Da Freaky Friday

The beauty of covering the New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects is that we get to see tomorrow today; there are nights like these where the words do not do justice to what we watched.

Take Nino Niederreiter for example; as Ranger fans get excited about what Chris Kreider has the potential to become then Islander fans have every reason to be excited about "El Nino"

When you can sit back and watch someone make the game look as easy as Niederreiter does then it is why you love hockey. Niederreiter's 2nd goal of the game turned out to be his 40th goal as well as the game winning goal as the Portland Winterhawks came from behind to defeat the Everett Silvertips.

You can not teach a prospect to want to have the puck on his stick when his team needs it the most. It is a special gift that is only given to the Niederreiters and the Kreiders of the world.

If you are an Islander fan then yes you do have reason to have hope for tomorrow as it is interesting that on the "Final Friday" of the CHL regular season that future Islander Niederreiter, de Haan and Kabanov all played stong games.

The Islander report is right here.

On the Ranger side of the report, you wanted to look outside to see if the Super Full Moon started a day earlier. From Ryan Bourque getting into a fight at the end of his game to the joy of seeing Max Campbell getting a chance at playing in the NCAA tournament, this was one strange night.

For the Ranger prospects it was not about goals or assists as there were not that many. What it really was about is changing up all the questions before the original questions were answered.

We know that with the exception of Danny Hobbs and Randy McNaught, the rest of the prospects are still alive to play. The 2 biggest questions is will Chris Kreider be able to play again this season (we would rather him not risk further injury) or will Owen Sound turn to Scott Stajcer in goal even though he has not played since November?

Kind of frustrating to be at this point in the season with these kinds of questions but the Ranger report can be found right here.

(Images: Niederreiter/Portland Winterhawks, Campbell/Western Michigan)