Rangers Pre-season Recap: Bruins 2 Rangers 1

definitely think del zotto and gilroy made strong impressions on making the team. as i said earlier the offensive side of mdz i expected but he was very sound defensively in the zone and in the neutral zone as well. impressed with the toughness lisin showed in his play.

loved what i saw from grachev as well but i dont see a spot for him on the roster and i dont want him up as a 4th liner nor do i want them to make AA a 4th liner. if dubi doesnt come back then there is a spot for him, but otherwise im not seeing it. lines as i see them right now with dubi here. the only move that i could see would be leaving AA in Hartford. no dubi and i think grachev makes the team without a problem depending on what they would get in return.

Prospal – Dubi – Gaborik
Higgins – Drury- Kotalik
Avery – Artem – Cally
Brashear – Boyle – Lisin

w/ dubi and AA in hartford

Avery – Dubi – Gaborik
Higgins – Dury – Kotalik
Grachev – Prospal – Cally
Brashear – Boyle – Lisin.

no dubi
Avery – Prospal -Gaborik
Higgins – Drury – Kotalik
Grachev – Artem – Cally
Brashear – Boyle – Lisin.

all spec obviously at this point but i think somewhat informed at least to what torts is thinking to start camp based on how he broke down the groups and lines he used tonight.

Can’t wait for tomorrow. Wonder if Gabs is going to suit up for the Devils game. I’m very impressed with MDZ, Gilroy and Grachev, I feel Anisomov could’ve skated better though. The Russian line was something I was excited about, Lisin played well. I was just loving MDZ and Gilroys 2way play throught the game.

Lisin will be completely wasted on the 4th line.

And early in the game, the Rangers looked like they were trying to find their legs. As the game went on (and they weren’t on the penalty kill) they found the legs and definitely had the edge in play – and were overall quicker and stronger (skating wise).

Some good things – and you can see where the “safe is death” style will be exciting. It will also cause some ‘heart in your throat’ moments when you’re giving up two- and three-on-ones because of a freak bounce or deflection…… it’s going to be Cardiac City.

MDZ and gilroy looked damn good tonight. Both showed poise and comfort in the offensive zone and were good on defense. Lisin looks like he is determined to have tortorella give him power play time. He could be the player to lead the rush on the pp….. His stick handling skills looked great and he battled to every loose puck. Seeing higgins score was a great sign too. I wasn’t terribly I’mpressed with drury … He looked a bit sluggish…. Gotta love the loyalty of ranger faithful booing brashear every shift…. That will change after he defends gabby and knocks out pronger. He’s like avery… Hate him against you…. Love em when he’s yours.

Well, I’m seeing some things the same and some very different. Before I begin, I have to say I was more consumed with making sure my wife and I had prime seats to watch our son play at intermission, but after that I was pretty focused.

I thought Grachev looked great!!! He was rough and tough with a couple of solid hits and battled hard. He skated well and was always involved.

Gilroy looked solid in the D-zone and very good in the offensive end. He skates as well as anyone, with or without the puck.

Drury, Lisin and AA didn’t really make an impression. I didn’t have the benefit of TV announcers pointing out some new faces and new numbers so I can only say I didn’t really notice them at all. If not for his size and penalty, Semenov would have gone unnoticed as well.

Brashear got boo-ed whenever he touched the puck, but immediately cheered as soon as he threw a check. I don’t believe in boo-ing anyone on my team, but I can’t cheer for him either.

I wasn’t as impressed with MDZ as others. I felt he was out of position frequently, turned the puck over and was a defensive liability. If not for Valiquette, MDZ and Girardi would have been a -3 in the first period. It wasn’t all bad, he’s clearly a good skater, handles the puck well and flashed his playmaking ability. I’m hoping he’s just getting familiar with the speed of the NHL.

Yes it’s early, a lot will change, but tonight did nothing to relieve my fear of our penalty kill.

I do have to say, this is going to be a fun team to watch. They are tough, gritty, physical, fast(relatively speaking) and much more open. Hopefully my distractions gave me a somewhat tilted view.

Is it just me, or was there no one really a standout to be cut? I know it’s just the first game but cuts will be made after tomorrow.

I hadn’t seen too much of him before tonight, but I’m super stoked he’s with us. It seemed like he played very well in front of the net. It was hard to move him around and he was great with deflections. I’m going to have to stop saying “Sather can ‘Kotalik’ my balls” after I saw some of his shots from the point. Rockets. Our powerplay will be reborn this year.

 that they had Lisin’s age listed at 27? Weird.

i know its only preseason but i didn’t like what i saw for the most part. i thought boyle and byers were really bad and lisin looked lost on some plays. i did like the way the higgins drury kotalik line played as well as the dmen but i cant say much for anyone else … Grachev looked pedestrian to me at best and i really thought cally playing with brashear was a waste because thier not going to play together in the season. Brashear was garbage by the way. Anisimov doesn’t look capable of centering the Gaborik line, so when tortarella thought he or Duby could he must think its clearly one sided now, with Ani playing the third line. I know i’m being critical on just one game and about 8 other starters didn’t play so it didn’t matter how the young forwards did but i wasn’t impressed with them.

i was generally impressed with the team.. not many people actually stod out to me.. id say gilroy played very well, and i enjoyed kotalik SHOOTING on the PP..

i think we need to put a big body infront of the net on the PP..

our PK was good.. it stopped like 5 of 6 or something.. and the only goal PP goal for the bruins was sick.. awesome pass..

grachev disssapointed.. not because he played “bad” but because he didnt seem to be much of a factor… same with AA and lisin..

i think brashear actually played a good game.. i mean seriously, compared to orr he has way more hockey skills. he hit hard and was in position a lot to make a play.. he also had one play where he centered the puck and it slid through just outside the crease..

who else is there that actually stuck out.. i thought both goalies played well.. sememnov had a very solid game.. sauer wasnt noticeable but for a defensive defensemen that might be good..

higgins/drury/kotalik line seemed to kick ass everytime they were on the ice.. very impressive..

gilroy looked very good defensively and del zotto did too.. although i felt he found himsef out of position more than once… might not of been him though because i couldnt see names during the first period, but then we moved down to like 3rd row center ice.. good stuff…

anyone else realize were a HUGE team.. anisimov boyle brashaer byers grachev and maccarone were all huge…

as the game went on we became a better team.. and that line played very well so those were very godo indiciations..

anyone else find it absolutely ridiculous that the refs ruin a game by calling a BS goalie inteference with 1 min to go in the gme… actually.. it sounds just like them.. welcome back nhl officiating ;)))

Heikkinen is playing for Hartford tomorrow, interesting.

Forgot to mention,

As Walker… pointed out, Kotalik’s shot from the point is fantastic. That will definitely help the PP.

Maccarone looks like a 1980 porn star with that cheesy mustache.

And I didn’t have a problem with the goalie interference call… although I’d like to have the benefit of the replay. I was sitting behind the Bruin’s net and it seemed like a solid call to me.

I’m disappointed we could only muster 1 goal against their back-up goaltender.

Still early, can’t wait to sit back with the remote and a beer tonight.

The only 2 goals we let up in the game were on the penalty kill. Granted the first period was terrible since they were in the box so often. But being at the game @ MSG, I can tell you we can really fell the loss of Betts/Sjostrom when the Bruins scored twice on the power play. I’m hoping it’s just because we didn’t have a full roster, but we have to be better in that department to win games, especially if we’re going to take that many penalties.
That’s what I got out of the game more or less that hasn’t been said already. I’m surprised nobody has mentioned this.