Hockey is officially back. The Rangers opened their preseason last night with a 6-3 victory over the Devils. The fourth line of Jayson Megna, Brian Gibbons, and Luke Adam put on a show, scoring three times. Gibbons had a goal and two assists, and Megna had a pair of goals, one on the powerplay. Since this is the preseason, I’m not going into a goal breakdown, but you can check out all the GIFs from the game at www.nyrgifs.com. You can also check video highlights on the Videos page.

  • That fourth line looked like they wanted to stay a little longer. They were already written off before the game started, and this was a bit of a statement by them. If anything, Megna and Gibbons earned a longer look in camp.
  • Brady Skjei certainly didn’t look out of place. He made a lot of nice plays with the puck, and one very nice defensive play that started the Oscar Lindberg goal.
  • Dylan McIlrath wasn’t flashy, and I really didn’t notice him that much. He took a penalty with a hit to the head, but he wasn’t really targeting the head. His elbow was in, but he’s 6’5″, and if you hit anyone at that height, it’s going to be in the head. I looked up his stats, and he managed to drive possession (58%) with just 33% OZ starts. Don’t put much stock into single game possession samples in the preseason though, was just something I looked up.

  • I didn’t think Kevin Klein had a particularly strong game. It’s the first game though. I do, however, think that McIlrath played a better game than Klein. If McIlrath has learned how to slow the game down and play his angles better, he has a real shot to make this team.
  • The Ryan Bourque-Lindberg-Jesper Fast line was fun to watch when they got going. All three looked a bit rusty, but they showed their wheels on the Lindberg goal.
  • Tanner Glass started up with Jiri Tlusty, and then got mad. This was all instigated by Glass though. Don’t know what to make of it. Glass is going after a guy that is on a PTO. I don’t like it, but I understand that Glass senses his job is in danger.
  • Viktor Stalberg has some wheels.
  • Chris Kreider has a wicked shot. He hit the crossbar once and scored once.
  • Marek Hrivik is pretty sneaky, but he was rather invisible throughout the game. I know a lot of folks like him, but I don’t think he has a future with this club.
  • Antti Raanta was solid in net. I know Alain Vigneault said that there’s a competition for the #2 spot, but there isn’t. No one is unseating him.
  • Magnus Hellberg looked shaky to start, and his movements looked slow. He wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t as good as Raanta.
  • I’m not putting much stock into the PK or the PP. Too many bodies that won’t be here come October.

Keep in mind that this is just the first preseason game, and the preseason doesn’t really mean much to the veterans until the third game or so. Some guys earned more time, others did not. My guess is that the first cuts will happen between the second and third games.

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