Home sweet home for Rangers

By: Doug Fischer

            Now that the Prague trip is over and the team is back in New York preparing for the North American opener on Friday night, fans all over are asking the same question, Was Prague Worth It?

 

            Well, barring a noticeable amount of let-lag against the Blackhawks and Flyers this weekend the answer, as a Magic 8-Ball would say, “Absolutely Yes.” The trip did wonders on a team with plenty of question marks and we will be noticeably better as a result. 

 

            The first thing to look at is the results, we blew past SC Bern, 8-1, narrowly escaped a hungry Mettalurg team, 4-3 and beat a much improved Tampa Bay club twice.  4-0 in all and an early 4 points to start the season, can’t go wrong with that, can you?

           

            If you look at the game against Mettalurg, the Rangers gave a huge team effort, they fell behind early and a deficit that was once 3-0 was erased after goals from Chris Drury, Dan Fritsche and Drury again. With the game tied at 3, Ryan Callahan made a great play to secure the inaugural Victoria Cup and a Blueshirts victory.  After that game, people were yearning for Chris Drury to be named Captain, which he later was. 

 

            Now, onto the games against the Lightning, where the Rangers simply dominated.  They outshot Tampa 80-40 in the 2 games and although the score of each game was just 2-1, it easily could have been a lot worse. The Lightning got superb goaltending from Mike Smith on Saturday and Olaf Kolzig, Sunday. 

 

            The second period of the Sunday game stands out to me because of the supremacy I saw from the Rangers, who put 18 shots on net (including 2 goals), had at least 7 shots blocked and missed a healthy amount wide. Also, on Power Play chances they displayed their power as Tampa could never seem to get the puck out of the zone. 

 

            Wade Redden and Markus Naslund also impressed, netting their first goals as Blueshirts, which will take a huge weight off of them when they suit up at MSG on Friday.

 

            Aside from the Rangers picking up 4 points, this was also worth it for the NHL and the European fans.  The league saw great success in the Prague and Stockholm games and fans flooded arenas to catch a glimpse of the best athletes in the world. 

 

            The team would hold 45-minute practices which were made open to the public, all of which were sold out, the people in Europe understand great hockey and I can guarantee that they were more than grateful to have the NHL go over there.  The Rangers acknowledged the crowd after the Sunday game with their now traditional “stick salute” and Scott Gomez did nothing but applaud the fans upon being named the games First Star. 

 

            All of that said, the wonderful thing about this trip is that is brought the team closer together, even if they lost every game they would tell you that they are a unit now more than ever, both off the ice and on.

           Ranger teams over the past few seasons have lacked the chemistry I saw from these guys in just 2 games this weekend, hopefully it translates to great things on Broadway.

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