Prospal's back out: concerns about his knee are keeping Prospal out of the lineup both tonight and tomorrow night. Christensen will be in in his place for tonight. In the words of John Tortorella, "It's a concern."
Hmm.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Cuts and lineup
So, after Wednesday night's game, the decision was made to not cut anyone until Sunday. This will be after our final preseason games, a home-and-home against the Senators tonight and tomorrow night. Torts has said that Sunday may or may not represent the "final" cuts, which means we have no idea how many people we'll be cutting. Remember that we need to cut at least 4 before opening night. Torts has hinted that we will carry the full 23 by then, meaning we won't cut more than that, but one never knows.
As for who's playing tonight, the forward lines are pretty clear based on yesterday's practice (there is no morning skate today due to flooding(?)). Prospal, healthy enough, will finally make his debut, another first-line-center audition. These are the lines used yesterday:
Frolov - Prospal - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
with a fifth line, Kennedy - Christensen - White, wearing orange "we're probably not playing on Friday" jerseys. We can expect these to be the four lines used tonight, with Kennedy, Christensen, and White as the 3 scratches. To me, this reads as more bad news for Todd White, but what do I know?
Also of note: we again see that third line of Fedotenko, Stepan, and Avery. I could like that as a third line a lot, if what people are saying about Fedotenko is true - I like that Torts is trying to push for chemistry there early (this is the first time he's repeated a line in multiple games). I don't actually know which sides Avery and Fedotenko play on when he does this - they're both left wings.
In goal, expect Lundqvist to play the full game tonight, with Biron as his backup, and expect that to switch up for tomorrow night.
On defense, things are less clear. What we know is that Eminger, like Prospal, is now healthy enough, and will be playing tonight. Torts has said he wants both Eminger and Prospal to play in both games, tonight and tomorrow night, so he can get as much look at them as possible before he makes his final cuts. Makes sense to me.
Outside of Eminger, we know that Rozsival, who also did not skate yesterday, will be out tonight. Larry Brooks reports that this is due to a sore groin. He also reports that Eminger will be paired with Del Zotto tonight. So that leaves Eminger and Del Zotto along with 4 of: Gilroy, Girardi, McDonagh, Sauer, Staal, and Valentenko. This would be a lot easier to figure out, but reportedly, Sauer and Valentenko both made very strong cases for themselves on Wednesday night, which is apparently part of the reason they're both still here and cuts have been postponed. So what do you do tonight and tomorrow night?
Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants takes a stab at it, projecting pairs of Staal/Girardi, Del Zotto/Eminger, and McDonagh/Gilroy, scratching Valentenko and Sauer in anticipation of playing both of them tomorrow night, just before cuts are made. This would be reasonable, but so would playing them both to try to gather as much info as possible (leaving open the option of possibly playing them again tomorrow). Again, one never knows.
I believe Torts will be addressing the media sometime before the game today. If I'm still in front of a computer then, I'll post the for-real lineup for tonight. By the end of this weekend, the roster picture will be that much clearer.
As for who's playing tonight, the forward lines are pretty clear based on yesterday's practice (there is no morning skate today due to flooding(?)). Prospal, healthy enough, will finally make his debut, another first-line-center audition. These are the lines used yesterday:
Frolov - Prospal - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
with a fifth line, Kennedy - Christensen - White, wearing orange "we're probably not playing on Friday" jerseys. We can expect these to be the four lines used tonight, with Kennedy, Christensen, and White as the 3 scratches. To me, this reads as more bad news for Todd White, but what do I know?
Also of note: we again see that third line of Fedotenko, Stepan, and Avery. I could like that as a third line a lot, if what people are saying about Fedotenko is true - I like that Torts is trying to push for chemistry there early (this is the first time he's repeated a line in multiple games). I don't actually know which sides Avery and Fedotenko play on when he does this - they're both left wings.
In goal, expect Lundqvist to play the full game tonight, with Biron as his backup, and expect that to switch up for tomorrow night.
On defense, things are less clear. What we know is that Eminger, like Prospal, is now healthy enough, and will be playing tonight. Torts has said he wants both Eminger and Prospal to play in both games, tonight and tomorrow night, so he can get as much look at them as possible before he makes his final cuts. Makes sense to me.
