Rangers News: Dubi Leading World Champs in Scoring
The United States hockey team may only be participating in the relegation rounds at this point of the tournament, but forward Brandon Dubinsky, who was named to the squad after his Rangers were eliminated from the playoff race in April, now leads the entire tourney in scoring with three goals and seven assists for a total of 10 points. The 24-year-old center has been placed in the middle of Islander Kyle Okposo and Senator Nick Foligno on the U.S.'s top offensive line. At first, they were a trio that was struggling to produce much, but as time has passed, they have shown improvement.
The more the merrier and for Dubinsky, there could not be anything better for him right now than to be participating in the World Championships in Germany and continue to play hockey even though his National Hockey League club has already been done for over a month now. For such a young player, it is crucial that Dubi has the opportunity to play in different environments, under different coaches, and with different players. Something like this gives him exactly that, and will be instrumental to his future development.
And now, not only is he participating, but he is dominating out on the ice. Considering there are players such as Matt Duchene, Alex Ovechkin, and Jaromir Jagr also playing for their respective countries, it speaks volumes that Brandon is leading them all in scoring. As we know, consistency has been a flaw in Dubinsky's game all throughout his career, but in this tournament, since he has started scoring, he has not shown signs of stopping.
Defenseman Matt Gilroy has also been having himself a solid tournament, scoring a hat trick on defense in Saturday's win over Kazakhstan. Marc Staal and Michael Del Zotto are also in on the fun, but with Team Canada, who seems to be struggling as of late with a loss to the Czech Republic earlier this afternoon.