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Rangers Open Training Camp, World Cup Update, Traverse City Recap

September 22, 2016, 8:02 AM ET [147 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers kick off training camp Thursday. The team has invited 63 players to camp (see list directly below). Names like Vesey and Stromwall and Buchnevich will be ones that we focus on early in camp. Those playing in the World Cup will join the squad sometime over the next week, lead by Ryan McDonagh and Derek Stepan, as the US has been eliminated from possibly making the medal round, while J.T. Miller's status will be determined the Russia-Finland game. Mats Zuccarello and Henrik Lundqvist are in the semi-finals and we will know after the weekend which teams are in the best-of-three finals. I will post my top training camp questions tomorrow.

Forwards: Nick Betz, Chris Brown, Pavel Buchnevich, Matt Carey, Adam Chapie, Reid Duke, Jesper Fast, Steven Fogarty, Gabriel Fontaine, Nathan Gerbe, Tim Gettinger, Ryan Gropp, Kevin Hayes, Marek Hrivik, Nicklas Jensen, Michael Joly*, Josh Jooris, Robin Kovacs, Chris Kreider, Max Lapierre**, Oscar Lindberg, Philip Mcrae*, JT Miller, Rick Nash, Boo Nieves, Ahti Oksanen***, Brandon Pirri, Ty Ronning, Derek Stepan, Malte Stromwall, Adam Tambellini, Jimmy Vesey, Mika Zibanejad, Mats Zuccarello.

Defensemen: Calle Andersson, Mat Bodie, Adam Clendening, Sean Day, Troy Donnay, John Gilmour, Dan Girardi, Spiro Goulakos, Ryan Graves, Nick Holden, Tommy Hughes, Kevin Klein, Ryan McDonagh, Dylan McIlrath, Garrett Noonan, Michael Paliotta, Brady Skjei, Marc Staal, Chris Summers, Sergey Zborovskiy.

Goalies: Brandon Halverson, Magnus Hellberg, Henrik Lundqvist, Jeff Malcolm, Antti Raanta, Joseph Raaymakers, Mackenzie Skapski

World Cup:

As I wrote in my Sweden blog, the North America-Sweden game was an instant classic. Despite the loss, Lundqvist was brilliant, robbing North America of several goals, especially in the first period and Connor McDavid (see highlight below) in overtime. Overall, Hank stopped 45 of 49 shots. He allowed three goals on the first 15 shots that he faced but stopped the next 29 in regulation.

Lundqvist in total stopped 13 of 16 shots in the first period, keeping the game 3-2 when it could have easily been 5- or 6-2. He stoned all 21 shots in the second period and seven of seven shots in the third period. In overtime, he stopped the first four shots he saw before getting beat by the sick hands of Nathan MacKinnon of five shots in OT. Lundqvist, for his efforts, was named the second star of the game. By Sweden getting the game to overtime, Tre Kroner earned a point and won the Group B bracket, so they will face Europe in the semi-finals.

This what I wrote in the Sweden blog: "Despite the loss, Henrik Lundqvist showed he is back at the top of his game. His 36-save shutout of Finland on Tuesday, followed by 45 saves Wednesday were evidence of that. Some of the stops he had to make were ridiculous. One in overtime, in which he robbed Connor McDavid is directly below:"




Two other players were in action Wednesday, JT Miller made his World Cup debut and was a minus-one in 6:51 of ice time. The interesting part of his ice time is that 1:38 came shorthanded, which was more than he played all last year with the Rangers and could enhance his team value his season if he can fill in when the team is a man down. As noted above, North America will advance to the semis with a Russia loss. If that happens, either Miller or Jonathan Drouin, who was scratched Thursday, will play against Canada.

Mats Zuccarello played 13:56 in Team Europe's 4-1 loss to Canada. He skated on a line with Frans Nielsen and Marian Gaborik. Zucc and Team Europe will take on Lundqvist and Sweden, so one of the two Rangers will definitely be out and headed to training camp following that contest.

Traverse City Wrap-Up:

The Rangers fell 6-4 to Columbus in the third-place game Tuesday. Despite the loss, several Rangers raised their stock in the tournament.

Jimmy Vesey scored twice against the Blue Jackets and finished the tournament with five goals and two assists. He led all skaters in the tournament in goals (five) and shots on goal (20), and he tied for first among all skaters in the tournament in points (seven).

His line mates Boo Nieves suffered an upper body injury in the game, missing the last two periods. Despite that, Nieves raised his stock substantially, serving as FEMA captain and displaying a solid overall game. His increase in strength was very noticeable, which was seen in his improved performance.

Here are some other notes from the Rangers press release. To me, Stromwell wa very impressive and I wanted to see how he looks in camp away from Kovacs, and the same for Kovacs away from Stromwall. Gilmour did improve as the tourney wore on but you would expect him at 23 and out of college to play well. Day still has lapses and gaps in his game but the offensive potential is what make the pick so intriguing and it was nice to see him show that the last two games New York played.

Malte Stromwall tied for second on the Rangers in goals (two), points (three), and shots on goal (eight) in the tournament. Stromwall, who was signed by the Rangers as a free agent on April 17, 2016, registered two goals in the Rangers’ 5-4 win against the Stars on September 17.

Robin Kovacs tied for second on the Rangers in goals (two) and shots on goal (eight) in the tournament. The 19-year-old, who was selected by the Rangers in the third round (62nd overall) of the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, tallied a goal in each of the Blueshirts’ first two games of the tournament.

John Gilmour led the Rangers – and tied for fifth among all skaters in the tournament – in assists (three), and he tied for second on the Blueshirts in points (three). Gilmour, who was signed by the Rangers as a free agent on August 18, 2016, tied for second among all defensemen in the tournament in assists and points.

Sean Day tied for first among all defensemen in the tournament in goals (two) and tied for second among all defensemen in the tournament in points (three). The 18-year-old, who was selected by the Rangers in the third round (81st overall) of the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, recorded two goals on September 20 against Columbus.
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