They Score Some More

Life can be very funny at times as here we were ready to sing the praises of the offensive machines known as Bobby Sanguinetti, Ryan Hillier and Tomas Zaborsky but along comes a 7th round pick who in the second game of a position switch steals the show.

Hello David Skokan (2007 7th) who's 3rd goal of the season helped to spark his Rimouski Oceanic to a 6-1 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in QMJHL action. Skokan earned the game's first star for his overall play including being a +2 and helping the shorthanded Oceanic earn a split of their weekend series with the Huskies.

Slokan's goal, which came in the first period turned out to be the game winner, now brings his season totals to 3-9-12 in 20 games. It has been a rough season for the Oceanic as injuries have taken many of their regulars out of the lineup as just as players get used to each other they have to adjust again.

Skokan who has played most of his career at center is now on the wing but the position switch appears to allow Skokan more freedom to look for his offense,

We have seen that the fewer face offs Skokan has taken the better he has played offensively. Tonight because he only took 4 face offs (3-1) he took 5 shots of which 1 was called dangerous but we gave him credit for 2 scoring chances because of the effort the Huskie goalie had to make on the saves.

The leading scorer among Ranger prospects Bobby Sanguinetti (2006 1st) had 2 assists as his Brampton Battalion using 4 third period goals to over power the Windsor Spitfires 8-5 in OHL action.

Sanguinetti who is now 9-14-23 +9 in 15 games besides being the leading scorer among OHL defensemen is 15th overall in the OHL.

We will keep repeating this until the folks at USA Hockey do the right thing and add Sanguinetti to Team USA's World Junior team.

To be blunt there is not one valid reason not to add a player who is on a pace to score 107 points as a DEFENSEMAN. When Ranger fans talk about the need to sign a UFA defensemen we respond with a why? Sanguinetti and Staal are going to be the Ranger future.

When we see the Ranger woes on the Power Play from the point we wish next season would get here as we also have said this before, Sanguinetti is a nuclear weapon who will be a weapon of mass offense for the Rangers for a long time.

You know you are having a good day when the hottest prospect you have at the moment has the 3rd best game of the day like the super red hot Tomas Zaborsky (2006 5th) did. The left winger for the Saginaw Spirit extended his goal scoring streak to 4 games with his 8th goal of the season as his Saginaw Spirit lost to the visiting Niagara Ice Dogs 5-3.

For Zaborsky, it was his 6th goal in those same 4 games (along with 2 assists) as Zaborsky is now 8-10-18 moving past Ryan Hillier for second place among Ranger prospects. Zaborsky is now on a pace for 84 points which would be close to double of the 43 points he had last season.

This is supposed to be a rebuilding season for the Spirit but someone forgot to tell Zaborsky as he is doing his best to speed up the process. The Rule of thumb when it comes to drafting is if you can get 2 prospects to develop out of one draft it is a winner.

Our night was so good that even the one prospect who did not score had a good game like Ryan Hillier did despite his Halifax Mooseheads losing in the shoot out 2-1 to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in a game web cast via Telus. It was a great game to watch despite the outcome.

Hillier who's role is now to be a 2 way forward is doing a solid job and would have scored on his shoot out attempt if not for an outstanding save by the Cape Breton goalie Oliver Roy. This was a game that reminded us of the shoot out between the Rangers and Capitals a couple of seasons ago as this one went 12 rounds before a winner was decided.

If you take just these 4 Ranger prospects and put all their numbers together you can see why we keep telling you how bright the Ranger future is. 4 players who combined have 31 goals with 40 assists and we have not even played a quarter of the season.