Blue Notes

Have a few more vacation days to burn, but just swung by to report that free agent center Mats Sundin told Toronto radio station 640 that he won't decide on his future until after the season begins.
So the teams talking with the 37-year-old former Maple Leaf who has seemed increasingly ready to retire, including the Rangers, can move on. For now. Does this mean Brendan Shanahan will be signed? Unclear. Does it mean Nicolai Zherdev keeps his No. 13? If he wants to, why not?

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Rangers prospects, draftees and players invited to camp will arrive in Westchester on Thursday the 11th to prepare for the Traverse City (Mich.) Prospects Tournament. We're planning a live chat here on the day before, the morning of the 10th.

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Avangard Omsk, the KHL team featuring Jaromir Jagr and Alex Cherepanov, opens its 56-game regular season today. We'll report on how they're faring every few days...The Rangers' opponent in the Victoria Cup on Oct. 1 in Bern, (Mettalurg), will have played 11 regular-season games before facing the Rangers, who will have seven exhibition games under their belts at the time...If any Blue Noters have firmed up plans to attend the games in Prague, drop me an email...

Gotta stroll, will be in touch soon

"The idea of possibly having a hockey mom in the White House just blows my mind."

Those are the words of Dayton Bombers owner Costa Papista, with whom I just spoke after watching a CNN shot of him presenting Bombers jerseys to both John McCain and VP candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a self-described "hockey mom", after the GOP rally at Nutter Center---where the ECHL Bombers play.

In the crowd milling after the speeches this afternoon, Papista and three players---captain Greg Labenski, Joe Van Culin and Dan Riedel---gave McCain a dark blue "McCain 08" Bombers jersey and Palin one without a name or number.

"Because it was such a secret, we didn't have time to customize one," said Papista, who played in the OHL and has owned the team for five years. "But she was really excited to get the jersey. I'm passionate about the sport and I imagine (NHL Commissioner) Gary Bettman has got to be pleased today."

One of Palin's sons, Track, who will be deployed to Iraq on Sept. 11, played junior hockey in Michigan.

It's a TV windfall for Rangers fans.

Newsday has learned that MSG Network will televise all six pre-season games in the U.S.---for the first time that I can recall---as well as the exhibition game against S.C. Bern in Switzerland on Sept. 30 and the inaugural Victoria Cup against the European champ, Russia's Metallurg Magnitogorsk, on Oct.1 from Bern, as well as the two games in Prague against Tampa Bay, the regular-season opener on Oct. 4 and the next day, Oct. 5. A Rangers executive said last night that he believed it will be the first time all preseason games are televised.

The broadcasts from Bern, on a Tuesday and Wednesday, will air in the morning and afternoon here; the weekend games in the Czech Republic will begin about noon ET as well. (Versus also will carry the Oct. 5 game). No radio broadcasts for any of these, however.

Here's the lineup:

Sat. Sept. 20 at Ottawa 7 p.m.
Mon. Sept 22 Ottawa at MSG 7 p.m.
Tues. Sept.23 at Tampa Bay 7:30 p.m.
Wed. Sept 24 at New Jersey 7 p.m.
Thurs. Sept 25 Tampa at MSG 7 p.m,
Sat. Sept 27 New Jersey at MSG 1 p.m.
Tues. Sept 30 vs. SC Bern 10 a.m.
Wed. Oct. 1 vs Metallurg Magnitogorsk 1:45 p.m.
Sat. Oct. 4 vs Tampa in Prague, noon
Sun. Oct 5 vs Tampa in Prague, noon

Some news:

Nineteen players have been selected to represent the Rangers at the Traverse City, Michigan prospects tournament that opens Sept. 13. And Lyon Messier, the 21-year-old son of Mark Messier, is one of four defensemen among five tryouts invited to rookie camp.

The Rangers prospects won the tournament last year against seven other young NHL squads. The players set for next month's tourney are:

G Matt Zaba
G Antoine LaFleur (unsigned)

C Artem Anisimov
C Joe Barnes
C Chris Doyle (unsigned)
C Evgeny Grachev (unsigned)
C Thomas Pyatt
C Tomas Zaborsky

F Brodie Dupont
F Siarhei Dzemahin
F Justin Soryal
F Mike Taylor
F Ryan Hillier (injured)
F David Skokan
F Dale Weise (unsigned)

D Michael Del Zotto (unsigned)
D Vladimir Denisov
D Tomas Kundratek
D Bobby Sanguinetti
D David Urquhart

Dzemahin (a 22-year-old who played for Dynamo Minsk and Belarus in the 2007 IIHF Worlds with Denisov), Skokan, Taylor and Urquhart have AHL contracts.

