After a successful trip overseas, the Rangers are back in the States and back at Madison Square Garden tonight for ther season opener against the much improved Chicago Blackhawks.

The 2008-09 Blackhawks are not the same team as the last time the Rangers played them. After drafting the highly touted Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews a couple of years ago, the Blackhawks made a big splash this offseason with the signing of defenseman Brian Campbell. Sharp and Toews showed that they can play in the NHL last season, so this season we should look for them to be even better. The defense is decent with Brent Seabrook manning the blueline, and even without Nikoli Khabibulin (still with the team), Chicago has a solid netminder in Christobal Huet.Martin Havlat and Andrew Ladd will provide some offense as well, so the Rangers should not take this team lightly.

Some changes for the Blueshirts tonight. Aaron Voros impressed the coaching staff on the trip to Prague this past week, and will now skate on the line with Brandon Dubinsky and Nik Zherdev. Nigel Dawes gets dropped down to the third line with Lauri Korpikoski and Ryan Callahan, and Fredrik Sjostrom makes his 2008 debut on the fourth line alongside Blair Betts and Colton Orr. This of course means the Petr Prucha finds himself in the press box along with Patrick Riismiller and Dan Fritche. Head coach Tom Renney did say that all of those scratched today would be getting into the seven games that the Rangers have over the next eleven days, but that is barring any trades. There is $3.4 million in salary sitting in the press box, which probably won’t last very long.

After tonight, the Rangers head to Philadelphia to take on Sarah Pallin and the rest of the Flyers.

Due to this thing called a real job in the real world, my blogging will be somewhat limited. I do enjoy doing it, though, so I will be checking in from time to time throughout each week. With Derek also recapping the Rangers on a daily basis, I have plenty of faith that any Ranger news that I do not pass along, you will get from him. Enjoy the games, and I will check back in when it calms down around here.

Here we go, folks. In just 25 minutes, the Rangers open up their 2008-2009 season against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game, as many of you know, takes place in Prague. The Rangers will be the road team today and the home team tomorrow in the rematch and second half of the opening weekend.

Derek wrote previously that Petr Prucha would be a scratch in his homeland. That has since been changed, much to mine and I’m sure Derek’s delight. Dan Fritche, Patrik Riismiller and Fredrick Sjostrum will be the scratches. Corey Potter, Brian Fahey and Miika Wiikamin were the last roster cuts, so the team you see tonight will be your 2008-09 Rangers, at least to start.

Don’t have anything definative, but here’s what tonight’s lines could look like based on practice this week:

Naslund - Gomez - Drury

Zherdev - Dubinsky - Dawes

Prucha - Koripkoski - Callahan

Voros - Betts - Orr

I’m not exactly sure on the defense pairings, but I expect it to look like this:

Staal - Rozsival

Girardi - Redden

Mara - Kalinen

Not really close to the lineups I said I expected to see a week ago, but if these lines can create some chemistry and work hard, they will produce goals. Expect a much faster pace to this game than what we’ve seen from the Rangers the past few years, with several more end-to-end rushes, quick scoring chances and play turning around and coming the other way. The Lightning are a completely different team, but they looked good in the preseason, so the Rangers cannot take them lightly.

Enjoy the game. Hopefully we kick off the season right.

Hello all, I have just made my return from europe and have some new pictures of Jon Krawczyk’s sculpture as it makes its journey across the US of A to the ROCK!

Looks good!  The sculpture should have arrived in NJ today to coincide with the opening of Mr. Krawczyk’s gallery opening in Manhattan.

To see the other posts you can find them here:

http://www.battleofny.com/2008/08/11/bony-exclusive-the-final-pieces/

http://www.battleofny.com/2008/08/03/bony-exclusive-leg-up/

http://www.battleofny.com/2008/07/30/bony-exclusive-its-all-coming-together/

Imagine you’re 18 years old and had worked so hard just to get to this point playing the game you loved hoping one day to make it and get drafted by an NHL team only to find out that your dream was over before it began.

That’s unfortunately what happened to David Carle as the younger brother of Tampa Bay defenseman Matt Carle found out during testing that he had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM)- a rare condition where the heart thickens and could lead to sudden cardiac death due to overexertion.

