Hello NY and everywhere else, welcome to the Birdcage. This is one of those rare times when I am lucky enough to have a guest writer take over and give you something real to read. If you have visited RFC (it's more like Dubi Fan Central lately) you may have read some articles by Tony. He asked if he could add some content here and I thought it was a great idea.....so, stop reading my drival and read all about the Rangers very large prospect, Hugh Jessiman playing at Princeton.

----}- Bird

HUGE IN PRINCETON

By TONY ALOUPIS

An old ritual returned this past weekend, that being my friends and I made the long trek to Princeton University to attend a hockey game. Back in 1989, one of us hatched the idea for this road trip, and it turned into something we looked forward to each year. There was pizza at Conte’s, beer at various pubs, and there were eyebrows raised at the New York City accents brought to the Ivy League.

I can thank 2003 Rangers first round draft pick Hugh Jessiman (aka Huge Specimen) for bringing us Rangers Die-Hards back to a night of hockey and friends. His Dartmouth Big Green team was coming to Princeton to take on the Tigers, and we all wanted to see him. So we went.

For those of you who have never been to a hockey game at Princeton, I can give you a few quick details. The arena was built in 1923 and is called Baker Rink, named after the famous Tiger, Hobey Baker. It is an old stone building sitting in the midst of the campus. Inside, it is cozy, and the stone walls make it seem like you’re sitting around a giant fireplace.

The fire that night was Hugh. He wears number “27” and the first thing you notice about him is that he is true to his nickname. While not the widest body on the ice, he was certainly the tallest, easily the 6’ 4” he is listed at, if not taller. The next thing is the shot, which comes in all types – slap, wrist, snap and backhand, and is consistently so fast that it is hard for the eye to track.

Going to see a Princeton Hockey game, one has to take into account that they are, generally speaking, a horrible excuse for a Division I Hockey club. They are more like a strong high school team – okay, I’m exaggerating. Not surprisingly, the undefeated Big Green struggled mightily in the first period. Good teams and players facing Princeton seem to take a period or so to get their heads in the game. In warm-ups, a glance across the red line at the mini-Tigers (most seemed about 5’ tall) is not exactly a worrisome scene.

So the first period ended uneventfully for the Big Green. As for Hugh, he split his time between running every Tiger in sight and committing horrendous giveaways in his own zone much like another number “27” we all know.

Between the first and second periods, my buddies and I talked about the game during the 1990-91 season we attended when Boston University made a rare visit to Princeton. BU’s first line consisted of Shawn McEachern between Keith Tkachuk and Tony Amonte. In warm-ups, Amonte was scoring short side on his goalie with wrist shots from the off wing face off circle. One after the other; it was magical. During the game, he was like a nighttime shooting star. In the third period, he one-timed a missile that scored a direct hit on the Tiger goalie’s face mask. BAMM!! The shot dropped him to the ice. The trainer raced out; the goalie’s helmet flew off. They mopped up the blood as the goalie recovered. Talk about making an impression. We couldn’t say anything. We just looked at each other with jaws dropped, knowing we were all thinking the same thing – “This guy is gonna be a Ranger!!”

After reminiscing, the game resumed and Dartmouth, along with Hugh, woke up. They spent the entire second period in the Tiger end. Hugh was excellent. He cycled well, demonstrated great vision and great anticipation of how the play would develop. His skating was fine. In fact, his first few strides were quick and powerful showing good acceleration. He is raw in the sense that the numerous components of his game are still coming together as his body continues to grow. Still, he wasn’t as awkward as I expected. He certainly wasn’t shy about shooting, though some of his shots were not accurate. He showed strength along the wall, protecting the puck nicely, and gave a frustrated Tiger who had clawed at him a nasty cross check.

During a Dartmouth power play in the third, Hugh launched a laser-guided wrist shot from the left point off of his wrong foot (a la Mark Messier). It was deflected in by a teammate for a goal. And that capped off a game in which Hugh Jessiman demonstrated his bag of skills: size, strength, speed, quickness, playmaking, shooting, and toughness. What a package.

He did exactly what I had hoped for. The low quality of the opponent was irrelevant in this regard. As Amonte and Tkachuk had shown years earlier, some players simply always look “special.”

If only he had drawn blood…

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