Adam Hall was quietly having a very, well, quiet pre-season -- until last night. Then, in a match where a Ranger team half full of non-NHL players was competing evenly with, or maybe even outplaying, what was close to the Boston Bruins' opening night NHL line-up, Hall burst up the middle, feathered a gorgeous pass past Zdeno Chara to break Martin Straka free, and then drove to the net past Chara to get to the rebound, backhanding the second rebound in for the only goal in a 1-0 game. That made Hall the center of attention after the game, even slightly more so than Henrik Lundqvist, who pitched his second pre-season shutout in as many games and has yet to be scored on in 120 minutes of action.
"I try to use my size any way I can," Hall said about the way he scored the goal and the way he plays the game. "Especially in the corners, in front of the net, finishing checks, protecting the puck. Going in front of the net is one of the things I try to focus on. That's one thing we stress with our attack. When you drive the middle lane like that, you go to the net, it blows the defense back, it opens up a lot of space for your teammates, it creates a lot of offense -- and you never know what's going to be laying around there."
Tom Renney echoed Hall's explanation. "The way Adam plays should allow others to play to their strengths, and certainly going to the net is one of his," said the head coach during his post-game press conference. "As he bears down on the goaltender, it's not just the puck that the goaltender and the defense have to worry about -- he's coming there and stopping, so there's more to deal with. You hope that it becomes contagious, part of the fabric of our team."
Both Hall and Renney also spoke about the winger's versatility. "He's an intelligent player," Renney said. "He's got a better set of hands than I would've known. He does have a touch that's not necessarily pretty, but it's very effective. He's one of those guys who will be versatile for us, who we'll be able to use in a number of different matters whether it's on the power or penalty killing and then five on five. I think he can swing through any line and bring his game to that line."
"You try and find your niche," Hall said. "You try and find the way you can best help the team. I've got experience playing a lot of different positions, a lot of different situations. I just try to be as consistent as possible, know the system and execute the system, be accountable to the things they're stressing."
Last night, Hall was one of a plethora of young players who stood out against a Boston team that looks like it is going to have a long season -- the additions of Chara, the one-time Islander, and former Ranger Marc Savard are not going to help given how thin the rest of their line-up is. The two co-winners of the Lars-Erik Sjoberg Award for best rookie in training camp, Nigel Dawes and Brandon Dubinsky, both played very well, with Dawes earning third star of the game (he totally blew by Chara on one solo rush), and Dubinsky playing a complete all-around game (he was once again dynamite in the face-off circle, going 7-2). Jarkko Immonen checked in with his second straight superlative performance, generating a large number of scoring chances -- he had five on shots on goal in the first period alone, and went 11-1 on draws over the last two periods. And Greg Moore looked quite comfortable on a crash line with Ryan Hollweg and Colton Orr.
Returning second-year players continued to have good pre-seasons. In a game in which the Rangers dressed only four players (Straka, Hall, Kasparaitis, and Aaron Ward) who have more than one full season of NHL experience, sophomores Petr Prucha, Fedor Tyutin, the aforementioned Hollweg, and of course Lundqvist all looked even better than last season, and a couple of guys who were up and down for several years before last season -- Jason Ward and Blair Betts -- both excelled as more than just checkers in this contest. All these guys were wide-eyed hopefuls a year ago who had no clue what direction their NHL careers were headed. Now, they're confident and they're comfortable as players and as Rangers in their respective roles, as they have been since the start of training camp.
"I started to feel better right away," Lundqvist said of his pre-season. "I felt in practice the past two weeks [that] I just improved, felt better and better. I know what to expect this year. Last year I didn't know. [Now] I know the game. The things you work on during the year start to sink in, the small details of the game, you don't have to think about now during the game, it comes more natural. At the same time, it's still pre-season and the game is not as intense as it will be in a week or so. The challange this year is to improve my game and win more games."
Renney spoke after the game about Lundqvist and Tyutin, two of these second-year players, and how their first NHL experience has served as a launching point for their follow-up campaigns.
"I feel a lot more comfortable too," Renney quipped when an observer noted how comfortable Lundqvist looks in net. "He's got that year under his belt. Experience is such a great teacher, such a great reference point. He's got a calm about him now that suggests he's really in the zone. The flurry late in the game [Lundqvist stopped two point blank shots in the final ten seconds] suggests strongly that he's A+ right now. We are talking about the exhibition season, so anything can happen. But he's just so strong mentally, he's very much a driven athlete, he's very much a professional.
"He wants to make a statement every time he takes the net. And not solely on behalf of himself, he wants to make a statement on behalf of the New York Rangers. What's really neat about this team, what we hope what we're growing here, is that every single guy that pulls the jersey over his head wants to do the same thing. Our work habits are certainly noble. We don't always make the best decisions, but that's incumbent with young players in your line-up. But they want to make a statement, and the want the Rangers to be identified by playing the game in a certain way, and be respected for that. That's all about creating identity, and Henrik certainly embodies that."
