Goal Line Report
Drop the Puck!
by Patrick Hoffman on 10/02/09 at 09:39 AM ET
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The day has finally come folks - the puck will drop tonight to open up the New York Ranger 2009-10 season as they take on the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh. The Blueshirts will be on the bench as the Pens’ raise their Stanley Cup banner so if that’s not motivation enough to go out there and win a hockey game, I don’t know what is.
According to Rick Carpiniello at Rangers Report, Rangers’ head coach John Tortorella had the following to say about watching the Penguins raise their banner:
“Yes we are, because I think that’s the National Hockey League and I don’t want to be disrespectful to what that trophy is. I hope it’s not a long night. But I think it’s important. I don’t want to disrespect what the National Hockey League is about and what we’re trying to win … we’ll be out there to see it, and then we’ll be ready to play.
“I think it’s good. I’ve been on the end of these, a couple the other way, and I’ve been on one the right way, and I think it’s a great thing, especially for some of the youth on our team. I think it’s good for them to see it, as far as a culmination thing.”
For the Rangers, however, this season is all about a new start. The team has head coach John Tortorella with them to start the season, some fresh faces in Marian Gaborik, Christopher Higgins, Donald Brashear, Enver Lisin, Artem Anisimov, Ales Kotalik, Brian Boyle, Matt Gilroy, and Michael Del Zotto.
Does this make them a better team? Time will only tell but one big difference about this team is that they are definitely more offensively-focused. They’ll be going harder to the net, throwing more pucks on net (especially during the power play), creating more odd man rushes and hopefully, this will lead to more goals, something the team seriously lacked last season.
The game will certainly be a good test for the Rangers to see if they can keep up with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz, and the rest of the high flying Penguins. A win tonight would certainly get them off on the right foot and have the Madison Square Garden crowd in a frenzy for tomorrow night’s home opener against the Ottawa Senators.
It’s time folks. Time to start eating, drinking, sleeping, and breathing hockey and what better way to begin the month of October than by watching the Rangers take the ice to begin a new season tonight.
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Tags: New+York+Rangers, Pittsburgh+Penguins,
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About Goal Line Report
Patrick has a tremendous passion for hockey. Besides covering the Rangers and the NHL for Kukla’s Korner, you can also find Patrick’s work over at Sportsnet.ca, The Red Light District Hockey Blog, NHL Home Ice, and Liam Maguire’s Ultimate Hockey web site.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, TheFourthPeriod.com, Spector’s Hockey, Hokeja Vestnesis, Blueshirt Bulletin, SNYRangersBlog.com and many more.
For questions, comments and hip checks, feel free to e-mail Patrick at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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