The Two-Line Pass

In last night’s Avangard Omsk/Chekhov Vityaz game, Rangers first-round pick Alexei Cherepanov collided with a teammate on a change and was knocked unconscious. Later, his heart stopped and he had to be taken to the hospital.

According to the Alexander Ovechkin blog, which is a great source for Russian hockey news, the player he collided with was Jaromir Jagr, who was crying and screaming for Cherepanov to wake up. You may remember that the two had forged a tight relationship early in their Avangard time together. Jagr was Cherepanov’s boyhood hero.

The comments on the article paint a particularly grim picture, with one saying Cherepanov has died. Really hoping that’s not the case.

Update: Sports.ru is indeed saying that Cherepanov has passed away.

Jesus Christ.

I was watcing bits and pieces of the Rangers game last night online (don’t narc me out!) and there was one name I kept hearing constantly.

“Petr Nedved.”

Apparently, the 37-year-old scored a goal and generally looked impressive (albeit against Senators bench that, sans Spezza, Heatley, Gerber and Fischer, was not exactly rife with talent) in a 2-1 Rangers win to open the preseason last night. PETR NEDVED!

“Surely when I left I wasn’t expecting to be coming back,” said Nedved, the game’s first star. “It is so nice to be back in the National Hockey League. It’s just an exhibition game, but I was nervous before the game to the point that I didn’t know what to expect.”

He also picked up the game’s first star, and the announcers on homeriffic MSG could not stop raving about him.

Still, though, he’d need turn far more heads than this to make the team. If the Rangers think they can get similar production from a 22-year-old for a similar price, Nedved is on the first plane full of chickens and pigs back to Liberec.

Doesn’t sound like anyone’s ready to annoint him the King of Comebacks just yet.

“That’s his first game so I’m not going to draw any conclusions,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “Like a lot of others, he’s involved in a process and we’re smack dab in the middle of it. We’ll give him credit for a good game and get ready for the next one.

“In the grand scheme of things, it’s something that has to be consistent - at least the chances - and playing a good two-way game and being an influential player for all the right reasons.”

If the announcers on MSG last night were to have been believed, Nedved is still a “great skater” with a “great shot,” so making the team isn’t going to be a big deal.

But seriously, Petr Nedved?

An article in Sweden’s Aftonbladet sports section (there’s some moon language there) on Henrik Lundqvist’s upcoming campaign with the New York Rangers led with the revelation that he’s taking weekly cortisone shots to deal with pain in his knees, and then spent the rest of the article saying, “No, no! I’m fine! Really!”

(As always, forgive my clumsy translation).

Henrik Lundqvist’s sore knees started at the end of last NHL season — and during the finals was growing in pain. The damage, in the ligaments, also gave him major problems during the World Cup in Canada this spring. The hope was that a long, quiet summer holidays would eliminate the problems.

But apparently, it has not been.

“It has not healed well as I had hoped,” revealed “Henke” when we met only three weeks before the season at the New York Rangers’ training facility north of Manhattan.

That’s bad news, especially because he’s taking cortisone to get over it rather than missing any time. The problem’s only going to get worse down the road. Lundqvist, though, says the knee always gives him trouble around this time (in the preseason!?).

A doctor named Björn Waldebäck treated Lundqvist during the World Cup. He told Aftonbladet that he believe’s Hank’s butterfly style is part of the problem here.

“Goalies now often go up and down several thousand times in one season. Of course, it is stressful for ligaments in the knees. A thought I have is that long-time goalkeepers can have more problems with the knees because the angles and thus burden is greater, but there is nothing I have for evidence,” says Björn Waldebäck.

If Lundqvist’s knee doesn’t hold up as well as he’d hoped, or if he gets injured, the Rangers are in a LOT of trouble and have no backup plan. They traded Al Montoya to the Coyotes at the deadline and their only other backup of note is Steve Valiquette. How fast can Miikka Wiikman get to the U.S.?

The article makes an interesting note, too. Lundqvist is one of only five Rangers remaining from the 2005-06 team. The others are Petr Prucha, Michal Roszival, Blair Betts and Marek Malik. That’s a LOT of turnover in just three seasons. They are also paying $20.1 million dollars to the trio of Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Markus Naslund this year.

A few weeks ago now, I explored the fantastic travel package that the Pittsburgh Penguins were offering their fans. It was something like $3,000 PLUS airfare.

At least the Rangers are including the flights as they screw you.

