As I speculated would be the case in the pregame thoughts all Rangers beat writers are reporting that in today’s practice drills Derek Stepan is working with Alexander Frolov and Marian Gaborik which means tonight is the night he gets his shot to be the top line guy for a full night, which will be the first time in the regular season. This is a huge opportunity for the 20 year old rookie from Hastings Minnesota and if he can grasp it by the neck it will be great not just for him and the Rangers this season, but bode extremely well for the future of this franchise. I am not expecting him to go out and get a hat-trick like he did against the Sabres in his debut or any sort of 3 point night every night, I just want to see Stepan play his game which involves some fore-checking, physical play and use his tremendous vision to create chances for the tremendous talent he is going to be surrounded by. Tonight might be Stepan’s chance at a mile high in altitude, but if he succeeds the Rangers and their fans will be on cloud nine.
Other news:
D Pairs:
Staal-Eminger
MDZ-Girardi
Gilroy-Sauer
Lundqvist in net
How excited are you to see what happens? Leave it in the comments.
