Rangers Preseason Recap 9/21/11

Do not fret Rangers fans, it is only preseason.

The Rangers fell to the New Jersey Devils in their first preseason game today by the score of 2-1 on an overtime goal by Patrik Elias. The game was evenly played for a majority of it, very tightly defended and some stellar goaltending was displayed. Petr Sykora opened the scoring for the Devils early in the game to give them a lead that would last until the final five minutes of the 3rd period when Dale Weise scored to tie the game up. Early into overtime, Zach Parise got control of a turnover and passed it ahead to Elias who tapped it in for a victory.

Why Ranger fans should not be upset about this loss was because of a lot of facts. First off, Marian Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal and Brad Richards were not on the bench tonight, while the Devils had both Zach Parise and Ilya Kovalchuk on the ice tonight. The fact that the Rangers, with a team of kids on defense took this Devils team to overtime shows that the depth on the blue line is looking sharp. Now, if the Rangers get pounded with another storm of injuries this year, they can rest assured that they won't have to make a hard decision on who to bring up because they will have so many options to choose from.

Focusing on some of the individual efforts tonight, I liked how Michael Del Zotto played. You can tell he has a chip on his shoulder because of how badly last year went for him. Del Zotto was everywhere tonight and he looks much better. Another looker was goaltender Cam Talbot. Talbot made some incredible stops tonight, and it is good to know that the Rangers have another option just in case an injury like Martin Birons last year happens again. One disappointment was Tim Erixon for me. I caught a glimpse of the Traverse City Tournament this year, and when the Rangers played, I heard Erixon's name all over the place. He was not very noticeable tonight and that is why I was a bit let down. However, it is a long time until the regular season, which means they're is still plenty of time for him to prove himself, along with all of the other kids that have played.