For $3,625, you get the following:

Roundtrip air from New York, NY (JFK) to Prague, Czech Republic. Departs JFK on Thursday, October 2nd; Returns on Monday, October 6th

Departing from JFK is a preference, not guaranteed. This flight could depart from Newark, NJ (EWR)

Three night accommodations at the Hilton Prague Old Town Hotel

Check in Friday, October 3rd and check out Monday, October 6th

Reserved upper level tickets to the Rangers vs. Lightning game on Saturday 10/4

Reserved upper level tickets to the Rangers vs. Lightning game on Sunday 10/5

Roundtrip deluxe game transfers

Exclusive access to the Rangers’ morning practice on Saturday with Rangers alumni

Prague Castle Tour on Sunday morning

Roundtrip deluxe airport transfers in Prague with porterage

Daily breakfast at the hotel

Official Rangers Deluxe Gift Bag

Premiere Corporate Events staff pre-planning and on-site to assist

Passport required for international travel

All taxes and porterage fees included

Limited number of lower level ticket upgrades available

The Rangers have partnered with Premiere Corporate Events to bring you this once in a lifetime experience.

If nothing else, this at least seems like a better deal because airfare is included

Once again, let’s break this down (remember 1 US Dollar= 17.5 Czech Kuronas).

• Round-trip flight from New York City to Prague on Delta with a stopover: $848 plus fees, taxes, etc. from Priceline.
• Hotel from Friday to Monday: $259.87 per night, or $849.76.
  
• Reserved upper level tickets to both games: Games are sold out, but people I’m assuming are reputable ticket brokers have them as low as the admittedly steep price of $148 a pop.
• A ride to from the airport: $50?
• A ride to the rink: Call it $60. I figured $15 both ways for both nights if it’s on the high side.
• Castle Tour: If you were going by yourself, it’d be $25.70 for the long tour and an English-speaking tour guide.
• Morning skate with Rangers alum: A morning skate costs $6 where I go. But the inclusion of Jeff Beukeboom and Darren Turcotte makes it “Priceless.”
• Breakfast: Assume $60, just like in Sweden.
• Deluxe gift bag: Assume a $50 value, even though it won’t be that much.

That leaves us with a grand total of $2,097.46.

Total markup: $1,527.54, or 72.8 percent. What a steal.

At least the Rangers also offer a package without airfare that costs $2,525. Even if you use the $848 airfare, you still get out cheaper than the deluxe package.

It’s not Penguins-grade price gauging, which was almost 100 percent PLUS airfare, but it’s close.

Once again, I implore you: stay home.

"I got interest from WHO?"

Brendan Shanahan, who’s 39 but scored 23 goals last year for the Rangers, is still without a contract. No shock there. He’s 39.

But what is shocking is that teams seem to be lining up around the block for him. The list, according to noted bastion of journalistic excellence Sportsnet, includes five teams.

The most interesting of which might be the opportunity for the 39-year-old winger to move west and join the Ducks. It is believed that Anaheim general manager Brian Burke reached out last week to Shanahan, the Rangers’ third-leading goal-scorer with 23 last season behind 25-goal-scoring co-leaders Jaromir Jagr and Chris Drury.

This, of course, ignores the Ducks’ salary situation, which is already $3.24 million over the cap, and that’s not counting Teemu Selanne’s salary. Shanahan, who’s 39, had a cap number of $5.3 million last year (actual salary of $2.5 million), and any pay cut he would take to play in Anaheim would be, um, substantial. I’m really not sure why Burke thinks he needs Brendan Shanahan, who by the way is 39, of all people to score goals for him either.

For the record, Philly is still over the cap, and both the Rangers and Devils are within $715,000 and $1.3 million of it, respectively. So those possibilities make all the sense in the world as well.

Shanahan, 39, and I agree upon who can we blame for all this, though. You guessed it!

“I don’t know if everything is on hold because of Mats [Sundin],” Shanahan said. “It seems like his situation has frozen teams around the league.”

REMEMBER 1994 EVERYONE?

For a long time, the only two red, white, and blue banner in the rafters at Madison Square Garden bore the number 1, that of goaltender Ed Giacomin, Rod Gilbert’s No. 7.

Giacomin was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1989. The Blueshirts retired his number on March 15 of the same year. He was often spectacular for the New York Rangers in the late 1960s and early ’70s. He was a six-time All-Star and won the Vezina in 1971.

