Dan Girardi (above) and his Rangers teammates got out of a plane in Switzerland on Sunday and fought off the jet lag as they prepared for a practice at the PostFinance Arena in Bern. It was a long but rewarding day on the team’s road to Prague.

• Day One in Europe an Eye-Opener

The first thing you notice when you walk into PostFinance Arena in Bern, Switzerland, is the size of the ice and the configuration of the building.

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Don’t hold your breathe until Referees Stephane Auger and Dean Morton apologize to the entire Ranger organization for the bogus boarding penalty and game misconduct they assessed to Lauri Korpikowski this afternoon. Even though the league rescinded the misconduct, neither official will be sanctioned for their incompetence. That is not Colin Campbell’s way. In Campbell’s world, [...]

That’s right, all 6 preseason games taking place in the US or Canada are over with and the Blueshirts finished with a lackluster 1-5 record. 
Again, I don’t like to dwell very much on the preseason but I’m sure Tom Renney is a bit disappointed (to say the least) about the effort of the Rangers in [...]

Tom Renney was not taking any solace from the highlight reel goals Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev scored this afternoon in making the Rangers’ 4-2 loss to the Devils look more respectable than it actually was — the first pre-season…

Tom Renney was not taking any solace from the highlight reel goals Markus Naslund and Nikolai Zherdev scored this afternoon in making the Rangers’ 4-2 loss to the Devils look more respectable than it actually was — the first pre-season…

Raise your hand if you’re concerned about the Rangers start to this preseason. Yup, just like I figured. Pretty much everyone.

The team offered a fair amount of disclaimers today, and many have merit. There were a lot of players in camp. They didn’t play together as a unit until today. And of course, let’s not [...]

Update, 3:56 p.m.: Don’t get used to those line combinations just yet. Tom Renney acknowledged just now that he’s contemplating going back to the combinations he had for the most of the preseason.

“There might be more continuity based on that,” Renney said.

The coach sounds like he’s confused. At least he has company.

Earlier: Devils 4, Rangers 2. [...]

Paul Neuman probably had a dozen more important roles than his starring role in “Slap Shot”. But to me, he will always be the wise, slightly deranged player-coach Reg Dunlop.

There’s not a fictional character I quote more (I’d rattle off a few right now, but most aren’t suitable for a family blog). For that alone, [...]

One thing that escaped me yesterday when reporting the Rangers’ cuts is that four players, defensemen Maxim Kondratiev and Thomas Pock, and forwards Hugh Jessiman and P.A. Parenteau, have to go through waivers before they’re assigned to Hartford.

Since the cuts were made on Friday, they won’t clear until noon on Monday.

Of that group, I could [...]