Outside of Eminger, we know that Rozsival, who also did not skate yesterday, will be out tonight. Larry Brooks reports that this is due to a sore groin. He also reports that Eminger will be paired with Del Zotto tonight. So that leaves Eminger and Del Zotto along with 4 of: Gilroy, Girardi, McDonagh, Sauer, Staal, and Valentenko. This would be a lot easier to figure out, but reportedly, Sauer and Valentenko both made very strong cases for themselves on Wednesday night, which is apparently part of the reason they're both still here and cuts have been postponed. So what do you do tonight and tomorrow night?
Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants takes a stab at it, projecting pairs of Staal/Girardi, Del Zotto/Eminger, and McDonagh/Gilroy, scratching Valentenko and Sauer in anticipation of playing both of them tomorrow night, just before cuts are made. This would be reasonable, but so would playing them both to try to gather as much info as possible (leaving open the option of possibly playing them again tomorrow). Again, one never knows.
I believe Torts will be addressing the media sometime before the game today. If I'm still in front of a computer then, I'll post the for-real lineup for tonight. By the end of this weekend, the roster picture will be that much clearer.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
More thoughts on lineup
After watching today's interview with Torts, a few more things are worth mentioning.
McDonagh, being out tonight, will get the chance to play in one of the two games against the Sens, so don't look for him to get cut tomorrow.
Ditto for Prospal and Eminger, both of whom are being kept out due to soreness (Prospal's knee, Eminger's groin), and both of whom Torts said would get the chance to play.
Lundqvist should play the full 60 tonight.
For the sake of getting down to the right people quickly, Torts would like, if possible, to make cuts tonight, but it's not entirely up to him, and he acknowledges that if someone has a particularly good game tonight, he has to be fair. From that, I'd look for any of Fedotenko, White, Valentenko, and Sauer to possibly be playing for their seasons tonight.
McDonagh, being out tonight, will get the chance to play in one of the two games against the Sens, so don't look for him to get cut tomorrow.
Ditto for Prospal and Eminger, both of whom are being kept out due to soreness (Prospal's knee, Eminger's groin), and both of whom Torts said would get the chance to play.
Lundqvist should play the full 60 tonight.
For the sake of getting down to the right people quickly, Torts would like, if possible, to make cuts tonight, but it's not entirely up to him, and he acknowledges that if someone has a particularly good game tonight, he has to be fair. From that, I'd look for any of Fedotenko, White, Valentenko, and Sauer to possibly be playing for their seasons tonight.
Tonight's lineup
So tonight is preseason game 4 of 6 (with the final 2 coming Friday and Saturday), home against the Red Wings, who beat us 5-3 on Sunday. It looks like we'll be using the following lineup:
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Kennedy - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Avery
Boogaard - White - Prust
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Staal - Sauer
Valentenko - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy scratches: Boyle, Dubinsky, Prospal, Eminger, Girardi, McDonagh
Injured: Drury
Not a ton to glean here, but some. Trying Christensen on that top line is no surprise - he'll probably keep rotating the top line center position well into the season, though it seems like that position will be squarely between Gabby and Frolov. Todd White centering that fourth line is not a great sign for him, especially with Kennedy being given more time up on a wing. Seems like he and Fedotenko really have something to prove sooner than later, while Kennedy is doing things Torts likes.
Also, not to be a number whore (who are we kidding; I'm a goddamn number whore), but White's cap hit of $2.375 million is more restrictive than it could be. Now, the Rangers are in a pretty good place cap-wise, and if White is good enough to make the team, we can afford it without a problem. However, if we were to cut him, we'd have the cap space to do absolutely whatever we wanted - the 23 remaining most expensive salaries on the roster would still come in under the cap (assuming a Fedotenko contract would be around the same value he made last season, $1.8 million). There are plenty of configurations that include White, but I think that his age and salary mean he has to work harder to make the team than some of his alternatives.
Meanwhile, on defense, Torts gets another look at Valentenko, Gilroy, and Sauer, while McDonagh and Eminger sit. Not sure how to interpret this. Could be Torts already knows McD is making it, could be he already knows he's cutting Eminger tomorrow, could be he just didn't wanna play all 5 of them and only have room for one of our 4 regulars to play a game. I wish I could see how these guys are playing. I gotta believe that Eminger, who has only played once so far, in that scrub game in Jersey, is given at least one more game to prove himself here. But who knows.
Also, who knows when the next cuts will be? We have to cut 4 more players before opening night - will Torts just do that all at once, after all 3 remaining preseason games? We have no idea, so it's stupid to guess! Anyway, that sounds like a handful of people who have a big opportunity tonight - a big game could move any of them pretty close to a roster spot, a bad game could move any of them pretty close to Hartford. Exciting stuff! If you can watch, I'm jealous of you - go watch. I'll just read everyone's recaps tomorrow.
