NHL Preseason: News and Notes from Day 2 of New York Rangers Training Camp

Day two of the New York Rangers training camp came and went as quick as this fall-like day in New York. The Rangers got back on the ice for some more conditioning and skating drills. The Rangers were in better spirits today as superstar right-winger Marian Gaborik rejoined the team after mourning the loss of best friend and former NHL player Pavel Demitra.

John Tortorella once addressed the media today after camp. In the sidebar is Tortorella's full comments but here is a basic summary:.

Tortorella was glad Gaborik is back with the team. He said it is always great to have everyone working together especially this early in the season. He commented "Gaborik had worked out while he was away from the team and that he was skating just fine."

Artem Anisimov skated today for the first time after and MRI came back negative on his knee. He commented on his situation with beat writer Jim Cerny in a report on Blueshirts United.

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 "Before camp I had a workout in the gym and something happened to my knee and it was sore. So the doctor said yesterday just to make sure that I should get the MRI, and it came up clean. I wanted to make sure, too. Now I am ready for camp." said Anisimov

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Michael Sauer did not skate for the second consecutive day due to knee tendinitis. Tortorella was a bit concerned but doesn't want to rush Sauer along.

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"Hopefully if he feels better, he’ll be in the scrimmages tomorrow. We just didn’t want him to jump into a skate like that today where he hasn’t skated a bunch. He’ll skate on his own and see how he feels ” said Tortorella

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One of the most interesting parts of Tortorella's statement in the video was in regards to the youth influx. 

Tortorella said:

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“We have to continue to try to infuse more youth into our lineup. During the summer we went in a direction that got a couple of veteran guys (Rupp, Richards). I think that’s where we are in our process after going with a really young team, still a young team.

We added some people at the other end who can mentor. But you can’t forget about back-filling with youth and growing that way. There are spots open and there’s going to be competition along the way because we want to continue to get young guys in there. So it’s a good situation for them. They have to earn it.

There’s a number of kids out there that are going to vie for a spot depending on how they play. I would be (disappointed if none made it) because it’s important for our organization to keep on trying to grow from within. But I’m not going to force feed it, either.”

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All in all it was a good day on the training camp front, but there is a cause for concern with Michael Sauer. The Rangers are deep defensively but the paring of Sauer and Ryan McDonagh was successful and cohesive last season.

Tomorrow will be the first day that the Rangers use pucks in practice. Tomorrow I will have a piece based around potential line combinations for the Rangers' first preseason game in Albany. It is going to be interesting to see how some rookies like Carl Hagelin and Ryan Bourque can intermingle with seasoned veterans like Richards, Gaborik, Dubinsky, Callahan and so on.

Here is tomorrow's schedule along with the different groups that will be on the ice.

Sunday, September 18 

9:00 a.m - 10:00 a.m.                            Group 1/Group 4 Scrimmage

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.                          Group 4 On-Ice

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.                           Group 1 On-Ice

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.                              Group 2/Group 3 Scrimmage

2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.                              Group 3 On-Ice

3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.                              Group 2 On-Ice

Group 1:

Sean Avery, Ruslan Fedotenko, Kris Newbury, Brandon Prust, Brian Boyle, Ryan Callahan, 
Erik Christensen, Mike Rupp, Steve Eminger, Dan Girardi, Ryan McDonagh, Marc Staal, 
Jonathan Audy-Marchessault, Tommy Grant, Kale Kerbashian.

Group 2:

Brandon Dubinsky, Marian Gaborik, Carl Hagelin, Dylan McIlrath, Artem Anisimov, 
John Mitchell, Brad Richards, Derek Stepan, Ryan Bourque, Andre Deveaux, Wojtek Wolski, 
Mats Zuccarello, Tim Erixon, Jordan Hickmott, Chad Kolarik, Dale Weise.

Group 3:

Lee Baldwin, Tomas Kundratek, J.T. Miller, Pavel Valentenko, Sam Klassen, Jyri Niemi, 
Jared Nightingale, Samuel Noreau, Brendan Bell, Stu Bickel, Michael Del Zotto, 
Michael Sauer, Andreas Thuresson.

Group 4:

Peter Ceresnak, Blake Parlett, Christian Thomas, Jason Wilson, Tayler Jordan, 
Shane McColgan, Michael St. Croix, Collin Bowman, Chris McKelvie, Kelsey Tessier, 
Scott Tanski, Matt Rust, Andrew Yogan, Marty Biron, Chad Johnson, Henrik Lundqvist, 
Jason Missiaen, Scott Stajcer, Cameron Talbot.

What lines would you like to see in the Rangers' first preseason game Wednesday against the Devils? Leave a comment in the section below to get the conversation going.

Special thanks to Andrew Gross, Jesse Spector, and Jim Cerny for excellent coverage and reports so far.

Tom Urtz is an NHL Featured Columnist and New York Rangers Featured Columnist.

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