Just like that, Carle knew his NHL ambitions were over with a family advisor informing teams not to draft him as it would be a wasted pick due to the unusual circumstance. However, with the 2008 Entry Draft winding down in Ottawa, his brother’s new team decided to select him regardless in the seventh round 203rd overall. Their reasoning was that he had worked too hard not to get drafted even informing him that they selected him for the person he was.

“(Tampa Bay co-owner) Oren (Koules) called and told me I worked too hard in my life to not get drafted and he just said to worry about staying healthy,” the younger Carle recalled during an NHL.com feature on the former prospect making the most of the unorthodox situation.

“He told me he drafted me more for the person I am.”

A very noble gesture on the part of the new Tampa Bay Lightning management who were fortunate enough to scoop up Steven Stamkos first overall.

Carle had earned a scholarship to the University of Denver. Instead, with his playing days behind him, they’ve decided to honor that scholarship and make him a special assistant coach allowing the freshman to still be part of the team. Just in a different capacity than was originally expected.

Still, it wasn’t lost on him what it meant for his younger brother to at least have such a unique opportunity over the next four years at his alma mater who he helped win a national title with as well as a Hobey Baker Award as college’s top player.

You know folks, I attempted to write a post for this site a couple days ago. A way to get me back into the fray here at the site I created, Battle of New York. I realized that I had been gone so long, that I did not know how to work the Wordpress system to get it published.

So I sat there in my office. And I suddenly realized, “Through my own fault, I just don’t matter here anymore”.

It comes with heavy heart that I announce that I am officially quitting Battle of New York for good, effective immediately.

There are some people to thank. Lenny, Hasan and Grosek (who will always be Clown Banner to me, but who cares) for doing an admirable job while I slept, wrote for other blogs and was genuinely lazy.

And of course, I thank Derek, who shaped this site into what it is more than even I did. I thank you for taking my idea and running with it, you’ve done a hell of a job.

Who really knows though, I may just come back someday. Seems to be all I ever do. But it’d only be if I knew I could truly make an impact here, and that’s just not the case at this point in time.

See you soon, folks.

-Steve

BUFFALO NY 7/3/08 (battleofny.com)- In the midst of a spending $pree that has run ramped throughout the NHL, Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier has decided to ‘give into the cravings’ and make a big score of his own.

Multiple reliable sources (which immediately rules out Eklund) have reported that Darcy Regier and the Buffalo Sabres has obtained a box of ‘Timbits’ from Tim Horton’s.  “Very tasty” said an enlightned, and full Darcy Regier “tastes delicious, maybe I will get Lindy one with a coffee next time I go”

When Regier was asked about the Sabres activity in NHL Free Agency, he asked “Wait, it started?” Please stay tuned for more breaking news from Western New York!

Hello all.

I have not posted in quite some time. College graduation, full time summer job and a little bit of relaxing and celebrating took over for about a month and unfortunately, I put this blog on the back burner.

I have now returned, ready for the free agency period to begin. There are some great stories and posts below, which should have kept you up to date. The NHL versus the Dolans and the Rangers, Mats Sundin as a potential NYR target this offseason and a whirlwind of trades are all covered below.

In the last few days, there have been numerous newsworthy items coming out of Ranger camp. On paper the Rangers made some quality picks in the draft, including Evgheny Grachev, who may have been a steal in the draft according to several analysts. The prospects and recent draft picks are in New York now, working out in a mini-training camp.

Also coming out in the last couple of days, Marty Straka may have fled the NHL and moved back to the Czech League. The Rangers are currently denying it, and no one knows for sure, but several sources have said that he has in fact left the league. I am a huge fan or Straka’s hustle and work ethic, but it appeared last year that his best years may be behind him. Should the Rangers resign Jaromir Jagr, and this signing isn’t official yet, I would expect Straka back in Broadway blue.

Speaking of Jagr; There have been unofficial reports of him getting a contract offer from Omsk in the Czech League in the neighborhood of three years, $35 million. That may be two years and $30 million more than the Rangers are willing to offer him, so if it’s money that the Rangers’ captain wants, he may no longer be with the team either.

