Friday, December 10, 2010

Daily Recap: Worst Moves This Offseason; Eminger Transformation; Blue Jackets Preview; Prospect Updates; Sauer Goal/Lundqvist Save Video


Today was a combination of looking back and looking ahead.  This morning I took a look back at the summer for the New York Rangers which has been mostly praised for the moves that were made.  I took a look at the players/moves that might not fall so much on the good side of the ledger and which one might be the worst of all of them so see who did and did not make the list, who I chose as the worst move of all and share your opinions on who you would pick.

Later I looked at a move that to start the season I might have put on that list of either worst moves or at least guys to get out of here in looking at Steve Eminger.  After discussing what the initial expectations for Eminger were, the frustration with his awful play in the preseason and early regular season I looked at how he has transformed from dreadful to an invaluable member of the defense for this club.  I looked at the role Eminger played both in filling in for Rozsival and how he played a major role in the decision to sit MDZ against Ottawa.  Also there is an update on his injury from last game.

In looking forward I previewed tomorrow’s game and how the Rangers are looking for two straight against the originally surging and now sliding Columbus Blue Jackets who just sent 2008 1st round pick Nikita Filatov down to the AHL to get his game together.  In the pregame I laid out my keys to the game and how the Blue Jackets present the Rangers with an issue they have struggled to deal with all year, so check it out and see what that is.

Finally there were two pieces of business that carried over from yesterday with one being the video of Michael Sauer game winner along with Henrik Lundqvist robbery of Mike Fisher from last night’s game and the other being my reaction to the NHL not disciplining Matt Carkner for his blood flicking incident last night as it was a disgrace to the game.  How the NHL plans on being taken seriously when they cannot consistently discipline players is beyond me.

In prospect news just a boxscore rundown:
Horak 3A (all on PP)
McIlrath 1A +3
Thomas  1G +1
Werek scoreless