Todd White Finally Sent To Connecticut Whale

After clearing waivers again today the New York Rangers have finally sent Todd White down to the Connecticut Whale of the AHL.  The move to send White down comes approximately three months later than it should have sending him down.  White, 35, was acquired over the summer from the Atlanta Thrashers in a deal that sent Donald Brashear and Patrick Rissmiller out of New York.  In 18 games this season for the Rangers White recorded one goal and one assist while getting mainly fourth line minutes.

The move to send White down was not necessary from a roster situation aspect, but with the Rangers now carrying Mats Zuccarello-Aasen and his 1.75 million dollar cap it as well it became more of a financial decision to finally let him go.  Moving White out means that at least for the near future Zuccarello is here to stay which is good news for him, the team and the fans as his added skill has been very evident in his first two appearances, especially on the power play.  Hopefully the Rangers have now found combinations that work for an extended period of time and can stop the line juggling that has plagued them of late.

This move also makes it possible depending on the opponent and the play of Avery, Frolov and Christensen to call up Dale Weise to play a fourth line role again due to having an open roster spot, though it does add another veteran to the Connecticut Whale and the veteran roster limit. To make room on the roster the Whale sent Lee Baldwin down to the Greenville of the ECHL.  Let us all hope that White takes the same attitude to his demotion as Wade Redden has and turns into a mentoring figure for some of the young forwards down with the Whale.

Rangers Final Lineup: White Scratched; Lundqvist Start; Prospal Sent Home

Yesterday coach John Tortorella left the final spot in his lineup open for discussion when he said it would be either Erik Christensen or Todd White who was to be scratched to make room for Chris Drury’s return.  This morning Torts put an end to that speculation by saying it Todd White would be the one who was sitting at watching tonight and Erik Christensen will play with Drury and Sean Avery on the team’s fourth line.  As frustrating as watching Christensen is this is the right move for the club as White has brought little to nothing this year and there is always the chance that Christensen will have his lightning in a bottle moment tonight, especially against a former team.

In other news that should surprise no one it will be Henrik Lundqvist who will go tonight against the Penguins though I am more interested to see tomorrow’s goaltending choice because the Rangers really need to get Martin Biron back in there as tomorrow would be two weeks since he was pulled against the Islanders and if you keep letting him sit you can lose him.

Finally, Vinny Prospal was sent home and away from the team, but not due to any sort of injury, just the flu and they did not want him to put in through the team like it was earlier this season.

Today’s full pregame notes and thoughts can be found here:

Boogaard In: White Out

In a last minute change to today's lineup, Andrew Gross, is reporting that Derek Boogaard will get the call today with Todd White once again returning to the press box.

In discussing the move last night I said I was surprised that White was playing considering how invisible he was the last game, and I guess between yesterday and this morning Tortorella realized it too.  Derek Boogaard will have his 1 game scoring streak on the line during the game.  It will be interesting to see how Boogaard being in might change up the line because playing Derek Stepan with Boogaard is a waste, so maybe Stepan will get some time with Gaborik today and Erik Christensen will be moved to the fourth line considering that is what his recent play is worthy of.

Shocking News: Todd White Clears Waivers

Slow real news Saturday, but Todd White has cleared waivers and if you could not tell from the sarcastic intent in the headline no one should be at all surprised that he did.  The Rangers will keep doing the dance for as long as their regular forwards are out injured and then I expect White to finally be sent to Hartford for if he cannot consistently crack the lineup with all these guys missing he never will.

Tonight's Lineup

Dubinsky-Anisimov-Callahan
Avery-Boyle-Fedetenko
Frolov-Christensen-Prust
Boogaard-Stepan-Grachev

As I speculated earlier it was White would would be scratched to get Boogaard back in the lineup and the eventual shift of Stepan to the 4th line to start a game after the past few outings has finally happened. D even with it's awful play the last two remains exactly the same in players and pairs. Henrik in net.