The New York Rangers are happy that hockey is back

The New York Rangers lost in Game Six of the Eastern Conference Finals last year. They lost to the New Jersey Devils their rival. They have been itching to get back to playing hockey again every since. It has been a long seven months but the lockout is finally over and the Rangers players are starting to hit the ice. There were a bunch of Rangers at the practice rink, training camp will begin shortly and the season is expected to start on January 19^th.

The New York Rangers were so close to getting to the Stanley Cup Finals and possibly winning the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1994. The Rangers nucleus remains the same but they added Rick Nash to bring some much needed scoring to the team. The Rangers have an all world goalie and a good defense that remains intact. They now have Nash to go with Marion Gaborik and Brad Richards as guys that can put the puck in the net and they can spread that over a couple of lines. Carl Hagelin had a strong rookie campaign and he is back and Kris Kreider came in late as a young rookie and showed the Rangers a lot. He will be available now for a full season and could bring some more scoring to the team. The Rangers appear to be very serious threats for the Stanley Cup. I would say that the one team that can derail that for them will be the Pittsburgh Penguins. It will be interesting to see how everything plays out in a 48 game schedule.

The Rangers can benefit from this though, they mainly have the same team as last year. The Rangers had Gaborik who was going to start the season hurt now fully healthy along with the rest of the team. They won’t be traveling as much, it all looks to add up to success for the Rangers. They are also a close knit group with them being very happy to be back as evidenced by how many guys showed up at the rink today. John Torterella the no nonsense coach also said his team will be ready and I am sure he will bring the most out of them. He is very demanding but the players all buy into his system. The Rangers look poised to take the next step and are roaring to go, we will soon find out if they have what it takes to hoist Lord Stanleys Cup.