Gilbert’s number was retired in 1979 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame three years later. He scored almost a point a game in his 1,065-game career and never played for anyone else.

For 15 years, Giacomin and Gilbert stood alone. In 2004, they were joined by another Ranger great, Mike Richter. Then in 2006 came Mark Messier’s No. 11. Earlier this year, it was Brian Leetch’s No. 2. Legitimate Hall of Famers, all.

And now, the Rangers have announced, they will retire the numbers of three more Broadway Blue greats beginning in February. No. 9, which belonged to both Adam Graves and Andy Bathgate, and Harry Howell’s No. 3.

Adam Graves, really? The guy who had 616 points in 1152 career games? The guy who broke .75 points per game just twice in his career? The guy who’s only 10th all-time on the Rangers’ points list behind STEVE VICKERS? They’re REALLY stretching their definition of “great” if it includes Adam Graves.

At this point, the Rangers might as well retire the number of everyone who played on the 1994 team. That’d be fine with Bettman, too, as the NHL seems to have an inexplicable love affair with everything about that team. Try watching the NHL Network for an hour and see how many times Messier is doing his best Michael J Fox impression waiting for Bettman to say, “Captain Mark Messier, somethingsomethingsomething!”

Hint: Not less than five.

Meanwhile, the Rangers can retire all the numbers they want. I’m holding out for Jeff Beukeboom Night.

Imagine this guy telling you to do sprints

A lot of things can be said about Jaromir Jagr, and now “future coach” seems to be among them.

Since signing with Avangard Omsk, he has taken Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov under his wing, as he did with Rangers rookie Brandon Dubinsky last year. Cherepanov, who scored a hat trick in Omsk’s first preseason game (preseason hockey in August!), said that Jagr has been incredibly helpful so far.

- Do you communicate with him often?

- Yes, sometimes I ask him about the NHL. Jaromir knows that I have been invited there, and once said: “You want to play in the NHL - train more.” After these words I began to work even harder. By the way, after each practice Jaromir works extra with me: shows me all kinds of techniques, teaches me how to shoot, tells me how and on what I still need to work. In a way he is one of my coaches.

This must be very surreal for Cherepanov, who grew up idolizing Jagr. The young forward still admits he’s a bit starstruck to have Jagr on his team, giving him advice.

- Last season, you said more than once that Jagr is your idol and that you dreamed of playing on one team with him. Today your dream has come true…

- You can’t even imagine what emotions are now overflowing in me. A dream is a dream, but at the same time, even I could not imagine that we would play together for the Omsk club!

- Most likely, you now wait for the chance to play with him on one line?

- I think that such a thing is possible! Anyway, now I dream of scoring off a pass from Jagr.

- Has it been possible to get the autograph of the Czech?

- Not yet, but after all, the whole season is still ahead.

And one quote that should be worrisome for Rangers fans: “And then when I learned that my idol would play in Omsk, I generally forgot about the NHL for awhile.”

Uh oh.

"Oh boy! A free one-week trip to America!"

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d type again: Petr Nedved has been invited to an NHL camp (click for moon language-y goodness). Really.

Which team would be desperate enough for a warm body up front to invite Petr F’n Nedved to camp? If you guessed a team that isn’t going to make the playoffs, you are correct.

The New York Rangers have asked the Czech to swing by training camp and show them what he’s got. This after a sterling 2007-08 season with Sparta Praha of the Czech league in which he scored 20-5-25 in 45 games against goalies who were presumably wearing oven mitts for gloves and crumpled newspapers for pads.

Before that, he split time in Edmonton and Philadelphia in 2006-07, scoring two goals and 10 assists while registering a whopping -25 and somehow getting almost 15 minutes a night.

Now, Nedved is two years older (a robust 36) and, I’m assuming, even more out of shape. If nothing else, this excursion into the depths of straw-grasping should be good for quite a few chuckles.

Says Czech sports website Deniksport.cz (via Google Translator with a little help):

Hockey attacker Peter Nedvěd may return to the NHL. About place in the group will fight in the camp (of the) New York Rangers!

When (he) does not penetrate after a year-long break in the best competition, (he) will play the Czech Extra in Liberec.

“I have to say that Liberec offer is magic in all directions, but return to the NHL is a challenge for me,” says the third product of Bohemia in the history of overseas competition.

Hilarious that even Google Translator says “When” he doesn’t make the team.