NEW YORK RANGERS

Mike Pelino and Benoit Allaire worked with Patrick Rissmiller, Dan Fritsche, Fredrik Sjostrom, and Miika Wiikman during Sunday morning's game day skate. Lauri Korpikoski skated for the first fifteen minutes and then left.

As indicated in my piece from last night's game, Rissmiller's skating was less than par. Pelino decided that the three skaters would run skating drills for most of the morning.

Sjostrom had a very good practice today, but considering the morning was spent on basic drills to quicken their pace, it's very likely they will all be cut from tonight's roster.

Last night's stars of the game: 3 - Henrik Lundqvist (with 18 saves); 2 - Markus Naslund (with his first goal of the game, which also marked his first as a Blueshirt and the first goal of the season); 1 - Brandon Dubinsky (for his game winning goal).

Little Fact About the King

On March 18, 2008, in a game versus the Pittsburgh Penguins, Henrik Lundqvist recorded his 100th career win in 187 appearances, breaking the record originally held by Mike Richter (198 games) as the fastest goalie to reach that mark.

TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING

In last night's game, three players made their NHL debut: Steven Stamkos (C) logged 8:25 of ice time, had two shots, two hits and won three of six draws taken (Coach Barry Melrose commented last night that the reason for Stamkos' lack of time on the ice was a direct result of the amount of penalties they had to kill - 7 total); Janne Niskala (D) played 16:23 with a shot on goal and a blocked shot; Vladimir Mihalik (D) logged 11:54 of ice time with one shot on goal and was tied for the team lead with three hits.

Three players on the TBL are from the Czech Republic: Vaclav Prospal, Radim Vrbata and David Koci. David Koci was scratched from last night's game, which reporters and the broadcasters lamented his non-appearance as "being a shame." I saw Koci during Saturday morning's game day skate, but he appeared on the ice with only five minutes left in practice. He looked like he was running late.

Martin St. Louis' goal in the third period last night was his first ever in a season opening game.

Mike Smith made 39 saves on the Rangers 41 shots on goal last night.

Tampa Bay canceled their morning skate for Sunday.

Olaf Kolzig will be in goal tonight.

Game time is at 12 p.m. EST and will be airing on Versus.