Monday musings: Dubinsky, dates, dinners and discs

"Thursday night your stockings needed mending/See how they run...."

If, in fact, RFA Brandon Dubinsky's arbitration hearing takes place Thursday---I'm thinking there will be a longer-term deal done to avoid that---we'll know the dollars and term (one or two years) a few days later.

So far, the Rangers have avoided two hearings---signing Brian Boyle and Michael Sauer---and face another one, with Ryan Callahan---on July 28. The NHL's hearings begin on Wednesday.

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Speaking of dates, these may have been reported scattershot, but here they are in one place. The Rangers three U.S. exhibition games are: Sept. 21 in Albany vs the Devs, Sept. 23rd in the Rock vs the Devs, and Sept. 26 in Philly against No. 68 and the Flyers at 7 p.m.

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Not passionate about soccer (how many 0-0 ties in the MLS this season? 127?), but my take on the shootout: Kind of like the NHL. Rather not have it at all, but understand the necessity to have it as an option. If FIFA must employ it in the quarters and semis of a tournament, fine, but not in a title game. Women or men.

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Time to drag my butt back to the pool and gym. Dropped a few pounds already this summer, but recouped some this weekend with the Sica family-style lasagne and meatballs crafted by my Aunt Violet (known to all as Sugar) and the spicy calimari, grilled salmon, a touch of lobster mac-and-cheese and peachy-white sangria at Half Moon (on the Hudson) in Dobbs Ferry at a mini-celebration with my wife and family for our wedding anniversary.

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Old-school summer rotation: Rockpile, "Seconds of Pleasure"; Traffic, "Shootout at the Fantasy Factory"; the Del-Lords, "Frontier Days"; Graham Parker, "Heat Treatment", Chet Baker, "The Italian Sessions.'