Thankfully, the Rangers salvaged my off-time with a victory against the Icelanders so this post won’t be totally negative.

Yet, we obviously have enough to be discouraged about and questioning where this team is heading.

Can the coaching staff be trusted with this group going forward? Will the players finally play to the standard of the contracts they signed? How will the Rangers defense tighten up in the second half? If they tighten up.

But let’s not allow these predicaments and quandries to ruin the remainder of the holidays, it certainly isn’t affecting the players (just ask Captain Drury).

Instead, let’s make some predictions of what the remainder of the season will hold:

* Petr Prucha will be a mainstay in the NHL: but it may not be for the Rangers. The fiery winger has done all he can to earn the limelight from Head Coach Renney, now it will be up to the Rangers whether they want to move forward with him.

*The Power Play will improve: because it has to. At near-worst in the NHL, the worst they could feasibly do is stay the same. So brighter skies are on the horizon.

*A big move will come: Just finished editing the next Blueshirt Bulletin which has a lot of very intriguing and pointed articles regarding the blueshirts. Suffice to say, there is more inner turmoil than many suspect in this lockerroom of “outstanding chemistry.” A huge move might be enough to motivate this group.

*Vezina in Sweden: Four times a charm for Lundqvist who is the most deserving candidate to this point, except for perhaps Evgeni Nabokov and Tim Thomas. Yet, expect both the Boston and San Jose trains to slow down as is the ebbs and flows of the NHL.

*Cap crunch: The salary cap will most likely be forced to a lesser number as the economy has begun hitting the NHL. Teams have begun cost cutting and efficiency measures such as aid from the league and inexpensive ticket packages.

So drink some champagne, ponder these thoughts, and enjoy the New Year. We will be back in frequency in 2009.

Until then, thanks as always for a successful year and have a safe and happy New Year.

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Errant Pucks: (A new feature with musings, rumblings and tidbits)

Happy Holidays!

It’s New Year’s Eve, and that traditionally means two things are about to drop: that ball in Times Square, and Henrik Lundqvist’s goals-against average. Now that the New Year has arrived he feels it’s time once again to turn a corner.

To all of our loyal readers and supporters, we would like to thank you once again and wish you the best of new years. 2008 was a year of ups and downs for the Rangers. They started the year with…

Results of this week’s newyorkrangers.com Moment of the Week voting for Dec. 22-28 are now official. Ryan Callahan’s second goal against Washington was the winner, with fans praising Callahan’s style of play. Read what the voters had to say. 

Nigel Dawes celebrates what proves to be the winning goal in the Rangers’ 5-4 victory over the Isles on Monday night. Getty images The Rangers do not play again until Saturday against Washington. The four-day layoff between games would have felt…

Rangers legend Mark Messier describes how he’s been spending the 2008-09 season and discusses the upcoming Messier Leadership Camp at the MSG Training Center.

That’s how I’ll be celebrating the new year, which can explain the lack of updates here.

I’ll try to chime in when I can, but it will have to wait until after I overpower a mob of 6-year-olds on the ice. Hey, I have to feed my ego somehow.

Here’s wishing everyone out there a happy and [...]

Dolt that I am, I forgot to Tivo last night’s game on Versus. When I got home, I had to watch the game highlights on NHL on the Fly. Bill Berg, a commentator who once played for the Rangers made some excellent points about the rivalry. He said that no matter what position either team [...]

To answer your question, and mine: “Yes. He’ll be playing.”

That was Tom Renney’s answer to the Petr Prucha Conundrum, following a hard skate in Greenburgh that lasted about an hour and 20 minutes and was viewed by a few season subscribers and their families (with Adam Graves and his family taking in the action as well).

So after a rousing return to the lineup in which he scored a big third-period goal and heard the Garden crowd chanting his name, Prucha can expect to suit up in the Rangers’ next game, in Washington on Jan. 3.

Beyond that?

“I’m not going to say that it’s a one-off or anything like that,” Renney said. “What Pete did for us last night is what we expected from him from an effort perspective and his attention to how we want to play. He was successful with it, and we want to give him an opportunity to run with that now. It’s about sustainability. Players have to do that, teams have to do that if they want to be successful.

“I think with Petr, confidence is a big thing.”

The Rangers will hit the ice tomorrow, take New Year’s Day off (good thinkin’), practice again Friday before an afternoon flight to Washington for Saturday’s game against the Caps. If that schedule sounds a little light on the games, that’s because it is - not counting their Prague decompression time, the Rangers haven’t had four days off between games all season, and only once have they had three days between games - Oct. 20 vs. Dallas followed by Oct. 24 at Columbus, which was the first of a back-to-back. Now, since they’ve played more games (39) than anyone in the league, they’ll play the fewest from here on out. (Hey, no one said this was rocket science.)

“Yeah, I don’t mind it,” Henrik Lundqvist said of the schedule lightening up a bit. “It feels like after New Years, you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, too. Always Novembers, Decembers are a pretty tough month, and then you start to see the end. I think mentally, that’s a good feeling.”

The Rangers were in dire need of brain surgery after head coach Tom Renney called their performance against the Devils last weekend “brain-dead hockey”. Well, Renney didn’t get exactly that, but he did get a heart transplant that was just…