One of the more surprising stories that came out of yesterday was that Mats Sundin was prepared to sign a two year, $5 million deal with the Rangers on July 1st. I didn’t see the story, but it was apparently first reported on ESPN.com. That story has since been removed and it said to be untrue. Should the Rangers sign him, either Chris Drury or Brandon Dubinsky would shift to a wing, most likely on the top line. Personally, I say pass on him and spend the money on a solid, physical defender.

Other news around the league, Brian Rolston may in fact become available on July 1, as talks have broken down between him and the Minnesota Wild. Barry Melrose was named coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning and soon after Vinny Lecavlier was signed to a massive, extremely smart deal. Brooks Orpik also became the latest Pittsburgh free agent to reject offers from the club. Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa and Ryan Malone were the previous members of the team to do so.

Free agency is only a few days away, which means things could get real interesting, real soon. Sources are saying the Nigel Dawes and Stephen Valiquette are already resigned, but those won’t be announced until after the big rush of free agency is over. (P.A. Parenteu was resigned the other day.) I don’t expect much to happen in the next couple of days, and anything that comes out will most likely be strictly speculation. I do expect the free agent period to be hectic on the first day, probably within the first few hours, much like it was last year. I don’t expect the big Gomez and Drury-like splash this year, but we could make a decent impact.

Tune back in this week for more updates which will hopefully include a resigning of Sean Avery, a reduced role for Brendan Shanahan, an acquisition of a physical defenseman and the resigning of other, smaller role players. Until then…

Fans are sometimes very difficult to figure out: When a player ‘takes the high road’ and says some things that the media and the fans want to hear, that is generally accepted as being perfectly ok, even if what the player said is a complete lie. And there are some players who will say exactly what is on his mind, and fans jump on that player for being selfish, etc.

So now let me understand this correctly, lying > telling the truth when it comes to how a player feels? Ok, the memo has been received (sarcasm off).

As for players like the great Dominik Hasek, telling what is on his mind has never been an issue.

Hasek made mention that he was not able to enjoy the 2008 Stanley Cup with the Red Wings as he was in 2002 when he was a starter, Dom drew the grumblings from the ‘Dom haters’ and called him selfsh.  Hasek is a perfectonist, a person who is competitive to the point of madness.

“I don’t feel today that I’m ready to compete on the highest level,” Hasek said during a news conference at Joe Louis Arena. “Not because of the physical things, but because I need motivation every day. … Right now I don’t feel it’s there, and I don’t want to disappoint anybody.”

Dominik Hasek: The man people call “The Dominator”, who boasts a trophy case that most players can only dream of: 6 Veniza Trophies, 2 Hart Trophies, 1 Gold Medal (Nagano 1998) and two Stanley Cups (one as a starter). A man who help completely how European goaltenders are received. When Hasek became a starter for the Buffalo Sabres in 1993-1994, he only had one other NHL counterpart starting with him in net who was European (Irbe). Now, Euro goalies are accepted throughout today’s NHL, and many of them have Mr. Hasek to thank for pavng the way for their acceptance.

I dare a goalie coach to attempt to emulate Hasek’s style, it unquestionably was a style unique to his own.  Flopping all over the place, the stick would leave his hand quite often.  I mean think about how much Hasek worked at his craft: I remember reading an article by Darren Pang years ago that Dom spent over an hour n practice working on making saves with his head! (Maybe that explains Dom’s personalty after all!)

As for Hasek’s legacy as a Buffalo Sabre, that will be as unpredictable as his unique style of goaltending: some fans like myself remember the great times: Those nights when the Sabres would be completely out shot and somehow, this lanky Czech goaltender took this team on his back and almost willed the team to a improbable win, the exciting highlight reel saves, and the simple word Hasek gave Sabres fans from 1994-2001. Hope.

Other Sabres fans cannot get past the way Hasek left town in 2001, ‘orchestrating’ his deal out of Buffalo was a tough pill to swallow, leaving a bitter taste even to this day.  While I would be lying if I said the way Hasek left did not bother me, but remember ‘it takes two to tango’ and maybe Sabres management should have showed some backbone and not give in to Hasek’s demands, but expecting that out of Sabres management (we all know who the problem REALLY is HINT: Quinn) is sometimes like asking for gold to fall out of the sky.

