The bridge contract has become the Bridge over the River Kwai. Blown to bits this week by general managers in Buffalo and Winnipeg who might as well have whistled while they worked at eviscerating the CBA. Because honestly, if teams are not going to exercise leverage the one time they own it when dealing with […]
Read MoreTORONTO — There is a person out there who represents a cautionary tale for Jesper Fast, and it just so happens Fast talks to him all the time. Fast is recovering from offseason hip surgery, the same type of surgery that former teammate Oscar Lindberg had last summer. The difference is that Lindberg had the […]
Read MoreThe Devils’ youth movement has a lot more going for it than No. 1 overall draft pick Nico Hischier. The Devils are three deep in the rookie department. Hobey Baker Award winner Will Butcher and Swedish import Jesper Bratt stole a lot of the spotlight from Hischier in a 4-1 season-opening victory over the Avalanche […]
Read MoreAs coach Doug Weight stood behind the Islanders’ bench Friday night for their season opener, he saw a style of play that was fast, active and unrelenting. The only problem: It wasn’t coming from his team. On Saturday night, it was. The Islanders, spurred by three goals — two shorthanded — in a 107-second span […]
Read MoreTORONTO — OK, so things are a little sloppy to start the season. But this sloppy, and this bad? The Rangers suffered a second straight loss to start their season, a dramatic 8-5 defeat at the hands of the Maple Leafs on Saturday night at Air Canada Centre. There was such dramatic defensive lapses that […]
Read MoreThe Islanders’ big offseason acquisition made himself right at home Saturday night in his first regular-season game at Barclays Center. Jordan Eberle, who came over from Edmonton in a trade for Ryan Strome, fit right in on the top line and made a dynamic duo with John Tavares in the Islanders’ 6-3 win over the […]
Read MoreTORONTO — The Rangers couldn’t even get through the first weekend of the season without having their best-laid plans spoiled. It would have been too easy for backup goalie Ondrej Pavelec just to waltz into his first regular-season action as a Ranger with his first scheduled start Sunday night at the Garden against the Canadiens. […]
Read MoreThis was a glimpse back to previous years of normalcy, with Henrik Lundqvist under the Broadway Hat, smiling and talking about the good defensive play of those in front of him. But oh, how close this was to turning the other way, to snowballing on top of the first two losses to start the regular […]
Read MoreIt had been a long, long, long time since the Rangers last opened a season with three consecutive defeats in regulation time. That was 1998-99, when Wayne Gretzky started what became the final year of his career — of which No. 99 had no inkling at the time — and Manny Malhotra, rather than Filip […]
Read MoreIt hardly would be a shock if Filip Chytil has played his final game as a Ranger for a while. After getting into the first two games of the season, the 18-year-old forward prospect was a healthy scratch for the Rangers’ 2-0 win over the Canadiens on Sunday night at the Garden. Chytil had played […]
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