Game 10 – Rangers 1 at Buffalo 3

Record – 4-3-3, 11 pts.
Last Year – 0-0-0, 0 pts.
Seen: On MSG
Points out of 8th: Still hanging on to first because of extra games played
Islanders: Heartbreaking loss in Montreal, that's more like it.

- Here are some things we know about the New York Rangers after the first ten games:

They’ve played a lot of games, which means they’ll play less games than every other team will for the rest of the year. There’s no doubt they were a very tired hockey club their last two games.

The goalie controversy that we all expected to develop at some point is already here.

The defense, which was projected to be the weakest part of the team, doesn’t look too shabby at all. It helps when the forward lines help out too. Michael Rozsival and Marek Malik may not be the ideal guys you want to see on the point during power plays, but they’ve constituted a solid number one defense pairing, logging 25 minutes a game, and are both plus (three and two, respectively) on the year.

Jagr is pretty good. Better yet, he seems totally into the games, directing other players on the ice, and barking at them at times.

Dominic Moore is becoming a real revelation – fast, tough, and relentless, and he shows some decent hands at times as well.

This might be is the best coached Rangers squad since Colin Campbell took them to the 1997 semifinals. That's not saying much, really.

- Big Plays – We wuz robbed. MSG’s replays with sound clearly showed Jason Ward raising his arms to celebrate a goal before the ref blew the whistle and the play. It was a tired and rather sloppy team that came on the ice for its tenth game in 18 days against a Buffalo team that’s unbeaten at home. Yet it was a game they easily could have won, even without Ward’s goal. The Sabres’ second goal was another own-goal off of Kasparaitus, this one off his glove. And shortly after Ward’s goal was disallowed, the Rangers were awarded two power plays, creating a 47 second five-on-three on which they failed to register a shot. As I’ve written before, the Blueshirts can’t ask for more than to be close late in the game with the first team power play on the ice, and they have to take advantage of those situations. Even after the two man advantage expired and it was five on four, Rucinsky set up Steve Rucchin all alone in the low slot with what looked like a lot of net to shoot at, but he flubbed the shot off the outside of the left post. Buffalo’s rookie goalie Ryan Miller made just 22 saves, but made several big saves, and robbed Jagr twice in a single power play sequence earlier in the third.

- I'm seeing some calls in the press and the blogosphere calling for the recall of Ryan Hollweg, whose speed and feistiness would be helpful.

- The Rangers have not had a fight since Garth Murray battled the Sabres' Adam Mair in the first period of Messier's farewell game on March 31, 2004.

- Jarkko Immonen, acquired in the Leetch trade along with Kondratiev, was one of the last cuts in training camp, and he leads the Wolfpack in scoring with 4 goals and an assist. Fedor Fedorov is tied in total points with a goal and 4 assists.