Obviously no game today, but there are no days off here, so there were plenty of potential conversation pieces to go through on the site today. The day started off with one asking if Marian Gaborik and his presence is actually holding back the progression of Brandon Dubinsky. In seeking an answer or at least to flush out the thought process I looked at my observations of differences in Dubinsky’s play with and without Gaborik in the lineup along with how his number do or do not change based on when Gaborik plays and how that coincides with Dubinsky’s minutes. The full article can be found here.
After that I dealt with the latest Rangers rumor, this one involving the team potentially dealing out Matt Gilroy. The idea of the team trading Gilroy away when he is almost assuredly going back to the press box as soon as tomorrow if Gaborik and/or Boogaard can dress is a very feasible one. The problem I had with the rumor was not the idea of Gilroy getting dealt but acting like he actually had some value right now when the organization has killed it for two years. The full article is here.
This afternoon I took a look at the debut game for the rebranded Connecticut Whale in which a huge crowd showed up for what turned out to be an exciting game that ended with the Whale pulling out the win in a shootout. Full details of the game and highlights can be found here.
There were a couple of posts unrelated to the Rangers today on the site which I rarely do, but hey it was Sunday. The first was about the joke that has become Lebron and the Heat when he bumped his coach in a timeout last night. The point of the post was not just to whine about Lebron but to seriously ask if anyone could see a disgrace like that happening between a coach and player in the NHL during a game. I could definitely see it in a locker room or in the press, whatever on that, but in the arena cannot see that happening in the NHL. Share your thoughts and see the video here.
The other non-Rangers related post today was about Evander Kane and how he might be the best fighter in the NHL not that he is a high volume fighter or any of that, but his combination of balance, speed and power is scary. There were videos of today’s fight where he tagged Matt Hunwick early in the fight, but Hunwick would to his credit hold on during the scrap. There was also a video that should make every Rangers fan happy in watching Kane knock out Matt Cooke. The commentary and both fight videos are here.
In a change of pace because the pregame threads were getting lost in the shuffle I decided that on non-game days where the Rangers played the next day I would put the pregame out the night before to let people see it. So tonight I put out a preview of tomorrow’s game against the Penguins where the Rangers will be going for their third straight win while the Pens will be seeking seven in a row. The full preview can be found here.
Finally I updated the prospect stats page through the games completed today, so check out how all the kids are doing here.
