1. Solid win last night by the Rangers at the Garden over the Islanders. Upon reading Melissa’s recap, I hadn’t realized that it’s been nearly two years since the Rangers have beaten the Isles at home, which is almost unbelievable. Regardless, it’s a good jumping off point for a team that didn’t have too many of them last season. The main storyline coming off last night is deservedly off Kreider’s performance. It’s do or die now for Kreider. At the end of last season, I seriously questioned privately whether or not he’d put it altogether at all. Kreider’s go-ahead goal was a positive start, but he needs more of those games now consistently moving forward. Playing off of Buchnevich just might be the thing Kreider has been looking for.
2. I didn’t possibly think that AV was going to go through with Nash on the third line with Hayes and Miller for the whole game, and yet it happened. I’m curious to see how much longer that lasts for… Considering how bad Hayes is historically with faceoffs, I was stunned to see that line assigned to the Tavares line from the beginning, although that didn’t last very long into the first period when Stepan and after the Rangers went up 2-0, the fourth line to some degree. The other half of this is the play of Jimmy Vesey who was steady in his first game up top with Stepan and Zuccarello. Hopefully AV preaches patience with the kids while they find their way.
3. In case you missed this from yesterday, former NYR Wojtek Wolski suffered a serious neck and spine injury in the KHL after sliding face first into the boards while battling for a puck. Wolski reportedly fractured two vertebrae which will obviously cause him to miss the rest of the season, although he’s expected to make a full recovery. You can watch the clip here if you’d like, although I wouldn’t suggest it for the squeamish.
4. Lastly and most important. Monday is the day when the NYR Blog moves to a new site which will have a new domain name, which means <crosses fingers> no one will have to update their bookmarks or have any issues if nyrangersblog.com doesn’t properly forward to the new site once the changeover occurs. So Saturday will be typical, we’ll still have the Gameday Thread and recap tomorrow night. We’re gonna take Sunday and Monday off while I wait for the changeover to occur and once that’s complete, the Gameday Thread for Monday night’s game against the Sharks will be posted and hopefully it will be business as usual from there forward.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been effectively managing two websites getting ready for this and I’m more than ready to be back to managing one. If for whatever reason you’re not already, I would recommend following the blog on Facebook here for any updates and issues that might arise. Also, follow the NYR Blog team on twitter between myself, Melissa and Mike in case things don’t go smoothly on Monday.
(Photo credit: Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
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