The Rangers fell to 0-2 at the Traverse City Tournament, losing 2-0 to the Blues on Saturday. New York lost 5-2 Friday to Minnesota in their opening match of the tourney. Their next game will be Monday against Columbus.
For those looking for some hockey, unfortunately, the games have not been streamed and i apologize for noting that they would be when I wrote a blog on the tourney last week. For those looking to follow the action, play-by-play can be seen at http://t.co/qjne9sKjsu. The play, as expected, has been fairly ragged from the Rangers. With several invitees and a group that hasn't played much together, they have been out-of-sync on the ice, resulting in the poor performances.
I read a few comments that stated the performances are an indication of the weak Ranger prospect base. That is a bit of a stretch, because if you look at the list of players, 12 of the 20 players are invitees and not necessarily part of the organization. I was hoping for a bit better showing defensively, since a good portion of that group is made of our Rangers prospects, but the lack of ice time together has been reflected in the subpar chemistry between the d-men.
Between the pipes, Traverse City-native Brandon Halverson has not played so far in the tournament due to a sprained ankle. As Blueshirts United wrote, free agent invitee Jacob Smith got the start and allowed all five goals before leaving the game in the third period after he collided with a Wild forward. Fellow invitee Taylor Dupuis finished the contest and Dupuis started and played all of Saturday's game.
Brady Skjei is the team's captain while 2015 fourth-round pick Brad Morrison scored the Rangers' first goal Friday from the slot, a place where he likes to operate while invitee Adam Brooks has the other goal. I would like to see more from Adam Tambellini, Keenan Iverson, and Ryan Gropp. From what I have read, Ryan Graves has been fairly solid while Skjei has been okay. Other than that, so far, there is little to take from the tournament but at least it's hockey.
Here are five words to get you through the next few days: Training camp opens this week