After the weekend win over Los Panthers in Puerto Rico the Rangers return to NY to face their rivals, the NY Isles. After a summer of drinking, Brian Leeds returned to the front page of Hockeybird yesterday. Scroll down and read his entry. For those of you who only read Hockeybird at work during the week, you now need to remember to read his stuff....or you can adjust the home schedule and visit on Sunday.

Gabe is back at the Fact or Fiction typewriter pumping out a pro-Sather article. That's right.....pro-Sather.

Newsday - "For the first time tonight, I found myself disappointed in our power play," Rangers coach Tom Renney said after the team's 3-2 win in the Caribbean.

Hartford Courant - Goalies Henrik Lundqvist and Kevin Weekes returned to the Rangers, who host the Islanders tonight. They were joined by defensemen Martin Richter, Daniel Girardi and Ivan Baranka, and forwards Lauri Korpikoski, Jarkko Immonen, Lee Falardeau, Dwight Helminen and Greg Moore.

ESPNBA has their Rangers season preview. ".....the New York Rangers are for real. How do we know this? Because unlike Rangers teams of the past, whose future was only as good as the next aging free-agent signing, this team is building on its foundation rather than tearing it down."

The NY Post talks about the Devs and cap room, something the Devs don't have. "Other teams declined signing over-35s to multiyear deals, believing the CBA means what it says. They suggest the second season on those contracts could be the winning difference in offers, and shouldn't then be forgiven, changing the rules after the fact. "That's why I didn't sign [Martin] Rucinsky," Rangers GM Clen Sather told The Post."

More on the Devs Cap space and Bobby Clarke.

The BlueShirt Bullentin seems to be THE place to get prospect news these days.

As always, you are required by law to read the Rodent. There will be a test.

It's no longer a surprise to me that we'll have a Hockeybird reader at almost every game played....including one in Puerto Rico. Check for pics of the game in this thread.

Here's to hoping the rumors about OBL being dead are true. Speaking of rumors, Eklund from Hockeybuzz.com and I have had a few conversations, don't be surprised if we do something together. We spoke by phone the other day while he was traveling in Mike Richter's home town.

BTW: This coming January will be our tenth year anniversary.....yeppers, 10 years of Hockeybird. Stay tuned for all kinds of celebration throughout the year.

As we gear up for another NHL campaign I can't help but think about how this place got started and how we got here to what Hockeybird has become. I am so pleased that so many of you visit us each day. I'm also quite grateful for the wonderful people who have helped make this a worthy and readable link. I also must give a nod to all the other great hockey pages out there who stop by and or link to us. I mean, how in the world do we get a ranking like this? I have no clue but I do know it's because of you readers and our writers.

----}- Bird

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