In honour of Tuesday night’s 7-0 rout of the Atlanta Thrashers at the hands of the New York Rangers in the National Hockey League playoffs, here are the seven players of note, for better or worse, from the first two rounds of the Monte Carlo Masters:

1. Richard Gasquet: I didn’t expect Richard to play very well at Monte Carlo, primarily due to his recent inability to close out matches he needs to be winning as a high seed in tournaments. Some prognosticators were more bullish, but even so, my objective outlook for Richard (requiring a separation of my fandom for him) wasn’t glowing. In fact, the only live action from the past two days that I’ve caught from Monte Carlo, due to the New York City trip, was his first round match versus Fernando Verdasco.

Gasquet took the first set 7-5, and soon held match point in the second set. And then another. And another. And another. And another. Richard let five match points slip away, and Verdasco took the second set. With Richard looking as dejected as could be, I thought for sure that it was going to be one and done for the Frenchman. But instead, the third set was an impressive turnaround. Verdasco had some injury concerns, while Gasquet improved his play and showed great resolve.

For someone who is often scorned for his lack of focus, Gasquet held strong and took the last set in a tiebreaker. Gasquet then beat a quality opponent in Dominik Hrbaty (7-6 7-5), and has a third round match with Ivan Ljubicic. We’ll see if the run continues – but I’m more optimistic than I was before.

2. Rafael Nadal: Same loud shirt? Check. Same dominant result? Check. Nadal extended his clay court winning streak to 63 matches, against a potentially threatening second round opponent. Juan Ignacio Chela, who is always a threat on clay, was Nadal’s adversary after defeating former French Open finalist Martin Verkerk in round one. Nadal wasn’t fazed in the least, and it showed in the dominating score, 6-3 6-1. Incredible movement, unrivaled stamina, cheetah-like speed, and deft slides? Check. Killer running forehands that have come to define Rafa? Check. A victory against Kristof Vliegen in the next round? Check.

3. Fernando Gonzalez: In Steve Tignor’s blog post which I have linked to above, he notes that his semi-final prediction for Gasquet is predicated on the fact that the highest seed in that part of the draw, Fernando Gonzalez, will underperform at Monte Carlo. Low and behold, the post-Australian Open hangover is still having lingering effects on Gonzo. He fell to Igor Andreev, certainly a formidable clay court opponent (he was the last player to beat Nadal on dirt), but a No 4 seed needs to win more than one match at a Masters Series event. It’s far too early to shut the door on the Chilean for 2007, but his recent play is becoming as erratic as last year’s Australian Open runner-up, Marcos Baghdatis (who also lost in the first round).