Renney is happy with the way Tyutin is playing the game so far too, both physically (he plastered Shean Donovan with a hip check) and otherwise. "Fedor just plays -- you wind him up and away he goes," Renney said. "We talked to him ten days or so ago about being a more proactive player in general. He's a big strong kid, a very smart player. He positions himself well. He's got good bite to his game -- he's got a sandpaper game when he allows himself to play that way. Coming back for the second year, you just got that experience we were talking about, and I think Toots feels much better about his complete game because of that. I don't think he'll be an overly physical guy, but he'll be in the battle. But he will be a guy that can help our offense, be more proactive from the back side and helping our attack."
One guy in the same class as these other guys did not fare as well last night. One day after being handed a roster spot, Marcel Hossa did his famous disappearing act. He was very active in the first period, playing on a line with two dynamos in Prucha and Dubinsky, but he was nowhere to be seen over the last forty minutes, even as everyone else picked up their play. It occurred to us during the course of the game that the conventional wisdom on Hossa may be backwards -- does he play well in pre-season and the early season and then disappear because he can't maintain the level of effort, or does his level of effort disappear because, try as he might, his pre-season and early season efforts don't really amount to much in the final tally or final analysis? He may very well be giving up because there is nothing much coming from him in the first place.
Not to leave anyone out, defensemen Thomas Pock and Ivan Baranka both played solid games, although they did not stand out like the others. A third young defenseman, Dan Girardi, leaves us scratching our heads wondering what the coaching staff sees in him that he is still with the NHL team rather than in Hartford, where he will certainly spend the season.
Most of the game reports in the local papers today focus in Lundqvist -- see Newsday, the Journal News, and Star-Ledger (all three note as well that Jaromir Jagr will play at least one, maybe both of the last two pre-season contests). John Dellapina of the Daily News writes about Darius Kasparaitis ("one of the most important Rangers last season - as much for his comic bombast in the dressing room as his body-bombing of opposing forwards on the ice."), while Larry Brooks of the Post reports on the Marc Staal junior dilemma. Joe McDonald features Hall at NY Sports Day (and he even uses our photo of Hall!).
NYR.com game repap from the Ranger point of view, and from the Boston area, most writers shied away from the game itself -- not much of interest in the Providence Journal report or a Boston Herald blog (written by a reporter who was at the game) other than the erroneous statement that "New York also dressed the bulk of its regulars." Don't bother looking for anything in the Times -- their lead hockey story is an AP report on the Flyers' goalie (sorry, no link).
Sam Weinman has some interesting tidbits on last night's game and today's practice in his Rangers Review blog -- if you had any doubt that he was just trying to be funny the other day with his comments on Dwight Helminen, check out some of his quips today: "I’d say [Chara] looked bad tonight, but that would be an insult to bad players everywhere... Lundqvist said there wasn’t enough to do in White Plains. As a Westchester native, I find myself offended, outraged, and, of course, in complete agreement with him..." And so on in that vein.
Other news: An article on the guy we gave up for Hall in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Bruce Berlet on Alex Westlund in the Hartford Courant; Vladimir Malakhov doing more to help the Rangers as a retired Devil than he ever did as a Ranger, courtesy of the Ledger; anyone still clinging to hopes of the Rangers landing Nikolai Zherdev, fuggedaboutit.
Sports Illustrated, which famously picked the Rangers to finish 30th last season, has them coming in first in the division and second in the conference, yet has no one on their all-cap team other than Prucha as a spare (not even Lundqvist as a bargain basement elite #1 goalie). E.J. Hradek of ESPN.com goes through a similar exercise with the same results -- Prucha as a fourth liner is the best the Rangers do, although he puts Lundqvist in as goalie in his $28 million team. Ranger preview at CBS Sportsline puts the onus on Jagr, but not for the right reason -- the Rangers will be a make or break team on the strength of Jagr's shoulder.
Jess Rubenstein's CHL report (see NYR.com for more):
Bobby Sanguinetti continued his hot start to the 2006-07 season with his second goal of the young season as Owen Sound doubled up Sarnia 6-3. In three games, Sanguinetti is already 3-2-5. Owen Sound is now 2-1. In Saginaw, Tom Pyatt and Tomas Zaborsky were held scoreless by the Plymouth Whalers in a 5-1 loss. The Spirit's struggles continue as they fell to 0-3.
In the QMJHL, Marc-Andre Cliche had his second straight two-goal game as Lewiston downed Drummondville 5-3. In addition to his scoring, Cliche was an outstanding 18-8 on face-offs. Cliche now has four goals on the season along with three assists and appears to want to make a statement that last season was no fluke.
Out west in the WHL, Brodie Dupont had his second goal of the season but Calgary fell to Regina 4-1. After three games, Dupont is 2-0-2. Ryan Russell also had his second goal of the season but Kootenay lost to Lethbridge 6-3. Teammate Dalyn (Flatter) Flatt not only was scoreless but also had his first single digit PIM game. Russell is now 2-3-5 in three games. Finally, in Prince Albert, Lukas Zeliska is still searching for his first WHL point as Prince Albert lost to Red Deer 6-3.
Blueshirt Bulletin's three stars of the night: Marc-Andre Cliche, Lewiston (QMJHL), first star with two goals in the MAINEaics' 5-3 win; Bobby Sanguinetti, Owen Sound (OHL), second star for his goal in the Attack’s 6-3 win; Ryan Russell, Kootenay (WHL), third star for his second goal of the season in the Ice’s 6-3 loss.