Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Prospal w Gaborik Stepan; Dubinsky, Callahan Miss Practice; Fedotenko Apendectomy


As seems to be the case consistently now, lots of news coming out of New York Rangers practice today.  The first bit of news concerns Vinny Prospal and where he will play tomorrow in his return to the lineup. 
Steve Zipay passed along the news that Vinny Prospal skated on a line with Marian Gaborik and Derek Stepan.  Following practice it was confirmed that Prospal will play against New Jersey.  Not surprising to see Torts go to Prospal in an attempt to get Gaborik going, and will certainly have more on that tomorrow.

The other lines in practice were
Mats Zuccarello – Brian Boyle – Brandon Prust
Wojtek Wolski – Chris Drury – Sean Avery
Erik Christensen – Kris Newbury – Artem Anisimov

As you can see there are two big names missing from those lines and there were moments of angst amongst those following the beat writers on twitter when they passed along the news that both Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky were missing from today’s practice.  Personally I was more surprised to see Callahan not out there than Dubinsky following the way the two played last night, but by the time practice was over the fears had been alleviated.  Both players according to Andrew Gross will play tomorrow despite being out today.  The two were given a “maintenance day” as Callahan was sore from the Letang cross-check and Dubinsky from his flip during the game.

According to Peter Botte , Ruslan Fedotenko had his injury troubles added to when he had his appendix removed.  The original timetable for his return was by the end of next week, but now Botte is saying that it is likely 3-4 weeks before he can return.  That timeline would push the return of Fedotenko to likely after the trade deadline.  Wishing Feds the best in surgery and recovery.

In other injury news Christensen is still said to be about a week away.