BURLINGTON, Vt. – A series of drills that highlighted puck pressure, defensive assignments and other game-specific situations – some repeated until properly executed. … Brief scrimmages, occasionally halted for a coach’s show-and-tell. … Mark Messier sent sprawling after a neutral-zone collision with first-year pro Dominic Moore, the organization’s most advanced prospect.
A first day of Ranger training camp, then, that was markedly different from at least the last six that had come before – when “focus” was a term reserved for photographers and players were told to scrimmage and pretty much left on their own.
“It’s something that we need,” said Eric Lindros, who’s been lauded for his off-season dedication to conditioning by Glen Sather. “We have a lot of improving to do, and we all have to be on the same page if we’re going to be successful.
“It’s only one day – the first day – but I hope we keep it up like this.”
Absent an injury or stunning failure – such as, say, Jamie Lundmark, who is skating on Bobby Holik’s right side, being unable to nail down a job that is his for the taking – this isn’t as much a time for tryouts as it is one for preparation. Not only is the NHL roster all but locked, but the team’s line combinations seem pretty well etched in stone. The Rangers may as well get down to business as quickly as possible; indeed, that is what they’d better do.
“All of the guys here aren’t going to play in New York, and we want the same system in place in Hartford as well as New York,” said Sather, who’s running his first camp as head coach since 1988. “Why are we doing it this way this year? Well, one coach [Ron Low] wants camp run his way, then a second [Bryan Trottier] comes in and wants it done his way.
“This year we’re doing it the way I want to do it.”
A year ago, Sather belatedly accused Bobby Holik of coming to camp out of shape. In February, Holik admitted that he had not been in the best shape of his career but told The Post that, “I was in good enough shape for that training camp.”
Holik – also lauded by Sather for his off-season conditioning – was asked yesterday about this camp.
“I’m not going to say anything about last year,” he said. “All I know is this is a lot more serious. We are getting down to business.”
Moore, the 23-year-old center who led the ECAC in scoring last year as Harvard captain, knocked Messier down in a collision No. 11 later deemed an accident. “We saw each other at the last second and both tried to get out of the way; he wasn’t coming at me,” Messier said. He laughed, then added: “That’s why I kept the elbow down.”