I also get a chuckle of how some of the fans from our friends up North reacted to Hasek’s retrement accounement on tsn.ca. Hasek was overrated, I never liked him, he was lucky…lucky??? I guess 81 SHO’s and 389 career wins and basically starting his career at 28 (imagine if Hasek got his chance at 22-23 when he should have, what his numbers would be) means it is all luck.  From my vantage point, it appears some of the spoiled fans up North have not recovered from the incredible performance Hasek turned in for the Czech Republic in the 1998 Winter Olympics en route to a Gold Medal.  Get over it!

So if I had some Hasek Hot Sauce left (yes, I did buy a bottle!) I would marinate a steak in your honor tonight Dom, and I would eat dessert first and have nothing to drink with the meal.  Sounds unusual?  Sounds unorthodox?  Sounds delicious?  That is exactly the way Hasek would like it.  And that is how I enjoyed watching Dominik Hasek play in net.

Cheers Dom, and thanks for the memories!

Copyright CBC HNIC 

If you bleed puck, then you’re quite familiar with the ever popular Hockey Night In Canada (HNIC) theme which comes on the airwaves for us Center Icers. To a diehard like myself, it means that the great game of hockey is upon us and we’re about to see a couple of the Canadian teams on a near flawless broadcast which presents the game like no other.

It means Ron MacLean and the eccentric Don “Grapes” Cherry in one of his off the wall outfits which only the former Boston Bruins coach can pull off. It’s hockey the way it should be with the game covered amazingly. From the great telecasts to the uncomparable intermission segments featuring Coach’s Corner where the controversial Cherry pulls no punches telling it like it is to the Hockey Hot Stove where even former Ranger P.J. Stock has fit in becoming a solid analyst, HNIC is special for so many of us.

Now comes the news that they are actually considering changing the timeless HNIC theme. How do you alter that song? It’s become like a second national anthem for all of Canada and for puck fans all across the land. Why must there always be change when it comes to covering sports? Are these people kidding? Have they lost their freaking minds?!?!?!?!?! Sometimes, change works but if you got something as special as this beloved theme, you don’t mess around with it ticking off legions of hockey fans today who like myself can’t fathom the news that they would consider changing the legendary HNIC song.

Already there’s been a group created on Facebook centered around saving the song with a petition which yours truly signed. I’m urging everyone who reads this blog to go sign that petition and make yourselves heard. This cannot happen!

That theme song for as nuts as it might sound means so much to the hockey community. Please do the right thing and add your name voicing your opinion about what the Hockey Night In Canada theme which has been part of the fabric of the NHL for 40 years means.

We must be heard! And remember, Grapes would be proud.

A couple of days ago either Sam Weisman or Steve Zipay wrote about how the trend in the offseason following the Stanley Cup finals is to try and adopt the winning team’s style of play. When Anaheim won, the league got tougher, when Carolina won, the league got faster. Whoever wrote the entry on their blog wrote that the league will try and emulate Detroit’s puck possession style of play, but I pose a question. While Detroit is a highly skilled team, how do you mimic the amount of chemistry they have as a team?

Sure, Detroit is a highly skilled team. They aren’t a team of elite talent though. Mikael Samuelsson is an important part of this team, Henrik Zetterberg has quietly become one of the most underrated players in the league and the defense is led by old-timers Nick Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski on the blue line and Chris Osgood between the pipes. One thing is apparent, however. This team functions as one well oiled machine. It looks like each player knows exactly where the others will be at any given time, and mistakes by one player are quickly overlooked because another player covers up and bails them out.

Even if Pittsburgh pulls out a triple overtime (or more) win tonight, Detroit is too good as a team to lose four games to any opponent. Chemistry is the main reason why they will be the victors of Lord Stanley’s Cup this year, if you ask me.

In the coming weeks, we’ll see what teams opt to do. Does Ottawa rid themselves of  Ray Emery to try and recapture some locker room sanity? Do the Rangers keep Michal Roszival, Martin Straka and Brendan Shanahan just to keep Jaromir Jagr, who looks like he’ll be back next season, happy?  Will new ownership cause the Tampa Bay Lightning to upset the tandem of Martin St. Louis, Vinny Lecavlier and Dan Boyle? We shall see. Until then, enjoy this amazing hockey game.