Poll: Who Do You Want Paired With Gaborik?

So, Seeing As How I Had a Mock Election We Must Have a Vote To Determine At Least a Fan Winner for Gaborik's Line-mates.




If another combination just leave the players in the comments

Gaborik Primary: Which Candidates Should Get First Chance To Be "Running-Mates"

Being that Gaborik is officially said to be playing tomorrow versus Buffalo at the Garden it is time to take a look at who will and maybe more importantly who should get the job of being his line-mates.  In the buildup to his comeback it has been all but assumed that Frolov would be his left wing and that the only debate to have was about the center with two consistent names in the conversation; Derek Stepan and Erik Christensen.  Since I prefer a little out of the box thinking I will try some on the topic and see what develops.  In doing so I will take some political background and mesh it with this current race to be the running-mates for Gaborik.

Gaborik Officially In: Rozsival Out With Shoulder Sprain

In a follow-up to today's practice news, according Andrew Gross, Tortorella has officially ruled Gaborik as in for tomorrow, which is very good news for the Rangers offense as Dubinsky and Boyle (yes, Boyle) will finally have some goal scoring reinforcements.  The ruling in of Gaborik came after a meeting between Tortorella and Gaborik in which the player reportedly told the coach he was ready and that was something Tortorella liked.

In the bad news category a huge blow for the defense as Michal Rozsival is going to be out a week to ten days with a shoulder injury.  As hard as it is for many Ranger fans to believe this is a huge loss as Rozi has been excellent this year, though not so much on the game winner last night.  Apparently the injury is something that Rozi has been playing with, but got to be too much and will now rest to try and ease the issue.  The immediate fallout is that Gilroy will get another shot in the lineup, and apparently Eminger is going to be playing with Del Zotto while Staal and Girardi are put back together.  I obviously have no worries about Staal and Girardi playing together but the rest of the pairs is concerning defensively and I would have rather elevated Sauer even to play with Staal and left MDZ with Girardi to create more balance in the pairs.  I would not expect a call-up from Hartford in the interim.  Going to be a long week for Lundqvist.

Rangers Practice News 11/10/2010: Gaborik Back Tomorrow?

If there is ever to be real anticipation about practice news today seemed to be a day that would have been it, though it was also dulled by coach John Tortorella suggesting before last night’s game that Marian Gaborik probably wouldn’t play Thursday against Buffalo.  Still there was anticipation on practice to see what the results would be for the Rangers star winger.  What resulted was a set of mixed signals that leave me believing that he is going to play tomorrow, but probably shouldn’t.

Rangers Continue To Struggle In Final Period

Last season when the Rangers had their first full training camp under head coach John Tortorella one of the things that was stressed the most was how much Tortorella’s conditioning drills would pay off for the Rangers in 3^rd periods and in back to back games.  It does stand to reason that the best conditioned team would have an advantage later in games.  Last season this theory played out to a very impressive 32-1-5 mark when they had the lead after two periods, but an awful 1-25-2 mark when they trailed after two periods, which means they were also 5-7-4 in games in which the score was tied with 20 minutes to go. 

Video: Tortorella Press Conference After Capitals Loss

Watching this press conference was painful because you can see the frustration in Tortorella but he is to a degree holding himself back this year and for whatever reason seemingly trying to be nicer with the media and more positive about the club. Definitely see the tug and pull of his personality in this one.