As I relayed earlier, Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi
were both back at practice as expected and both will play tomorrow against the
Penguins.
Following the good news of Brandon Dubinsky, Erik
Christensen and Vinny Prospal all taking part in a full practice there is even
more positive news for the three of them in terms of return dates or at least
timetables.
The only one certain at the moment is Vinny Prospal. Vinny is a
definitely for Thursday and is apparently only being held until then so
that he can get in two more full practices for conditioning purposes. It is still completely unclear what, if
anything, can be expected of Prospal considering his age, the injury and the
fact he has not played a game in 10 months.
All of that said, I still expect Prospal to get a shot to play with
Gaborik immediately, whether at center or on the wing.
Brandon Dubinsky was back on skates today for the
first time since he was taken out of the lineup with a stress fracture in his
leg. Dubinsky took part in hard
conditioning skate, rest, and then full practice and was said to be feeling
good. He would rule himself out for
tomorrow’s game and that it would depend on how the leg responds in the morning. Jesse Spector tweeted John
Tortorella having similar thoughts on Dubinsky in not ruling him out and that
if he is pain free he will likely play.
In terms of Christensen and Fedotenko, Darren Dreger tweeted
that EC could be back by Saturday and that Fedotenko could be ready within 10
days.
Amazing how all of these guys could be getting healthy
basically all at once. This is great
news for the team and the depth of the club, but also means that roster
decisions will need to be made both in terms of lines and who plays/sits.
To remind everyone, here are the lines from earlier
Avery-Anisimov-Gaborik
Wolski-Stepan-Callahan
Zuccarello-Boyle-Prust
Grachev-Newbury-Drury
Wolski-Stepan-Callahan
Zuccarello-Boyle-Prust
Grachev-Newbury-Drury
If
Dubinsky plays these lines will likely change with Avery being the obvious
candidate to move down to the fourth line and Grachev sits out. There could be other shuffling going on with
the top three lines depending on if coach Tortorella wants to put Callahan and
Dubinsky back together or even reunite the full line of Dubinsky, Anisimov and
Callahan.
The
only other lineup spot that is not sure is on defense as coach Tortorella would
not rule out playing Michael Del Zotto tomorrow despite the fact that Dan
Girardi will play. This would mean
someone else would sit, but there will be more on that tomorrow.
