Monday, January 14, 2008

Shanahan & Avery Out; Lundy in Goal

Steve Zipay at Blue Notes, gives an update on the Rangers lineup for tonight...

"When I left Mellon Arena after the morning skate, Sean Avery, in full uniform but wearing a knit cap, was one the ice under the eye of assistant coach Perry Pearn. Avery was stickhandling a bit to test his injured wrist, and coach Tom Renney said things had improved enough to describe Avery as day-to-day.

'Fitness-wise, he's fine,' said Renney of Avery, who will miss his fourth consecutive game tonight. 'Now it's a matter of putting heat on the injury and seeing where we're at.'

Brendan Shanahan, who sat out the Montreal game, didn't skate and won't dress tonight, but was optimistic that he would play against Buffalo on Wednesday. 'It all feels a lot better, the hip, the knee, the hamstring,' said Shanahan. 'I'll skate tomorrow. But (tonight) it's better to just back off. In retrospect, I shouldn't have tried to play (against Philadelphia). That set it in the wrong direction.'

Jaromir Jagr loosened up before the skate and will play, and Renney expected the lines and defensive pairings to remain the same---"at least from the start." That means Jason Strudwick would be a healthy scratch.

Expect the HBO line to match up against Sidney Crosby's line as often as possible, even though the Rangers won't have the last line change on the road.. 'I love rolling four lines when I can, but when you have some success, it's pretty tough to get away from that,' Renney said.

Henrik Lundqvist, 10-4-3 lifetime against the Pens, will start in goal..."

...with the lineup the same as Saturday's, I'm expecting another outstanding effort.

...hopefully, when Renney says the HBO line will be matched up against Crosby's line as much as possible, he doesn't mean they're going to get more ice time than Jagr's line.

No comments: