This morning on the site I asked which of the current Rangers is the most irreplaceable if he were to go down with injury and the main candidates that I wrote about in no meaningful order were Henrik Lundqvist, Marian Gaborik, Brandon Dubinsky, Ryan Callahan, Marc Staal and Dan Girardi. Each of the six have different qualities that make them very valuable to the Rangers each time the team takes the ice. Due to the different roles they are asked to play on the club statistics do not necessarily reveal the level of importance each may have, thus complicating such a question. I went through each of the candidates strengths and weaknesses in this regard here.
This morning the Rangers announced that for tonight’s game against the Islanders it would be Martin Biron who was in the net and not Henrik Lundqvist, thoughts on that move and the other lineup issues were here. The discussion with the Rangers when it comes to lineups and all the changes made during games normally is about the forwards and changing of linemates but tonight the change during the game was the pulling of Martin Biron in the second period and Henrik Lundqvist getting into the game afterall.
The stars of the game this evening were Marian Gaborik and Sean Avery as Gaborik recorded his 12th career hat-trick adding a helper along the way and Sean Avery had three assists which only begins to describe the impact he had on the game as the Rangers pulled out a nail biter they tried to give away 6-5 against the lowly Islanders. I wonder if I asked this morning’s question about the most irreplaceable Ranger tomorrow after this game would the results change with the show Gabby put on. The full game recap is here, but while two points is two points this kind of effort defensively will not hold up against anyone of quality.
During the game there was also a nice long fight between a pair of tough guys as Derek Boogaard and Trevor Gillies went at it in the first period. The video of the fight is here.
