So there they were at the blue line at X-Cel Energy Center, one of the oldest players on the Rangers and the youngest, the professor demonstrating slap shots and the student mirroring the instructor.
It was an unusual sight for those following the team. We're talking a helmetless Jaromir Jagr and an eager Marc Staal, with Jagr firing away, bending his knees, showing Staal how to turn at the waist, then feeding him for one-timers.
The lesson worked well, apparently, and ended when one of Staal's shots shattered a pane of glass behind the net---which Jagr said he wasn't paying for.
"I don't know how many games I've got left," a playful Jagr joked. "Everything I've learned in my career I've got to give to somebody else."
Staal, who said he really appreciates the attention, not only from Jagr, but from Brendan Shanahan, who has been helpful, said the slap-shot message was...."Less arms, more legs. He said it's like golf, more of your core, keep your arms looser."
When I reminded Jagr later that he didn't play golf, he responded: "He doesn't know that."
More on this later...
The arena is as advertised, very hockey-friendly, with beautiful woodworking, outstanding sightlines, wide concourses, displays of high school hockey sweaters ---copied at the Rock in Newark---and lighthouses in each corner of the rink with holiday decorations.
In the home locker room, we chatted with Dominic Moore.
His apartment on East 67th Street is gone now, but Moore's fondness for New York remains.
"I stayed there all summer," said Moore, a Harvard grad who in the 2005-06 season centered the Rangers' HMO line (with Ryan Hollweg and Jed Ortmeyer), which was assigned to nullify the opponents' top unit. Although he was a member of the Wild (after a trade with Pittsburgh, his first stop after the Rangers), Manhattan beckoned. "Yeah, I miss it. Some people don't like the city, and some do; for me, it just clicked," he said.
Moore, 27, who was drafted by the Rangers and debuted on Nov. 1, 2003 with three assists against the Montreal Canadiens, never missed a game in 2005-06, scoring nine goals and adding nine assists.
But it's been tough for him to get untracked here, having to prove himself to new coach Jacques Lemaire, playing just 10 games last season after the late February trade and missing 13 games this season after he tore an abdominal muscle in practice. "Very frustrating," he said yesterday. "You can't skate, you can't breathe. And then you have to work your way back."
Moore has just two assists in 20 games, skating on a fourth line with Stephane Veilleux and Branko Radivojevic. Asked how Moore was doing, considering he had been a minus player for the last seven games, Lemaire said, "he's checking, he's fine."
Fine is relative, if you ask Moore, who believes he can contribute more. In the meantime, he asked a visitor---and former neighbor---to keep him abreast of any real estate deals in his old neighborhood.
***
After scoring four goals and playing outstanding defense against Pittsburgh, Rangers coach Tom Renney kept his reconfigured lines intact, with Scott Gomez between Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka; Chris Drury between Brendan Shanahan and Nigel Dawes; Brandon Dubinsky between Petr Prucha and Ryan Callahan, and Hollweg, Blair Betts and Colton Orr as the fourth trio. "I think we've got to let this go for a couple games. Coaches change their minds like we change our socks," Renney said. "You'd like to think we can get something going, get some momentum off these combinations, knowing we've got fallback positions. Knowing the people who are involved, this looks the best for us."
So, LW Marcel Hossa, who has recovered from the flu, will be scratched for the third consecutive game...D Marek Malik also will be a healthy scratch for the fifth time in six games...Sean Avery, who, counting tonight, has missed ten games following Nov. 29 wrist surgery, won't play tomorrow in Colorado and probably not Sunday against Ottawa, according to Renney...Gomez and Henrik Lundqvist skipped the optional morning skate.
Tonight marks the Rangers' first visit here in more than four years (Oct. 10, 2003)...Petr Prucha scored two power-play goals in a 3-1 defeat of the Wild at the Garden on Dec. 5, 2005...The Rangers were 2-5-1 coming into the game and the Wild, who had won three straight, were 7-3...Josh Harding will be in the net for the Wild...Derek Boogaard, Mikko Koivu and Petteri Nummelin were scratches.
My hotel is about a 20-minute drive from the downtown area, and Dave Maloney remembered it from his playing days. "Yeah, good spot. Used to be right across from the old arena. About 20 different entrances. You could get in all sorts of ways after curfew...Or so I was told."
One last note. Love listening to local stations when travelling and Minnesota Public
Radio (89.3 FM) was fascinating. Among the bands: Portishead, Tulsa, the Kooks, Oakley Hall, Heavy Trash, Sigur Ros and an oldie, Duane Eddy's "Rebel Rouser" which was recorded, I believe, in Phoenix in a water tank to get that distinctive guitar sound...
OK, whew, that's all for now...