Time To Ban Those Fishing Trips With Sinden

So the early word out of Rangers camp is that the organization wants more productivity out of the fourth line. Blair Betts in particular. Um, OK, I may not pay as close attention to all of the nuances of the Rangers like I used to but it seems to me that dumping on a hard-working, reliable, shot-blocking forward who is an anchor on your penalty killing unit is a dumb way to open camp.

So of course Sather follows it up by doing what he always does when in doubt: picking up another talented, soft forward with a questionable work ethic. Hello Petr Nedved, we never missed you while you were gone. Yes, the masterstroke to force Blair Betts into scoring more goals is to dig Petr Nedved out from the bottom of God-knows-what European league scrap heap he was quietly moldering in. Sounds like genius to you too, right? I mean seriously, Alexdander Daigle wasn't available? Alexei Yashin wanted too much money? If you're really going to put pressure on Betts, how about bringing in a similar gritty, shot blocking, penalty killing physical player with solid leadership ability who can still score a little? Hmmm...let me think...anyone out there in UFA land who fits that bill, maybe somebody who wore #14 in a few different cities, hmmm.....(I know he's a winger, but you get the point).

It feels weird to be this into hockey on September 23rd, but I think this is going to be an exciting season. The Habs are poised to be a contender though they have a bit of a depth problem on D and fingers crossed that Carey Price rebounds from his decline at the end of last season. The team is celebrating it's 100th season and I'm going to be fortunate enough to be in town the day they retire the number of the greatest goaltender of the modern era, Patrick Roy. Not so fortunate as to get tickets alas, but I'll be in some drinking establishment either right next to the old Forum (appropriate, I think) or near the current arena, haven't decided yet. We did manage to get tickets for one of the Super Bowl weekend games (Saturday against LA) this year so that tradition will be upheld once again. Just as well we missed out on the Sunday game, it'll save a vacation day Monday and doing the road trip home during the Super Bowl usually keeps traffic down.


The Rangers on the other hand are a complete mystery to me. I suspect they will be anything but mediocre. Losing Jagr at this point was addition by subtraction (both at the cap level and the ice level) and the additions of Naslund (anything left?) and Redden (ditto) are intriguing. Lundqvist is in camp complaining about his knees, that ain't good. I like this Del Zotto kid on D from what I've seen so far but he's not ready yet. Seems to me the Rangers are either going to be very good, or the season will look something like this:

Saturday night was highlighted by me yelling at the TV while the Mrs. sat quietly reading at the game. I kept saying "did you see this?" or "did you see that" and she would sigh and gently tell me that she doesn't get wound up about the first preseason game. In any sport. Ah why not, that's what sports are there for. To wind you up about unimportant junk that keeps your mind off of the terrible crap that is important that you're powerless to control. That's how it works for me, anyway.