Blue Notes

At 14:30, Brandon Dubinsky's slapper from the left boards ticked off Oduya's stick and off Brodeur's raised glove...

As expected, there was a pre-game moment of silence for Alexei Cherepanov

Cherepanov, a 19-year-old forward and one of the most promising prospects in the New York Rangers organization, collapsed and died---apparently from cardiac arrest---during a game in Russia Monday night, and the news cast a pall over the team before it faced the New Jersey Devils last night.

“We lost a life today, it’s a sad thing…a young fellow like that,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said of Cherepanov, the team’s No. 1 draft choice in 2007 who hoped to compete for a spot on the Rangers next season after playing this year with Jaromir Jagr on Avangard Omsk of the Continental Hockey League. “If it meant anything I’d go over myself and see the family…The first thing we can do is honor him with a great effort tonight.”

Jay Grossman, Cherepanov’s Westchester-based agent, said that late in the third period of Monday's game, Cherepanov suddenly collapsed on the ice and then again on the bench, and medical authorities couldn't revive him. "It doesn't appear there was a triggering event,” said Grossman, who spoke to other clients of his in the game as well as people in attendance. “He was skating to the bench and collapsed there. He was helped off and taken to the hospital.”

The teenager had been examined when he was at the Rangers’ practice facility in Westchester for a four-day developmental camp in August 2007 following the draft, and both Renney, Rangers assistant coach Mike Pelino and Grossman said they were unaware of any medical problems.

Information was sketchy, but one source said there were questions about whether an ambulance had already left the arena and took 20 minutes to return whether a defibrillator was working properly. “To point fingers at this point is kind of pointless, I think," said Grossman. “Obviously it was his heart that just gave way. That is pretty clear. It was probably an existing condition that he had."

Cherepanov, who scouts had rated much higher than the 17th choice in 2007 after playing two years for Omsk and scoring 33 goals and 24 assists in 92 games, slid to the Rangers because teams were concerned that the lack of a transfer agreement between the Russian league and the NHL would block him from coming to the U.S. But the Rangers took a chance on Cherepanov, who had seven goals and five assists in 14 games for Omsk, where Jagr had been mentoring him.

“The last conversations I had with Jaromir and (Omsk coach) Wayne (Fleming) was that he was playing really well and Jaromir thought that he could actually probably play on our second line right now,” said Renney.

Pelino, who was in Omsk from Aug. 29 to Sept. 4, on both a good will tour and to evaluate Cherepanov’s progress, described the Russian-born right wing as “very, very engaging. We went out for dinner, myself, Jagr and a few other guys on the team, He was just full of energy, enthusiasm and real excited….Just the way he asserted himself on the ice, he was someone who I was really excited about, that we really did get someone special here. He had things to work on, we felt he had to become a little stronger still. We felt he had to become a little more aware defensively, but as far as raw talent went, and an ability to score, he was great.”