No Further Cuts Until After Sunday's Game

Here is the exact tweet:

"Next cuts won't come until after Sunday's game, Tortoreella says, after meeting with Sather and Schoenfeld... "

 Steve Zipay
stevezipay

Maybe Steve Zipay should learn to properly spell Tortorella's name, but maybe in all the excitement of delivering this news first he misspelled it.  In any case, Blueshirts' Brass has some difficult decisions to make over the next four days.

tdr

Cut Me, Mick...err Torts..

The first major cuts have been made to the team. Some of them could be seen a mile away. Others might seem a little premature. Still others could be seen as borderline. For right now its hard for many of us to complain as we have been screaming YOUTH YOUTH YOUTH for the last couple of seasons... and it could appear that management is listening. At at any rate, it appears Wade will have company in Hartford...

Chad Johnson - I've been pulling for this kid, since I first saw him play. Hes got a great glove hand, but there's no way he'd get enough playing time here anyway. None expected him to outshine Biron for the backup position. That softy let in against the Devils probably didn't help, especially when Torts had no faith in him to begin with. Hang in there "veint y nueve", shine in Hartford.

Dane Byers - Another kid, I've been pulling for to make the team for a while now. Better skills than he usually gets credit for; Stands up for teammates (even though he's not much of a scrapper), and he knows the basics of working around the net. Unfortunately, camp isn't a situation that favors him...Team guys often look lost when everyone's out for themselves and stepping all over each other to impress the coach... The scrap with Clarkson was night the highlight material Torts was looking for. Better to come up later into a more stable dynamic where he knows whats going on, though I will say between the injury bug and cuts like this... its starting to look bleak for Dane.

Evgeny Grachev - Lots of people had high hopes for this kid. Me, I really didn't see what the big deal was about this kid, for the limited time he was in camp. He didn't look that steady on his skates or like he really knew where he fit in. I'll chalk it up to nerves, but color me less than optimistic at this point, based on what I saw so far.

Dale Weise - He seemed to have a lot of energy in the games he played and was kind of all over the place. For as much as much as I saw of him during the game, I hardly remember any of it. He looks like he had an idea of what he wanted to bring to camp, only brought the basics and and tried to oversell.

Mats Zuccarello - For what little I saw of Zuccs, he looked like another young kid with some heart and was trying to play in a way that made everyone forget how small he was. Its the right attitude, but there's a lot of kids that will fill the camps of every team like that in the upcoming years. The best small guys never made anyone forget they were small, but they made everyone see how good they were at using what they had. Like using their size to squeeze through spaces and battle for the puck or go unnoticed around the crease, chip like crazy at rebounds.

Kris Newbury - Not really mind blowing that he got cut. He's an energy guy and not high on the depth chart in terms of skill. I loved watching him pummel Salvador and the fire he showed. Unfortunately, it won't impress Tortorella.

Jeremy Williams - Another no-brainer. I barely even noticed this kid was out there.

Brandon Manning - who? exactly...

Garnet Exelby - Hmm. This is kind of tough. I have to admit that I was never really a fan of Exelby as he always seemed like a bit of a cheap-shotting hick to me... or a better version of Ryan Hollweg. Good for an occasional hard hit, but many times questionable. The reason its difficult is that in the preseason games so far, hes the only Dman that seemed to have a clue about protecting his Goaltender. Ah well I suppose its ok, I mean Jim Ramsey is a really good medical trainer, right? Looking at it for what it was, Exelby was never really brought in as a viable option (it would take him a lot to earn a contract and if he did, he would be asking for more than entry level salary for a kid with that same potential) but more as control subject to up the stakes for the kids playing for a contract or guys paid more than their worth *Cough*Rosival*Cough* but who's salary would raise another red flag if they were waived after Redden.

Alexei Semenov - I don't think he was horrible. Hes a big body and he's fairly agile for a big guy. He's thrown down once or twice to stand up for a teammate last preseason, if I am remember correctly (that already gives him an edge on Girardi-- Yes, I'm still pissed about that) I think Semenov could be a cheaper version of Roszival.

Till the next round of cuts,

J_Undisputed

P.S. - I know noone's got any sympathy for Redds because of his salary, but I have to say I think it was kind of $hitty to not even let the guy get in a preseason game or two. Ok he probably wasn't going to be any different, but at least spare the guy that bull$hit of "its up to Wade, whether he stays or goes.. and he's going to have to show us something...." I understand that its business, and that either way, he's still collecting a hell of a lot of money from the team... but as an athlete, a family man (congrats to him and his wife).. allow him to compete and give the guy a chance at redemption and dignity. Looking at how quickly some of these guys were cut, how hard would that really have been?

(UPDATE) Tonight is (was) Redemption - Rangers vs. Red Wings 7:30pm EST

(Before the game):
After a physical mess at Nassau Coliseum and a 5-4 loss to the NY Islanders last evening, the Rangers play their fourth pre-season match this evening - leaving the division rival teams to play one of the most consistent teams in the league.

The New York Rangers are on their way to Hockey Town playing the Detroit Red Wings in Preseason action tonight. "The King" Lundqvist will get his second start of the preseason and looking to improve on his 5 goals allowed effort in his first game. Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez will also hit the ice again after their less-than-stellar performance against Philadelphia last Saturday night (it's still a blur). Perhaps we'll see a little more of that training camp chemistry between Jags and Scottie. Look for an update this evening at game's end.


UPDATED (After the game):
The Detroit Red Wings destroyed the New York Rangers at Joe Louis Arena 6-1, in what appears to be another off-night for "The King" Lundqvist. For now in the pre-season, let's call him "The Prince" Lundqvist. Late in the second period with the Blueshirts trailing 4-0, coach Tom Renney took Henrik Lundqvist out and replaced him with Al Montoya, who performed extremely well. Defensive breakdowns in the pre-season are obvious, and hopefully this is just Renney experimenting with many line combinations. Go here for details.

Crap! ;)