Hello New York and everywhere else, welcome to the Birdcage. I am sitting here in beautiful Florida in my shorts awaiting yet another hurricane. Just great. But it will take more than that to wipe the smile off my face. If this is a dream, don't wake me.....lemme sleep as long as possible. This is too much fun.

Now I can't stress this enough, we are just barely into the 2005-'06 NHL season and to put too much importance on the first seven games would be a huge mistake. However, that doesn't prevent us from being happy about what we've seen so far. Sure, we could hit a bad spell and lose a bunch of games. In fact, I almost expect that.....it comes from years of watching the old Rangers. But seeing is believing and watching this team so far one must allow for a little optimism. These guys sure look like the NEW Rangers.

What are the reasons for this glee in Rangerland? let's take a look.

Goaltending:

Henrik Lundqvist has started the last three home games and become the darling of the MSG faithful. He seems to have adapted to the NHL game even better and more quickly than most thought he would. His movement is compact, purposeful and effective. He seems pretty confident in all situations so far. Henke also seems to be able to concentrate and yet still has the presence to acknowledge the crowd who now chants his name. While three games is hardly a large block of work for an NHL keeper he's got me convinced that he's for real.

As I mentioned on the New York Hockey Report radio show on Monday night, there is NO goalie controversy in NY. Kevin Weekes will get games and Lundy will get games. Don't even worry yourself with the number one, number two stigma. It means NOTHING. At 23 and in his rookie NHL year, Henke is not going to play 65 plus games. And, Weekes is the perfect personality to compliment the development of Lundqvist. Let's just hope they both play well throughout the season.

Coaching:

A lot of message board posters who hate Glen Sather have included Tom Renny is their list of failed coaching choices. Time to make a new list guys. Renny has done everything correctly as far as I can see. He's saying the right things to the media and not satisfied with the play he's seeing Renny has said that the team can improve in a variety of areas. He's sitting Lundmark and benched Tom Poti. He rolls out four lines and seems to be pushing all the right buttons. So far so good, eh?

Scoring:

Sure, Jagr is still our most talented player offensively. But the goals are coming from many different players meaning that teams can't just try and shut down the Jagr line. The power play is doing something unseen at MSG for years, shooting. I don't know about you but I am seeing goals scored as a result of hard work. *gulp* Um, how cool is that?

Penalty Kill:

Much better that I thought it would be. High energy from skaters without getting out of position often. You need to allow for a bad call or a penalty that needs to be taken and the PK so far is doing just that. Brilliant.

Defense:

Based on the numbers (see the Rodents realStats) the Blueshirts rank among the leagues best in goals against. Yes, you read that correctly. This would be the one area that seems like it has the most improvement needed. If as a team they can play even better in their own zone, and I think they can....this could be a much better season for Ranger fans than most pundits predicted.

Overall:

Hey....it's early and the lack of games last year combined with the poor play over the last seven makes what we are seeing now that much brighter. But don't let it blind you. We are still a young team and it's a long season. A pair of losses vs. the Islanders later this week will bring back the boo birds quicker than you can say "Sather Sucks". But ya know it's funny, you don't hear that at the Garden these days. It's hard to hear with all the cheering going on. Winning cures everything, doesn't it?

It does look like the personality of this team is a lunch pail carrying, blue collar, hard working team. It's what Ranger fans have been yearning for ever since 1997. While it's too early to make a declaration, they sure are going in the right direction. I for one am quite happy about it....how about you?

----}- Bird

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