New York Rangers Intensity Up On Day Three
Day three of the New York Rangers training camp continued on Saturday. The theme for this day was intensity from both players and coaches. Plenty of inter-squad all day. The man in charge, Alain Vigneault, had a grand time watching his players get at each other. They pushed one another to do their best; and, then some to make the preseason roster out of camp. This day only groups A & B took to the ice.
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First on the ice was Group B. At around 10 minutes till 10:00 am EST, practice began. A few things to take away from this session. Vigneault certainly brought the heat on the goaltenders. Cam Talbot and Cedric Desjardins were at the mercy of odd-man rushes, specifically five-on-zero and three-on zero. Their main goal was not allow second chance rebounds and how they would focus in net. Overall, they held their own. A wake-up call was layed on a youngster. Anthony Duclair was on the receiving end of a booming check from veteran Kevin Klein, who had his own controversial issue with jersey numbers. “Welcome to Camp, newbie.”
“I’ve been itching to get back here with the guys and get going again. The pace (of practice) has been really high. There are spots open on this team and you can tell guys are getting after it right from the start (of camp).”–Rick Nash, blueshirtsunited.com, September 2014
After Group B left the ice, Group A had their turn. At 20 minutes past 12 pm EST, the group led by Derek Stepan and Henrik Lundqvist faced off. Perhaps this group had the most intense session. Several players layed hits into each other and the trash talking was alive and well. A bit of a scare was when Ryan Bourque collided with Henrik Lundqvist. The play developed with Bourque driving hard to the net, but lost his balance. As a result, he slid right into Lundqvist. Fortunately, no one was injured on the play. Depspite an apology from Bourque, Vigneault wanted practice to continue. He was heard saying: “Get up! Get up! Let’s go!” No rest for the weary. Further team drills ensued with plenty of emphasis of offensive zone emphasis. The players were seen battling hard with Carl Hagelin taking the brunt of the play. Hopefully this play will carry over to the preseason and into the regular season where battles like this happen on a everyday basis.
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Afterwards, Alain Vigneault met with the media and shared his thoughts about the day and his plans moving forward. He praised the play of J.T. Miller, Danny Kristo, and Rick Nash for their conditioning tests on Thursday. It looks as though Miller and Nash rededicated themselves in the offseason by being in better shape and make more of a lasting impact for the team. Vigneault mentioned his plans for the preseason, in the way of line combinations. In the first couple of games, he will try a combination of players to see what may work. However, he will try to formulate more concrete plans as preseason games conclude this season.
A couple of interesting quotes from yesterday’s practice to share from blueshirtsunited.com. This from Mats Zuccarello on what the team’s outlook should be for the 2014-2015 season:
"“This is a totally new season. We learned a lot from last year and can carry it over, but we have to turn the page, too.”"
This video interview with Jim Cerney of blueshirtsunited.com with Ryan McDonagh talked about his take on last year’s disappointment in the Stanley Cup Final, this year’s outlook, and the leadership on the team:
Later, we will cover the last day of training camp which include full scrimmages and any breaking news.