By BRETT CYRGALIS
Probably the most telling trait of a great player in any sport is his ability to make those around him better.
If Brandon Dubinsky did anything in the Rangers’ 4-2 win over the Blackhawks tonight, that was it.
Skating with Nikolai Zherdev and Aaron Voros, Dubinksy put on a show during the first regular-season game on the Garden ice, scoring once and assisting on goals for both of his linemates.
Zherdev and Voros also added an assist apiece, giving that line seven overall points for the night. But as good as the second line looked, it was far from a flawless night for the Blueshirts.
It now looks like a great move made by Tom Renney to shift Voros to the second line with Dubinsky, but, as I’m sure Voros would say himself, a lot of him looking good tonight had to do with the play of Dubi. The 22-year-old pivot was great in both ends of the ice, a lot of his offensive production being the byproduct of hustle and defense.
A great example of that would be Zherdev’s goal in the third period. To get the young Russian his first goal as a Ranger, Dubinsky hustled back and intercepted a pass as the Blackhawks were breaking out (which the Rangers had trouble defending, see below). Dubi kicked the puck to himself, made a turn-around pass to Voros, who then was super patient and found an open Zherdev (who was open because Dubi was going hard to the net), and Nik whipped a wrister past Christobal Huet.
Good offense comes from good defense, or the best defense is a good offense – no matter if it’s the chicken or the egg, good hockey is good hockey.
And how good did Voros look? The patience he displayed on that play showed the he’s got the skill to play on a top line. I honestly never saw him making the top two lines, but to say he skated better than Nigel Dawes (who again wasn’t a factor at all) would be a vast understatement.
Before we get to the bad, I’d also like to point out two more good things. One, being the play of Henrik Lundqvist. The two goals he let up were not soft, but they also weren’t impossible to stop. On many of his 30 saves, he looked really sharp, but he was a far stretch from being locked in. I think a couple more games at full speed and he’ll be even better.
And also the play of Michal Rozsival. He looked sluggish during camp and throughout the preseason, but tonight I thought he looked pretty good. In the beginning of the third period, he called for the puck behind the net from young (and still learning) backliner Marc Staal, who got him the puck and then he sent a cross-ice, two-line outlet pass to a streaking Ryan Callahan for a shorthanded breakaway opportunity. If he can show that kind of vision, it would really help this team – especially getting the puck out of their own end. Which was a problem last year and . . .
. . . still is. As good as that pass from Rozsy was, he tried to make a couple more just like it, and they ended in bad turnovers. The Blackhawks have some really good young players, and they were very good at pressuring the puck on the forecheck. But that’s no excuse for some of the carelessness with the puck that the Rangers displayed in their own zone.
The other main deficiency was transition defending. Besides Dubinsky, a lot of the Rangers forwards were slow to get back, and that ended in a lot of odd-man rushes for the Blackhawks. If some of those young talents for the ‘hawks hit the net, the outcome is a lot different.
So some good things, some bad, but the standings only show the final results. The Rangers are 3-0-0, and they have a second-line center who is blossoming into a All-Star.
bcyrgalis@nypost.com