Rangers Edge Wings at Garden, 4-2

Led by an eruption of first period scoring, the Rangers held the lead all throughout the game, and ended up topping the Red Wings by the final score of 4-2. Going into the game, the spotlight shined on Marian Gaborik, as he made his debut as a Ranger at Madison Square Garden. Gaborik was outstanding in the contest, but he was not the only Ranger who made a difference tonight.

The scoring began when Vinny Prospal saw the puck end up on the blade of his stick on a broken play, and then rifled a wrister over the left shoulder of Wings goalie Larsson to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead on the powerplay. Marian Gaborik followed that up by creating a terrific play to set-up wide open winger Enver Lisin for the one-timed goal. The Blueshirt Faithful got a glimpse of how strong Gabs is on the puck during that play, as he worked his way from the right side boards, behind the net, and then to the left boards where he threw the pass through the slot and right onto the tape of Lisin's stick.

The third goal, also coming in the first stanza, started with hard work along the boards by 19-year old Evgeny Grachev, who found an open Ryan Callahan in the slot, where Cally put a magnificent deke on Larsson to stuff the puck past the left pad. The play was all Grachev, but Cally showed great hands with the deke that he seems to use quite often. Hey, whatever works, right?

The fourth goal came late in third period when rookie Artem Anisimov landed a shot from the neutral zone into the empty cage to put a bow on the game, and register his third of the pre-season.

Now to look at individual performances of the night. I will start with the biggest name going into this game, Marian Gaborik. The first thing about Gaborik's game that stood out to me was his superior speed. You can believe all you want when people say that he is fast, but you do not realize it until you actually see it. From the time Gaborik gets the puck, to him going full speed, there is about a one second hesitation, and then he is gone. This is what we call in hockey, an explosive player, and not only because of his speed. But because of the way he can start the rush and set up a goal in about a ten second span, and we saw that tonight on Enver Lisin's goal.

While in the offensive zone, Gaborik's hands are simply incredible, as he maneuvers his way through traffic with ease. He is not afraid to go into the corners and in front of the net, which is a good thing, and his groin seems fine being that Holmstrom crushed him under a minute in, but Gabs thankfully got up. Gaborik plans on playing in all of the remaining pre-season games, so there will be a lot more analysis when it comes to him.

Another player that I felt had a big game was Ryan Callahan. Yes he scored the pretty goal, but he was all over the place tonight including in front of the net, on the forecheck, on defense, and once even clearing the crease in front of Steve Valiquette. Callahan is already in his regular season form, and I am very anxious to see what kind of year he has in 2009-10.

For Vinny Prospal, this was his first "stand out" game of the pre-season, as he was great in the offensive zone. After scoring the goal, Prospal did not stop offensively, and his passing is very impressive. I like how Vinny has been playing at the center position, but with Dubinsky coming back, I am not too sure how long we will see Prospal playing up the middle.

Aaron Voros received the third star of the game, and rightfully so. Aaron played a solid all around game tonight, and has a decent shot at cracking this year's lineup. He is playing Tortorella hockey, and I know that Torts wants those type of players on his roster.

Matt Gilroy and Mike Del Zotto were a bit quieter in tonight's game than usual, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Gilroy was great when skating with the puck once again, and was very responsible defensively. Del Zotto had tough luck when coughing up the puck which lead to a Detroit goal, but other than that, DZ played a quiet, but smart game.

Henrik Lundqvist was great in between the pipes for the Rangers, making twelve saves in just under thirty minutes played. Unlike last year, Hank has come into the pre-season looking sharp, and will hopefully get off to a great start in the regular season.

Steve Valiquette, just as Lundqvist, played a great game, only allowing one goal, but that coming off of a great snipe from Kirk Maltby, but other than that, big improvement when comparing tonight's performance to the one in Boston.

That is all for now, but more analysis to come tomorrow, and hopefully updates on the status of Sean Avery who was injured in practice earlier today....

(Photo courtesy of Getty Images)