New Rangers coach demanded more toughness \u2014 and he got it
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — David Quinn asked for his players to stick up for one another, and it didn’t take them long to heed that message.
The first-year Rangers coach watched Saturday night as Cody McLeod went after Islanders tough guy Cal Clutterbuck following a big second-period hit during the Isles’ 5-2 preseason win at Webster Bank Arena.
“Listen, we have to protect each other, we have to stand up for each other, we’ve got to support each other,” Quinn said. “We’ve got to do that from now until the day the season ends.”
This issue first came up when Devils defenseman Eric Gryba hit Boo Nieves in the head during Monday’s game in Newark — Nieves suffered a concussion and has not skated since — and the Rangers didn’t do anything about it.
It was reminiscent of most of the five years when Alain Vigneault was behind the Rangers bench, preaching to his team to turn the other cheek. But McLeod took issue with Clutterbuck’s hit on Peter Holland near the benches, and a big melee ensued.
“That’s my job to stick up for teammates,” McLeod said. “You can’t take liberties at guys like that.”
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Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk played in his first game since Jan. 18, after which he had surgery for a torn meniscus in his left knee. The 29-year-old showed some understandable rust, but came out of the game unscathed.
“Skating-wise, my lungs, all that kind of stuff felt great. My knee felt good,” Shattenkirk said. “Just made some pretty silly plays out there that I would like to clean up, for sure. But I felt like I was getting my timing back, little by little.”
The Rangers have three preseason games remaining, and Shattenkirk said he would be fine with playing all three if that’s what the coaches wanted.
“It’s the preseason, and we’re all trying to work through how to play as a team and in the new systems and everything,” he said. “We’ll get there. But I’m happy with how I felt individually.”
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The Rangers split goaltending duties between Alex Georgiev and Dustin Tokarski, both battling with Marek Mazanec for the role of Henrik Lundqvist’s backup.
Georgiev started and stopped 17 of 20, and Tokarski came in with 7:14 left in the second period and stopped 10 of 12, including a tough one through the legs from Anthony Beauvillier, his second goal of the game.
Thomas Greiss played the whole game in nets for the Islanders, notching 27 saves.
The Islanders cut their training-camp roster down to 43 players with the most notable move being Bode Wilde getting sent to his junior club, OHL Saginaw. Wilde, 18, was the team’s second-round pick (41st overall) in this summer’s draft, having fallen that far after being considered a first-round talent.
Islanders forward Andrew Ladd didn’t practice for the sixth straight day due to what the team is only calling “tightness.” It’s possible he won’t be ready for the start of the season on Oct. 4 in Carolina.
It seemed like a gag this past season when the Islanders then-general manager, Garth Snow, would constantly bring up the injury to young defenseman Devon Toews as the reason the team was so bad. But now that the 24-year-old is healthy and in training camp, it’s clear to see the potential for him to make an immediate impact.
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“He’s an engaging player,” first-year coach Barry Trotz said in Brooklyn on Thursday after Toews played an assertive 22:31 in a 2-0 preseason win over the Devils. “His skating is good, he supports the attack well. He’s making a good case for himself. Every game he gets more comfortable.”
Toews had shoulder surgery this past January that kept him out for the rest of the season. Having been the team’s fourth-round pick (No. 108 overall) in 2014, he had been impressing with AHL Bridgeport — where he returned to play in another preseason game on Saturday night against the Rangers.
With Nick Leddy and Thomas Hickey the only shoo-ins on the left side of the Islanders blue line — with Adam Pelech also penciled in — it would be surprising if Toews wasn’t on the team’s opening-night roster.