B R O A D W A Y***B L U E S H I R T S

http://www.nypost.com/sports/rangers/jagrs_iffy_for_opener_rangers_dan_martin.htm


September 22, 2006 -- The shoulder injury Jaromir Jagr suffered in the first game of last year's playoffs may not just have doomed the Rangers' postseason hopes a year ago.
Jagr also may miss the beginning of this season, still recovering from off-season surgery on the dislocation.

"There's some doubt," head coach Tom Renney said yesterday of whether Jagr would be ready to play for the Oct. 5 season opener against the Caps at the Garden.

Jagr missed both of the team's first preseason games against the Devils and is not making the trip to Puerto Rico, where the Blueshirts will face Florida tomorrow. Instead, he will go to Hartford to work on conditioning.

Earlier in the week, Jagr said he hoped to play in the team's final exhibition, and leading up to camp both he and Renney said they wanted him to get as much ice time as possible.

Before Wednesday night's game at the Garden against the Devils, Jagr said he didn't know if he would play the opener.

The team is still waiting for doctors to give it the go-ahead. Yesterday, after Jagr again participated in practice, Renney said Jagr had not been medically cleared "at all" for contact.

The uncertainty is not unexpected. Jagr underwent surgery on May 8 and the recovery time is typically four to six months. The season opener is a bit less than five months after the operation.

Rather than sounding discouraged, Renney seemed optimistic about Jagr's prognosis.

"He's way ahead of schedule," Renney said.

*

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will not go to Puerto Rico, either, although he is healthy. Lundqvist played well in his debut, stopping all 22 shots in the 2-0 win over the Devils on Wednesday.

"It just felt good to be out there," said Lundqvist, who struggled down the stretch last year. "We're not thinking about last year. I'm focusing on what I'm doing now."

even flow? wrote:

I have a couple of questions for the hard core NYR fans:

1. Do any of you have seasons tix?

and if not

2. How easy is it for you to get a pair for a game? I know it may depend on who is in town.

Thanking you in advance.

Still the best pic around.

http://www.cupchasers.com/wp-content/uploads/gary-mark.jpg

I will be in your debt for this on Andy B!

theres also- as another but maybe not the first- option,.:

the ticketfast section of http://www.NewYorkRangers.com. where season ticket holders put up ticks for games they do not attend.


all the best

http://www.nypost.com/sports/leetch_deserves_sendoff_sports_larry_brooks.htm


LEETCH DESERVES SENDOFF
By LARRY BROOKS
BRIAN'S SONG: Brian Leetch, who played for the Bruins last year, has stopped working out in preparation for this NHL season, but has not announced his retirement. Photo: WireImage BRIAN'S SONG: Brian Leetch, who played for the Bruins last year, has stopped working out in preparation for this NHL season, but has not announced his retirement.

http://www.nypost.com/photos/sports09242006081.jpg
September 24, 2006 -- BRIAN Leetch hasn't been skating for the last three weeks, so if the 38-year-old one-time Rangers icon does decide to continue his NHL career, his return to the ice will come later rather than sooner. In that regard, then, it's inconsequential whether Michal Rozsival does or does not miss the first few games of the season.

We're told Leetch, who had been training diligently throughout August, has at least temporarily put his workouts on hold for a variety of personal and family reasons. He is, however, keeping his options open. As a Group III free agent, Leetch faces no deadline by which he must sign a contract, and the team that signs him would not have to place him on waivers in order to add him to its roster.

Talk about Leetch rejoining the Rangers is, at this point, all white noise that tends to drown out the significance of this elite athlete's historical status. Another of the game's legends may be gone soon, and perhaps without a proper stage from which to make an exit.

Leetch shares the post-Bobby Orr all-time blue line with Raymond Bourque, Scott Stevens, Denis Potvin, Chris Chelios and Larry Robinson. He is in the two-man sentence with his friend Chelios - who, by the way, survived a couple of subpar seasons in his late 30s and remains, at 44, a very important Red Wing - when it comes time to designate the greatest American hockey player who has ever lived.

It's possible Leetch will decide, maybe even within a week or two, that it's time to hang up his skates. But there's no need for him to rush to plot his retirement, and there's no need for any club's management to rush to judgment about signing Leetch. These are decisions best left deferred, perhaps even until November, when everyone will have a far better idea where he stands and if No. 2 fits.

*

Proof that salary arbitration is entirely incompatible with a hard cap system comes with a review of team payrolls that shows 20 of the NHL's teams at or well beyond the $40 million payroll mark on the $44 million cap, and only two (Washington and Pittsburgh) short enough of the $36 million payroll mid-point to ensure eligibility for receiving a potentially lucrative second-round of revenue sharing out of escrow overage.

Nashville and Edmonton are the two other clubs with even a chance to stay under the midpoint, with the likelihood that 24 clubs will exceed $40 million by the end of the year.

Of course, the cap is a magnet when salary arbitration exerts such a pull.

It appears the Rangers will enter the year at approximately $41 million, including the contracts of both Jed Ortmeyer ($551,750) and Sandis Ozolinsh ($2.75 million), both of whom will enter the season on long-term injury (LTI) exemption. Players on LTI continue to count against the cap, but the team can exceed the $44 million limit by the amount of the designated players' contracts. Because the Rangers aren't close to the cap, they receive no tangible benefit under the system.

The Rangers only will create cap space by placing Ozolinsh on waivers, thus removing him from the NHL roster when he clears. They cannot do that until Ozolinsh comes off LTI. At the pace he's recovering from postseason knee surgery, that should be no later than early November. If that's the case - and assuming he doesn't rejoin the team - the Rangers would take an approximate $650,000 charge on the defenseman, thus leaving them at approximately $39.2 million for the year.

*

It's fine for Glen Sather to express his opinion the Devils should not be able to get LTI relief on Alexander Mogilny, but we bet there are 29 other general managers who don't quite understand why the league cap charges the Rangers only $4.94 million of the $8.36 million Jaromir Jagr earns.

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly, responding by e-mail to a Slap Shots' query of what the league's recourse is if a team is not under the cap by opening night: "Team doesn't play."

Oh, is that all? :eek: :eek: :eek: