Trip to the Rangers practice facility

[Monty22 835]

This summer I made the trek to NY to visit a buddy that works for the NYR. Thought I would share some pics. Sorry for the quality, they were from my cellphone.

Sign on the door

Locker room

This was taken in a room off the loading dock area. It's a small room with enough room for most of the player's bags. The PVC pipes blow warm air into the bags to dry out the gear. Avery didn't take his gear home over the summer....

This is the door to the cage where all the jerseys are locked up. As you can see, anytime a player is traded or retires their locker room tag gets woven into the chain link. Forgot to take a pic, but there was a Cascade M11 all done up for Messier sitting on a shelf.

This was taken in a hallway where all the offices are. Next to Gretzky's were all the other player jerseys that made it into the HOF. The facility itself is top notch- I was impressed by how clean it was, The storage area was impressive, putting most large LHS to shame with the inventory of helmets.

Practice ice.

[BoDangles 0]

Sounds like a pretty cool experience.

One pair of Lundqvist pads there are insanely straight. Experimenting or does his break in his pads the old school way?

[Monty22 835]

No idea. maybe they were new?

[DarkStar50 680]

I like how the goalies have the double size dressing space.

[kevrocks 1]

Pretty sweet. Did you get to skate on the ice?

[Durbo20vT 4]

that is awesome!!!

[Law Goalie 147]

I like how the goalies have the double size dressing space.

As it should be!

One pair of Lundqvist pads there are insanely straight. Experimenting or does his break in his pads the old school way?

My guess would be experimenting. He had a glove without a functioning break for a long time, and there are several guys (chiefly Hiller and Niemi) who have some similarities with Lundqvist's style of play, and have had success with dead-straight pads. His other pads have always appeared to be pre-curved: they don't have the tell-tale stress patterns that 'broken in' sheet-foam pads have.

There's also a Swedish company called ProMask that makes an unbelievably straight pad called, appropriately, the FlatPad (almost without a boot-break, aka ankle-break), so it's distinctly possible that Lundqvist has checked them out over the summer and asked Bauer to have JRZ clone them for him to try out.

[OldCY 94]

Jealous. Thanks for sharing.

[Monty22 835]

Didn't get to skate sadly. Did talk to theEQM about the added backhand padding. Most of the gloves made in Canada will be coming from the factory with the mod already done. There was a pair of Easton E-Pro based gloves in leather I assumed were made up for Gretz by the extened cuff, but apparently was a sample offering theteam ordered to offer guys additional protection. The padding is interesting- it's threee pieces- a soft honeycomb shaped piece with adhesive backing, a thin peice of what felt like medium density foam and a approx 3-4mm piece of plastic sheet.

[MLSman 22]

That is Rye isn't it? I played HS hockey there. That was our Varsity home rink.

[JR Boucicaut 3808]

Nah, the new one...

[DarkStar50 680]

The Ft. Knox of professional training centers.

[#96 0]

I went up there last Summer for a season ticket holder event; very cool experience. Didn't get quite the access you did, Monty, but still interesting to see some of the stuff. Very nice grounds and facilities. I like how the Knicks and Rangers share "wings" of the building, although I don't think the Knicks have gotten much use out of it this year yet

[SouthpawTRK 1]

Thanks for posting the pics of your visit! I really like the photo of the locker room tags that are woven into the fence.

[Monty22 835]

I thought the fence was cool as well. I took some pics of the work area and blademaster but they were super blurry.

The Knicks, Liberty and Rangers all have their own wings of the building. It's really a first calss building.