Gaborik Hurt? Dubi "stupid"? Nick Z wants back in? Here come the Rangers!

Hang on to your Pucks folks - Ranger Training camp is open - We play a pre-season game tomorrow(!) and we've got news out the five-hole.

First of all - we were going to set up a counter on BlushirtBrothers.com to log the minutes that Marian Gaborik could go without getting hurt. But before we could get anything set up - Gabby beat us to the punch. According to your New York Rangers - Gaborik has "tweaked his groin" and has been held out of John Tortorella's first two days of grueling practice. Poor Marian has missed the three mile run and the endurance skate. Tweaked his groin? Tweaked his groin? (Look - I don't even have to make an off color joke here - just fill in your own).

You know, when everyone else said that Gaborik was fragile - I didn't believe it. But if he's going to be healthy this year - well, this is a pretty bad start.

Moving on - Ranger coach John Tortorella, hoping to diplomatically smooth over a contract dispute with his number 2 center Brandon Dubinsky - announced "I think his agent's stupid".

Way to go John - that should really help move this toward a quick and amiable resolution. This is now a very bad situation with Dubinsky holding out and the Rangers getting madder and madder about it. I never thought we could really lose Brandon - but it is starting to look more and more likely.

And finally - get this - Nik Zherdev - after seeking arbitration with the Rangers - is now offering to play for the amount the Rangers originally asked for (and had been rejected by the arbitrator). And the Rangers - after seeing that no other teams whats Nik for that money - or close to it - are saying no.

And all of this is coinciding with the first Rangers pre-season game - scheduled for Tuesday night. The sleepy off-season is long gone now folks - and Ranger Hockey is back in action - on and off the ice!