In tonight’s pregame chat with the media a series of different news worthy items have come out concerning tonight’s starting goalie, the re-evaluation of Ryan Callahan’s injury; a timetable on Vinny Prospal and when or if a call-up from Connecticut will happen.
First the easy one is that Biron will start tonight against the Phoenix Coyotes which is something I thought might happen because Biron needs to get back in there after being pasted two weeks ago and eventually pulled against the Islanders. This move gives Lundqvist an extra day off before playing the Flyers on Saturday and then a nice break until they play Tampa next Wednesday.
Callahan and Call-ups:
As for the Ryan Callahan situation the initial reports of missing six weeks are now being tempered somewhat by saying 6-8 weeks on the injury. The good news is that there is no surgery required for his busted left hand. Obviously every extra day/game that Callahan is out will be critical to the Rangers, but in the meantime they will have to find a way to persevere in his absence.
Along those lines while I did not expect a call-up from Connecticut before tonight’s game I did expect one next week when the schedule starts going again but according to Andrew Gross coach John Tortorella does not think anyone from the AHL club is ready right now and they will consider call-ups when the schedule gets more compacted in January. Obviously this is good news for Todd White who is likely to be in the lineup every night at least until Derek Boogaard comes back. Personally I do not understand the move because a player like Dale Weise is ready to step in on a fourth line role at the NHL level and has more upside than White does.
Prospal:
Also according to Andrew Gross, in this tweet, the timetable on Prospal which had been speculated about as potentially for New Year’s is now looking more like mid-January which only further confuses me in terms of the call-up situation.
