Musings on Rangers’ Preseason Game 1

Just a few quick thoughts on last night’s 4-3 OT preseason win by the Rangers over the New Jersey Devils.

Funniest pregame sight? Catching Mats Zuccarello (listed by the Rangers as 5’ 9”) standing beside a 6’ 7” Derek Boogaard during warm-ups.

I estimated Madison Square Garden was 2/3 full; boxscore claims 14,987 in attendance. Given that the Yankees had a key matchup last night against Tampa and that preseason tickets are the same price as regular season, I was a bit surprised by how many people were in the seats. While it may have been a preseason game, the fans certainly were into it from the Star Spangled Banner on. Definitely had a mid-season rivalry game atmosphere.

The game had a nice physical tone to it, highlighted by Brian Boyle and Adam Mair sparring in the 1^st and Brandon Prust and Bradley Mills going at it in a long bout in the 2^nd.

Not that it matters, but several of us coming back on the subway after the game were surprised that Marian Gaborik was not one of the 3 stars (Boyle was 3, Parise 2 and Frolov 1). He opened the scoring on a power play and closed the game out in OT with another PPG.

Most perplexing in-game moment Boogaard being escorted from a faceoff to the penalty box in the 3^rd period, assessed with a 10-minute misconduct. From where I was sitting it didn’t appear he really did anything. After the game, John Tortorella said that Boogaard was attempting to stick up for Prust by fighting Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, leading to the penalty.

All in all a decent first game effort by the New York Rangers. These 2 teams go back at it tomorrow night at the Prudential Center. Lineup for the game yet to be released.