Rangers Take Third, McLaren a Waste

As I mentioned earlier tonight, the Rangers' squad of prospects were going up against the St. Louis Blues in Traverse City tonight. The game would determine who would go home with the bronze, or as they call it, third place. Well, I am happy to announce that the Blueshirts came out on top in the game, 5-4, and finished the tournament with a 3-1 record. I would qualify that as a successful tournament for the Ranger youngsters this past week.

Evgeny Grachev, the Rangers' most talented prospect, found the net two times in this game, once in the second period, and again in the third. Luke Walker also continued his goal scoring streak tonight, as did Ethan Werek. There were definitely some surprises in this tournament as far as production goes, and who it came from, but then there were the players that were expected to step up, and they did just that.

Both goalies for the Rangers were outstanding throughout the entire tournament. Johnson, acquired in a trade with the Penguins this summer, finished undefeated with a record of 2-0, while Scott Stajcer completed the tournament with a 1-1 record, which included the big win tonight over the Blues.

All in all, this was a great opportunity for all of the prospects to show what they are made of, and a great experience for fans as well, as they had the ability to follow some future Rangers that they may not have known in the past.

You can find the full game boxscore HERE, and a game summary at the Rangers Official Site.

Also, Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants has reported that training camp invitee Kyle McLaren is suffering from an injury, and will not take part in camp over the next few days. Just a week ago, the Rangers announced that they were allowing the veteran defenseman to attend training camp on a try-out basis, but the plan has obviously fell threw now that an injury has been reported. Dennis Seidenberg and Francis Bouillon were both rumored to be talking with Ranger Brass this past August, so maybe we will see one of them signed in the next few days, being that McLaren did not work out.

Full story at Ranger Rants.