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Kennedy - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Avery
Boogaard - White - Prust
Del Zotto - Rozsival
Staal - Sauer
Valentenko - Gilroy
Lundqvist
Biron
Healthy scratches: Boyle, Dubinsky, Prospal, Eminger, Girardi, McDonagh
Injured: Drury
Not a ton to glean here, but some. Trying Christensen on that top line is no surprise - he'll probably keep rotating the top line center position well into the season, though it seems like that position will be squarely between Gabby and Frolov. Todd White centering that fourth line is not a great sign for him, especially with Kennedy being given more time up on a wing. Seems like he and Fedotenko really have something to prove sooner than later, while Kennedy is doing things Torts likes.
Also, not to be a number whore (who are we kidding; I'm a goddamn number whore), but White's cap hit of $2.375 million is more restrictive than it could be. Now, the Rangers are in a pretty good place cap-wise, and if White is good enough to make the team, we can afford it without a problem. However, if we were to cut him, we'd have the cap space to do absolutely whatever we wanted - the 23 remaining most expensive salaries on the roster would still come in under the cap (assuming a Fedotenko contract would be around the same value he made last season, $1.8 million). There are plenty of configurations that include White, but I think that his age and salary mean he has to work harder to make the team than some of his alternatives.
Meanwhile, on defense, Torts gets another look at Valentenko, Gilroy, and Sauer, while McDonagh and Eminger sit. Not sure how to interpret this. Could be Torts already knows McD is making it, could be he already knows he's cutting Eminger tomorrow, could be he just didn't wanna play all 5 of them and only have room for one of our 4 regulars to play a game. I wish I could see how these guys are playing. I gotta believe that Eminger, who has only played once so far, in that scrub game in Jersey, is given at least one more game to prove himself here. But who knows.
Also, who knows when the next cuts will be? We have to cut 4 more players before opening night - will Torts just do that all at once, after all 3 remaining preseason games? We have no idea, so it's stupid to guess! Anyway, that sounds like a handful of people who have a big opportunity tonight - a big game could move any of them pretty close to a roster spot, a bad game could move any of them pretty close to Hartford. Exciting stuff! If you can watch, I'm jealous of you - go watch. I'll just read everyone's recaps tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
McDonagh
So I've read what a bunch of people have been saying about Sunday's game in Detroit, and it turns out McDonagh is actually making a pretty strong case for himself. So, apologies for misleading you there: having seen nothing but his performance last Thursday, I was understandably underwhelmed.
Roster Cuts
On Friday (the morning after our first preseason game), we cut our 63-man roster (I had previously posted 61, not knowing about two forwards named Chris Chappell and Devin DiDiomete) down to 38. Largely nothing surprising here. Of our 36 forwards, we sent Chappell, DiDiomete, Garlock, McKelvie, Soryal, and Tessier to Hartford, sent Bourque, Horak, McNaught, Thomas, Werek, Wilson, and Yogan to their respective junior league teams, and put Dupont on waivers (he cleared and is back with the 'Pack). On defense, we reassigned Baldwin, Klassen, Kundratek, Niemi, Parlett, and Williams to the Wolfpack, as well as Maggio and McIlrath back to the juniors. Finally, we sent goalies Parise and Talbot back to Hartford and Stajcer back to the OHL.
None of the 25 players I just named were dressed for the game Thursday night, so there were really no surprises here.
Then, Saturday morning, as you have no doubt heard, we got the big news: Wade Redden being reassigned to the Wolfpack. He, too, has since cleared waivers, and is expected to report to Hartford on Wednesday. I know I've been telling you for weeks and weeks that this was basically a done deal, that the numbers just didn't add up any other way, but damn if it didn't feel good to see it officially.
Side note: after Thursday night's game, I went around back to try to meet some players. Early on, we (the like 12 fans who thought this was worth it) saw Wade Redden drive out (he, um, didn't stop for autographs - the crowd for some reason was not interested). Given that he got cut Saturday, I think I saw Redden drive away from Madison Square Garden for the last time.
