The New York Rangers had practice today so it should go without saying that there was yet another combination of lines on display in another effort to get Marian Gaborik going. The third line is the only that remained the same and the groupings looked like this:
Brandon Dubinsky-Derek Stepan-Marian Gaborik
Alex Frolov-Artem Anisimov-Chris Drury
Ruslan Fedotenko-Brian Boyle-Brandon Prust
Sean Avery-Erik Christensen-Todd White
Alex Frolov-Artem Anisimov-Chris Drury
Ruslan Fedotenko-Brian Boyle-Brandon Prust
Sean Avery-Erik Christensen-Todd White
Personally I would swap Anisimov and Stepan since Artie has played better with Dubinsky and Stepan showed very good chemistry with Drury and Frolov in their lone period together as a line. Interesting to see that Christensen after playing a pretty involved game against, for him, the Flyers would be dropped back to the fourth line but I would guess that is more about moving Drury back up than anything.
No announcements were made concerning the lineup for Thursday but in not squashing it out of hand Torts may have made some news seeing as how he did not definitively say that Michael Del Zotto would be in. Per Andrew Gross Torts was asked specifically about Del Zotto and refused to commit. I do not see them benching him again so quickly even if Saturday’s performance might otherwise warrant the move. I could Eminger getting a game off with the dip in his play if the coaches want to get Gilroy back in.
Prospal:
Vinny Prospal who has been out all year with knee issues participated in practice today wearing one of those lovely orange non-contact jerseys. He was able to do all the drills including the hard conditioning ones at the end of the day, but is still not expected back for about another month.
Boogaard:
Derek Boogaard who has been out of action for the last five games with what was originally called a re-aggravation of his right shoulder issue now is said to be having concussion like symptoms such as headaches and has been shut down until those subside.
