

October 30, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Let the Halloween jokes commence. Yes, already on All Hallow’s Eve, former Wild superstar Marian Gaborik will miss a second consecutive game when his new Ranger teammates pay a visit to St. Paul tonight.

But while that might get a rise out of the Excel Energy Center, there’s not much else for Wild fans to get excited about. Not with a 3-9 start that has them dead last in the West having scored just 26 goals. However, all the success has come at home where Todd Richards’ club is 3-1. So, they’ve at least treated the hometown fans well. It’s an 0-8 away record that has them off to a bad start.

It would help if Gaborik’s replacement, Martin Havlat was pulling his weight. Instead, another injury prone star has gone pointless in his last seven while posting only a goal and four helpers with an ugly minus-10 rating. The 28 year-old former Blackhawk who put up his finest season last year has missed two games due to a balky groin. Oh. The irony. Perhaps that’s why he’s struggled. It can’t just be cause I drafted him. But I digress.

As for Gaborik, until this knee ailment kept him out Wednesday, he’d been worth every penny of the five-year $37.5 million the Rangers invested, scoring 10 goals and 18 points over a cool dozen. Not bad. Rather than rush back for a game you know he’d love to play in front of a familiar setting, The Big Ticket skated and decided his knee wasn’t where it had to be. So, he’ll miss another game and aim for Sunday’s Garden matinee versus the Bruins.

“It would be nice to play, but I don’t want to put myself into position of it getting worse,” the 27 year-old Slovak acknowledged of missing the chance to play versus former ‘mates where he’s the franchise leader in games played (502), goals (219), assists (218) and 437 points. That included the memorable five-goal virtuoso performance versus the Rangers on Dec.20, 2007:

Ironically, Aaron Voros was there to celebrate the hat trick and fourth goals while our fearless captain Chris Drury was the culprit on No.5. Good God. Can you tell how I feel towards Dru? Pretty easy to figure out. Well, at least Gabby is happy.

“I really like our system. We’re a fast team. We’re skating a lot,” The Big Ticket boasted. “I think the Eastern Conference is a little different. It’s not as much tight hockey, especially throughout the neutral zone.”

Unfortunately, Gaborik’s not the only one out with both Sean Avery and Christopher Higgins joining him up in the press box. The Rangers recalled Dane Byers from Hartford and Donald Brashear’s back. In other words, this could be a bad night. Pierre Parenteau gets another game and hopefully, Artem Anisimov will finally see an increase in ice-time. If he doesn’t, something’s wrong.

Henrik Lundqvist is in again against one of the league’s best Niklas Backstrom, who always gives his team a chance. Already John Tortorella is going away from what he promised, relying too heavily on Lundqvist in a condensed Olympic year. He has been repeatedly run over while no one comes to his aid. A bad problem to have.

The Wild do have new captain Mikko Koivu, who’s tied for the club lead in scoring with Eric Belanger with each having 10 points. But eight of Mikko’s points have come on the power play, meaning he’s a glaring minus-12. Top defender Brent Burns has also not fared well in that department with a team worst minus-13 but has picked it up lately with four of his five points coming in the last five. Ageless Andrew Brunette is off to another good start leading them with seven goals.

The Wild also have vets Owen Nolan, Petr Sykora and recently acquired Chuck Kobasew but they’re all out to poor starts along with Antti Miettinen (0-4-4). Minnesota badly needs more from youngsters James Sheppard and Benoit Pouliot. Especially with team leader Pierre-Marc Bouchard sidelined by headaches.

If things get chippy, they’re plenty tough with hit machine Cal Clutterbuck and Derek Boogaard. In other words, the Blueshirts might be wise to steer clear of trouble. Though with both Brash and Byers in along with punching bag Voros, this game could get testy.

We’ll see how it goes.

Game: Rangers vs Wild

Time: 8 ET/7 CT

Where: MSG2