Yesterday morning, we made some tighter cuts. In goal, unsurprisingly, Chad Johnson (who didn't look good at all when I saw him) is back to the 'Pack. Up front, we sent down Grachev, Weise, and Zuccarello, and put Byers, Newbury, and Williams on waivers (they should clear and all six should be back in Hartford together). No huge surprises there - Zuccarello looked good sometimes but did not impress in an NHL-caliber way. Weise or Byers could have made an argument that they belong on the 4th line, but didn't really do anything to make me pissed off that they're gone.
On defense, we sent home 3 people who were in camp on tryouts: Brandon Manning, Garnet Exelby, and Alexei Semenov. This is where I get a little confused. I guess there's an argument that if you're in training camp on a tryout, you have to work even harder than if you have a contract? But based on what I saw (which was admittedly only 2 of 3 preseason games and none of camp), there's no reason McDonagh should still be around while Semenov is cut. Exelby looked decent - not great, but decent - and big - and Semenov looked all-around pretty good. McDonagh looked terrible. But I only saw him in one game, and perhaps he's done other exciting things at camp.
I was excited about Semenov and Exelby being big all over the place. But there are still big options around. I really liked what I saw from Valentenko, and I'll be excited if he makes the final cut. I'm surprised to see Mike Sauer still around, but I feel like I said that last year around this time also. I guess at the end of the day, I like that we're putting the emphasis on the kids that came from our system.
And so, we're left with a roster of 27, from which at least 4 more must be cut by opening night (October 9), a time span that includes 3 more preseason games in the next 4 days. Here's how those 27 people break down (pretend I wrote the word "probably" in all these category headings).
These 11 forwards make the team: Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Frolov, Gaborik, Prust
3 of these 5 forwards make the team: Fedotenko, Kennedy, Prospal, Stepan, White
These 4 defensemen make the team: Del Zotto, Girardi, Rozsival, Staal
3 of these 5 defensemen make the team: Eminger, Gilroy, McDonagh, Sauer, Valentenko
These 2 goalies make the team: Biron, Lundqvist
Of course, even those numbers aren't definitely accurate: we could end up with 1-4 of those 5 forwards, or with 2-5 of those 5 defensemen. These are just good guesses. My votes, which count for nothing, would be to keep Prospal, Stepan, and Kennedy, cutting White and Fedotenko, and to keep Eminger, Gilroy, and Valentenko, cutting McDonagh and Sauer. But they never ask me.
None of the 25 players I just named were dressed for the game Thursday night, so there were really no surprises here.
Then, Saturday morning, as you have no doubt heard, we got the big news: Wade Redden being reassigned to the Wolfpack. He, too, has since cleared waivers, and is expected to report to Hartford on Wednesday. I know I've been telling you for weeks and weeks that this was basically a done deal, that the numbers just didn't add up any other way, but damn if it didn't feel good to see it officially.
Side note: after Thursday night's game, I went around back to try to meet some players. Early on, we (the like 12 fans who thought this was worth it) saw Wade Redden drive out (he, um, didn't stop for autographs - the crowd for some reason was not interested). Given that he got cut Saturday, I think I saw Redden drive away from Madison Square Garden for the last time.
Yesterday morning, we made some tighter cuts. In goal, unsurprisingly, Chad Johnson (who didn't look good at all when I saw him) is back to the 'Pack. Up front, we sent down Grachev, Weise, and Zuccarello, and put Byers, Newbury, and Williams on waivers (they should clear and all six should be back in Hartford together). No huge surprises there - Zuccarello looked good sometimes but did not impress in an NHL-caliber way. Weise or Byers could have made an argument that they belong on the 4th line, but didn't really do anything to make me pissed off that they're gone.
On defense, we sent home 3 people who were in camp on tryouts: Brandon Manning, Garnet Exelby, and Alexei Semenov. This is where I get a little confused. I guess there's an argument that if you're in training camp on a tryout, you have to work even harder than if you have a contract? But based on what I saw (which was admittedly only 2 of 3 preseason games and none of camp), there's no reason McDonagh should still be around while Semenov is cut. Exelby looked decent - not great, but decent - and big - and Semenov looked all-around pretty good. McDonagh looked terrible. But I only saw him in one game, and perhaps he's done other exciting things at camp.
I was excited about Semenov and Exelby being big all over the place. But there are still big options around. I really liked what I saw from Valentenko, and I'll be excited if he makes the final cut. I'm surprised to see Mike Sauer still around, but I feel like I said that last year around this time also. I guess at the end of the day, I like that we're putting the emphasis on the kids that came from our system.
