There were some updates on the Rangers injured today with Mike Rupp taking part in his first contact practice since his knee surgery. Following practice Rupp, according to Andrew Gross, told reporters that the earliest he could play would be Saturday against the Coyotes because he still needs to work on stopping and starting. With Rupp being within a week of coming back to the lineup the Rangers would likely demote either John Mitchell or Sean Avery as I speculated yesterday. Mitchell has a lower cap hit and is seemingly in better standing with coach John Tortorella, so Avery would be the more likely of the two to be sent out.
In other injury news, Marc Staal skated with the team for the first time since training camp, even if it was in an orange non-contact jersey. Staal referred to it as the "next step" in his recovery and getting back. There have been no reports of setbacks in Staal's recovery of late though still no sense of a timetable on when he might be back.
Wojtek Wolski was also on the ice in a non-contact jersey, but is hoping for contact soon.
While those three had positive news, the report on Michael Sauer was not so uplifting. The Rangers announced that Sauer will not travel with the team on their road-trip to St. Louis and Phoenix. Sauer has not skated since the concussion and no timetable exists for him.
