Thoughts from Slats and 2nd scrimmage recap...
Before we get to Glen Sather's remarks..
In the second scrimmage of camp this afternoon, Roman Horak and Ryan Bourque, who each scored, showed they can skate, drawing some praise from Mark Messier, sitting near where writers were watching.
Todd White, who wristed a shot in off a turnover, Brian Boyle, whose high floater eluded Jordan Parise, and Sean Avery's empty-netter were the other scores in the 5-2 White Team win. Chris Drury and Jyri Niemi were the Blue team scorers against Henrik Lundqvist. Chad Johnson and Jorden Parise shared the net for the Blues. Johnson allowed the Horak and Bourque goals.
Plenty of heavy hitting along the boards, with Michael Sauer and Ryan Callahan delivering throughout. Semenov started off banging then seemed to tail off. Boogaard and Boyle also weighed in (no pun intended).
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Between the scrimmages, the President and GM met with writers at the MSG Training Center. Some excerpts:
With the glut of players, is he looking at trades?
"Nobody’s making any phone calls right now. There had been a couple calls before camp, people have offered good players, and they want to give up draft picks for them to get out of the contracts. I want to see what our kids can do here first before we do anything, see how they look in the (exhibition) games....The more kids we have on the team, the better off we are. We want to keep the core, the way it’s been going the last few years. A veteran who loses his job to one of the kids doesn't deserve to be here. That’s not to say some other young guy can’t take one of those jobs. And then what you can do is trade him for another asset…"
On his future: "I don’t feel any different now than I did ten years ago...I guess I’ll work until somebody doesn’t want me to work, or if I don’t feel like working. Just like you guys."
On his relationship with coach John Tortorella: "It’s been really good." Any disappointments in not making the playoffs? "I can’t say that I complained about anything. The coaching staff gets along well, players respect the coaches, they’re well prepared." Still think he’s the right coach for this team? “Absolutely”
On determining who makes the roster: "I’d say talent and fit. I don’t think salary should have a big distinction on whether the guy makes a hockey team…"
On getting under the cap: "I’m sure we’ll be able to do that. There’s lots of ways."
On tryouts Garnet Exelby and Ruslan Fedotenko: "I’d have brought more in, if more of them had accepted it. I just like the attitude that a guy has coming off an off season; he’s got something to prove. It’s good competition for everyone. A guy that had a bad year in the NHL... doesn’t mean his career’s over."
As for tryout Alexei Semenov, who made the club as a seventh defenseman last fall, but changed his mind and went to Russia, Sather said there was no hesitancy to give him another shot.
On Mats Zuccarello Aasen: "He’s quick, he’s smart, he’s determined, he sees the ice well, has good instincts. He’s in the same boat as rest of these guys. They have two weeks to put enough of an impression on these coaches. He's no different than anybody else. He works hard and has a good attitude."
On second-guessing: "I think you second-guess yourself on everything. You're never going to be 100 percent right in any kind of deal you can do. People change, the environment changes, there’s a lot of things that can happen when a player moves from city to city."
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Couple more scrimmages tomorrow, and we'll be here. And our live chat this week is set for Wednesday at 1, the day before the first exhibition game with the Devils. Things are rolling now....
