Rather than jump back and forth between beat
writers today, Jesse Spector gets
all the credit for the lineup news. We
knew that Marian Gaborik was going to be out for the game and will miss the
road trip. Jesse reports that the lines
in practice looked like this:
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan
Wolski-Stepan-Zuccarello
Prospal-Boyle-Christensen
Avery-Newbury-Prust
The first two lines are exactly what I think most
people would have expected considering both of these lines have had success in
the past and the Stepan line has been the Rangers best one since the calendar
turned to 2011. As is usually the case with
the lines there are lines that make little sense to me, but then I have to
remind myself that John Tortorella is the coach and the lines will likely be
different by the end of the first period.
Personally I have seen very little from Prospal and Christensen of late
and would have just left the Avery, Boyle, Prust line together as the third
line.
Ruslan Fedotenko took part in practice today, but will
not play tonight and he will be joined by Steve Eminger who will be a healthy
scratch for 10th time in the last 11 games.
In terms of Marian Gaborik and his concussion there is
no update on his actual condition, but he will see a specialist this afternoon
in Manhattan. What the Rangers did seek
to do today though was to bring some clarity to the concussion timeline which
to this point has been a little blurry.
The belief is that the hit which Gaborik was initially injured during
the game against Pittsburgh on Sunday February 13th.
The rest of the timeline is as follows based on
reporting from Andrew
Gross:
- Last Tuesday, Gaborik
said he wasn’t feeling right. At the time, the team and Gaborik thought he
might have the flu.
- Thursday, Gaborik
played against the Kings without symptoms.
- Friday, Gaborik plays
against the Devils without symptoms, though he’s held without a shot for the
first time this season.
- Sunday, Gaborik plays 4:39 with one shot in the
first period. Tortorella wants to show him some video during the first intermission.
At that time, Gaborik tells Tortorella he’s having trouble concentrating, so
Tortorella sends him right to trainer Jim Ramsey and the decision is made to
shut Gaborik down.
This accounting might strike some as questionable
since there is no memorable shot to pinpoint when he suffered the concussion,
but there is a level plausibility to the timeline of events. Concussions can manifest differently in
different people and nausea, headache, fatigue can all be among them and
resemble the flu. The issue I would have
is why not check just to be sure even if there was no memorable headshot to
make them think concussion?
The fact that Gaborik displayed no symptoms through
the Kings and Devils games is curious to then have them manifest themselves a
full week after the believed initially point of injury. For now you certainly have to give the
benefit of the doubt to the team and the player, but just hope for more caution
to be exercised in checking even if it seems excessive and unnecessary for
things like concussions.
There might be a timeline on his recovery following
the game tonight.