The tryouts are Messier (6-1, 180), who was 5-12-17 in 46 games for the Lincoln Stars last season. He also has played for the Texas Tornado. Tysen Dowzak, 20, is a big (6-5, 225) Minnesota native and like David Stich, is a stay-at-home D. Stich (6-2, 215) is 19 and from Plsen in the Czech Republic. He played for the St. John Sea Dogs last season. Nick Pageau of the OHL Bellville Bulls (6-24-30 in 53 games) d another look after opening eyes in the post-draft development camp at the MSG Training Center. Matt Meropoulis (5-11, 190) is a 19-year-old right wing from Edmonton who played in the WHL.

One quick item:

Tomas Kundratek, the 18-year-old Czech defenseman selected by the Rangers in the third round of June's draft, has signed an enrty-level deal. This season, he will play for the Medicine Hat Tigers of the WHL, who chose him 15th in the junior draft during Rangers' prospect camp..

Have received word that my story is likely to be cut significantly because of a space crunch in the paper. We'll see. Bathgate and Howell richly deserve the tribute from the Garden and they deserve recognition here as well. So, just in case...


BY STEVE ZIPAY

The Rangers will raise not one---but three---jerseys to the Madison Square Garden ceiling next February: the No. 9s worn by Adam Graves and Andy Bathgate and the No. 3 sweater worn by defenseman Harry Howell.

In two ceremonies that will bring the number of jerseys in the rafters to eight, Graves' sweater will be retired in a ceremony on Tuesday, Feb. 3 prior to the game against the Atlanta Thrashers and Bathgate and Howell will be saluted on Sunday, Feb. 22, before the Rangers host the Maple Leafs.

Graves, 40, had learned of the plans to retire his jersey when Brian Leetch, his former teammate on the 1993-94 Stanley Cup championship team made the surprise announcement during the ceremony to retire his No. 2 sweater on Jan. 24. But the Bathgate and Howell plans had been kept under wraps until today.

One of the most popular Rangers ever not only for his on-ice performance but for his tireless community service, Graves played 10 years in New York and was voted the team MVP in 1992-93 and 1993-94. The Rangers said his jersey would be the last retired from that team, which brought the first Cup to New York in 54 years. Along with Leetch, Mark Messier's No. 11 and goaltender Mike Richter's No. 35 already are on display.

Graves, who also won a Cup in Edmonton in 1989-90, scored 329 goals and added 287 assists in his 17-year NHL career that ended in 2003. The left wing, a Toronto native who currently works in the team's hockey and business operations office, ranks third on the Rangers in career goals (280) and 10th in points (507).

Bathgate and Howell starred in another era: the 1950s and 60s. They were called up to the Rangers on the same day in October 1952 and were teammates for 12 seasons.

Captain of the club from 1961 to 1964, Bathgate was the first Ranger to score 40 goals in a season (1958-59) and is fourth in career goals (272), assists (457) and points (729.) He holds the record for most goals in consecutive games (11 in ten games in 1962-63). On Broadway, he was an eight-time All-Star and league MVP in 1958-59. Bathgate, who tied Bobby Hull for the league scoring title in 1961-62, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978.

Howell, a steady defenseman who won the Norris Trophy in 1966-67, holds the franchise record for games played (1,160 in 17 years) and is fifth in club history for assists (263) and points (345) by a defenseman. He was named to the All-Star team six times as a Ranger. Howell followed Bathgate into the Hall of Fame in 1979.

"Rangers history is enriched by players like Andy Bathgate and Harry Howell, who laid the foundation for what a Rangers player should be," said team president and general manager Glen Sather. "They will take their rightful place alongside those players who have carried the tradition through the years."

Make that three...

Adam Graves' No. 9 jersey will be raised to the rafters before the Feb. 3 game against the Thrashers at the Garden, the Rangers said a few moments ago...This will be the sixth jersey retired, and the last from the 1994 Cup champions, the team said.

And in a long overdue move, Andy Bathgate, who also wore No, 9, and defenseman Harry Howell, who wore No. 3, will be honored on Feb. 22 before the Leafs game in a separate ceremony. Both players, who came up together in October 1952, are in the Hall of Fame .

For more, see tomorrow's paper and my story here on this site in a while...