And so, we're left with a roster of 27, from which at least 4 more must be cut by opening night (October 9), a time span that includes 3 more preseason games in the next 4 days. Here's how those 27 people break down (pretend I wrote the word "probably" in all these category headings).
These 11 forwards make the team: Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Frolov, Gaborik, Prust
3 of these 5 forwards make the team: Fedotenko, Kennedy, Prospal, Stepan, White
These 4 defensemen make the team: Del Zotto, Girardi, Rozsival, Staal
3 of these 5 defensemen make the team: Eminger, Gilroy, McDonagh, Sauer, Valentenko
These 2 goalies make the team: Biron, Lundqvist
Of course, even those numbers aren't definitely accurate: we could end up with 1-4 of those 5 forwards, or with 2-5 of those 5 defensemen. These are just good guesses. My votes, which count for nothing, would be to keep Prospal, Stepan, and Kennedy, cutting White and Fedotenko, and to keep Eminger, Gilroy, and Valentenko, cutting McDonagh and Sauer. But they never ask me.
Preseason!
Instead of what I usually do, living in Pittsburgh, which is not see any preseason games, even on TV, this season I drove up and went to the first two live (the second with my father). It was a lot of fun.
Thoughts on forwards: I really liked what I saw from the Stepan, Frolov, and Gaborik line. Stepan looked really comfortable between them, and I would take that as a first line. Fedotenko was nothing special - he didn't do anything I liked or anything I didn't like. Dale Weise was a reasonable 4th-liner, and Dane Byers endeared himself to me by taking down Clarkson after he kept being a fuck to Avery. Zuccarello had a few cute stick-handling moments, but nothing else too special, except that seeing him stand next to Boogaard was hilarious. Callahan and Avery both looked fantastic.
Thoughts on defensemen: Girardi, Staal, and Rozsival (yes, Rozsival) all looked solid. Del Zotto looked awful (yes, he was the first star of game 2; that doesn't mean he wasn't awful). Of the new guys, Semenov and Valentenko were the most solid-looking.
I'm rushing through these thoughts partly because I have a lot of work to catch up on and partly because a bunch of roster cuts have been made (25 on Friday, and another 11 yesterday), so some of these thoughts don't matter. I'll go into those in the next post.
Goddamn it, it was good to watch hockey again.
Thoughts on forwards: I really liked what I saw from the Stepan, Frolov, and Gaborik line. Stepan looked really comfortable between them, and I would take that as a first line. Fedotenko was nothing special - he didn't do anything I liked or anything I didn't like. Dale Weise was a reasonable 4th-liner, and Dane Byers endeared himself to me by taking down Clarkson after he kept being a fuck to Avery. Zuccarello had a few cute stick-handling moments, but nothing else too special, except that seeing him stand next to Boogaard was hilarious. Callahan and Avery both looked fantastic.
Thoughts on defensemen: Girardi, Staal, and Rozsival (yes, Rozsival) all looked solid. Del Zotto looked awful (yes, he was the first star of game 2; that doesn't mean he wasn't awful). Of the new guys, Semenov and Valentenko were the most solid-looking.
I'm rushing through these thoughts partly because I have a lot of work to catch up on and partly because a bunch of roster cuts have been made (25 on Friday, and another 11 yesterday), so some of these thoughts don't matter. I'll go into those in the next post.
Goddamn it, it was good to watch hockey again.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Just go read this
Happy training camp, everyone! Nothing to see here. Kevin DeLury of The New York Rangers Blog (unofficial) is doing an amazing job of covering training camp today, aggregating everyone who is there's tweets and pictures and stuff into one long, frequently-updating post. If you wanna know what's happening with the Rangers right now, just go read that all day. That's what I'm doing.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Training camp by the numbers
Well, training camp starts tomorrow, and the final roster of people invited was released today (it now includes decisions made based on Traverse City, at which the Rangers went 1-2, putting them in the 5th place game, in which they destroyed the Stars' prospects like 7-2). Training camp begins tomorrow, with 61 potential Rangers invited. Over the course of the following weeks, including 6 preseason games from September 23 through October 2 (home-and-homes against the Devils, Red Wings, and Senators), we will cut people from that list of 61 until we are down to a roster of 20 to 23 players. Remember that an NHL roster must contain at least 12 forwards, 6 defensemen, and 2 goalies, and may have up to 3 more players in total (for a maximum roster size of 23). So, we can expect something like 12-14 forwards, 6-8 defensemen, and 2 goalies to make the opening night cut on October 9.
