RANGERS PRESEASON: A LONG ROAD
The Rangers will prepare for a season in which they will trek back and forth across the continent more often than any time since 19992000 by, what else, trekking back and forth across the continent on their exhibition schedule.
After opening camp on Sept. 11, the sixgame preseason commences with backtoback matches in New Jersey and Philadelphia (Oh, what possibly could go wrong in a game against the Flyers?) on Sept. 16 and 17, respectively.
The Blueshirts will then spend a few days at their Greenburgh practice rink before the young men go west for a quartet of matches in two more backtobacks.
The Rangers will play in Calgary on Sept. 23 and in Edmonton the following night before heading to Vancouver and the Changing Places match between Alain Vigneault’s Blueshirts and John Tortorella’s Ca nucks on Sept. 26.
The preseason will end on Sept. 27 with a match against the Kings in Las Vegas before the team returns to New York for a final handful of prep days for the regular season that will begin in the west on Oct. 3 or 4.
The Rangers, unable to get into the Garden until late October because of the final phase of the building’s renovation project, are expected to play up to eight games on their opening regularseason road trip.
The NHL, which has changed its alignment and format this season so that all teams play homeandhome against every other club in the league, is expected to announce the regularseason schedule once an agreement has been reached regarding participation in the Olympics.
Mats Zuccarello’s salary arbitration hearing has been set for July 31, though the Blueshirts and his representatives are attempting to negotiate a deal. Zuccarello, who recorded eight points (3 goals5 assists) in 15 games last year upon joining the club in late March after spending the lockout in the KHL as an unsigned Group II, has a career total of 34 points (1123) in 67 NHL games.
Ville Koistinen is the last player to go through an arbitration hearing with so few career games, the thenNashville defenseman doing so in 2008 after having played 48 NHL games. Pittsburgh defenseman Robert Bortuzzo has filed for salary arbitration against the Penguins this year with a career total of 21 NHL games.
Zuccarello, who will turn 26 on Sept. 1, received a qualifying offer of $735,000. The wing is believed to be seeking between $1.5 million and $2 million, with the Rangers offering considerably less than that. Under a change in the CBA, teams cannot walk away from arbitration awards of under $3.5 million