Thursday, November 29, 2007

Ranger News & Notes: Islander Game Day Edition

Some game day news and notes from Sam Weinman over at his blog with NY Observer...

The Rangers mulled calling someone up from Hartford, but opted against it, which means yes, everyone’s favorite enigma, Marcel Hossa, will skate in Sean Avery’s spot at left wing alongside Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan tonight against the Islanders.

Some more notes:

The rest of the lineup is what you’d expect, with Ryan Callahan taking the right wing with Chris Drury and Petr Prucha.

Marek Malik is now also medically cleared to play, but will be a healthy scratch. My guess is the Rangers’ reluctance to summon bodies from Hartford lies in the fact that if need be, they can insert Malik back in and put Jason Strudwick in at forward. But I would have to think that would only be a short-term solution.

I’m pretty sure Josh reported this yesterday, but Petr Prucha will take a spot on the power play with Brandon Dubinsky and Jaromir Jagr up front and Michal Rozsival and Martin Straka back at the point. The other power play has Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, and Brendan Shanahan at forward and a rotation of Paul Mara, Dan Girardi, and Fedor Tyutin.

A new wrinkle: Dubinsky was seen limping severely around the dressing room, with his left knee wrapped heavily in ice. Dubinsky skated this morning and didn’t show any effects of an injury on the ice, but that’s something to keep an eye on. When asked about it, he shrugged his shoulders and said he was fine.

Meanwhile, a lot of talk about the Islanders, naturally. Scott Gomez had a cluster of cameras around him and said all the right things—give them credit, we need to step up, etc. Then the cameras turned to Brendan Shanahan and Shanahan said, “I’m basically going to say everything he said."

...as always great inside information from Weinman.

...very unhappy to see the Rangers have not called up Dawes and are going with Hossa and Hollweg. This team needs to score and Hossa and Hollweg bring nothing to the table.

...hopefully Dubinsky's knee is nothing. Another injury is the last thing we need.

1 comment:

fleisch said...

Straka has no business working the point on the Powerplay. What does Renney have against playing Staal on the point. Is it his the fact he shoots the puck? Maybe its the way he carries the puck thru the neutral zone, and QB's the powerplay?

I thought those were all good things.