The starting training camp roster of 61 is comprised of 34 forwards, 21 defensemen, and 6 goalies. Since just listing them is boring and not terribly helpful, I've broken them down a little further, into four categories: players I expect to make the team, players I think are on the bubble, players that probably aren't making the team but that we should have at least heard of, and the other guys. Of course this is all subjective, but it should give you a good idea of who to look out for, as cuts start to be made. All of this is subject to change based on how they actually perform at camp: this is not meant to convey any sort of expertise. It's just a convenient way to list people in order of approximately how much we should be paying attention to them. Right, enough disclaimer.
34 Forwards (12-14 will make final cut)
The Core (12): Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Frolov, Gaborik, Prospal, Prust
The Bubble (6): Fedotenko, Grachev, Kennedy, Stepan, White, Zuccarello
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (8): Bourque, Byers, Dupont, Horak, Soryal, Weise, Werek, Yogan
The Other Guys (8): Ryan Garlock, Chris McKelvie, Randy McNaught, Kris Newbury, Kelsey Tessier, Christian Thomas, Jeremy Williams, Jason Wilson
21 Defensemen (6-8 will make final cut)
The Core (4): Del Zotto, Girardi, Rozsival, Staal
The Bubble (5): Eminger, Exelby, Gilroy, McDonagh, Semenov
The The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (7): Klassen, Kundratek, McIlrath, Niemi, Redden, Sauer, Valentenko
The Other Guys (5): Lee Baldwin, Dan Maggio, Brandon Manning, Blake Parlett, Nigel Williams
6 Goalies (2 will make final cut)
The Core (2): Biron, Lundqvist
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (3): Johnson, Parise, Stajcer
The Other Guy (1): Cam Talbot
Again, this is just a bullshit classification I threw out there. The only thing I'd put money on is that I know who our two roster goalies are. Of note, some people are talking about Weise, Kundratek, and Niemi having shots at the squad as well, while others are talking about Avery's and Boyle's jobs being in danger, and some people even still think Redden might be on the roster on opening night. It's all up in the air.
Regardless, there are your 61 guys who show up to camp tomorrow. No more than 23 of them will still be around 22 days later, when the regular season (finally, fucking finally) begins. Here we go...
The starting training camp roster of 61 is comprised of 34 forwards, 21 defensemen, and 6 goalies. Since just listing them is boring and not terribly helpful, I've broken them down a little further, into four categories: players I expect to make the team, players I think are on the bubble, players that probably aren't making the team but that we should have at least heard of, and the other guys. Of course this is all subjective, but it should give you a good idea of who to look out for, as cuts start to be made. All of this is subject to change based on how they actually perform at camp: this is not meant to convey any sort of expertise. It's just a convenient way to list people in order of approximately how much we should be paying attention to them. Right, enough disclaimer.
34 Forwards (12-14 will make final cut)
The Core (12): Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Drury, Dubinsky, Frolov, Gaborik, Prospal, Prust
The Bubble (6): Fedotenko, Grachev, Kennedy, Stepan, White, Zuccarello
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (8): Bourque, Byers, Dupont, Horak, Soryal, Weise, Werek, Yogan
The Other Guys (8): Ryan Garlock, Chris McKelvie, Randy McNaught, Kris Newbury, Kelsey Tessier, Christian Thomas, Jeremy Williams, Jason Wilson
21 Defensemen (6-8 will make final cut)
The Core (4): Del Zotto, Girardi, Rozsival, Staal
The Bubble (5): Eminger, Exelby, Gilroy, McDonagh, Semenov
The The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (7): Klassen, Kundratek, McIlrath, Niemi, Redden, Sauer, Valentenko
The Other Guys (5): Lee Baldwin, Dan Maggio, Brandon Manning, Blake Parlett, Nigel Williams
6 Goalies (2 will make final cut)
The Core (2): Biron, Lundqvist
The Guys We Should Have Heard Of (3): Johnson, Parise, Stajcer
The Other Guy (1): Cam Talbot
Again, this is just a bullshit classification I threw out there. The only thing I'd put money on is that I know who our two roster goalies are. Of note, some people are talking about Weise, Kundratek, and Niemi having shots at the squad as well, while others are talking about Avery's and Boyle's jobs being in danger, and some people even still think Redden might be on the roster on opening night. It's all up in the air.
Regardless, there are your 61 guys who show up to camp tomorrow. No more than 23 of them will still be around 22 days later, when the regular season (finally, fucking finally) begins. Here we go...
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