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Why Pre-season is important to Tortorella
by Patrick Hoffman on 09/27/09 at 09:14 AM ET
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The New York Rangers conclude their pre-season this afternoon against the Washington Capitals at the Verizon Center. All I can say is it’s about time.
By the time September comes, I am, along with many other hockey fans, ready for the regular season. The summer is spent talking about the NHL Entry Draft, free agents, trades, line combinations, etc and to then go through the whole month of September talking about similar topics is repetitive. Obviously, management, the head coaches and players don’t mind the preparation time but something tells me they don’t like playing nine or ten pre-season games before the regular season even starts.
However, I can see why Rangers’ head coach John Tortorella has looked at pre-season, along with this afternoon’s tilt, as somewhat important games. For Torts, it is the last time to shape the roster according to how he sees the team competing.
During this afternoon’s game, Tortorella will be looking to see what Brandon Dubinsky can do with Gaborik. He’ll also be taking a closer look at Christopher Higgins and Ales Kotalik to push themselves into regular season form. He will try and figure out who will be a better fourth line center for his hockey club - Brian Boyle or Artem Anisimov. He will want his starting goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to get in another full game to prepare for Friday night’s season opener against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins. And lastly, he will try and figure out what his defensive pairings are going to look like come Friday.
It’s a lot for a coach to think about but ultimately, it is these things that will determine the Blueshirts’ success this season, along with other areas such as the power play and penalty kill. Again, we may all think that pre-season is too long but for head coaches in the NHL, it is just what they need.
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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 RLD Hockey, Rangers Tribune, and TheGoodPoint.com.
Prior to writing for the above mentioned outlets, you could find Patrick’s musings at hockey web sites/outlets such as TheHockeyNews.com, The Fourth Period, 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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