Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Mara In, Rozsival Injured and Prucha Not On Power Play

Sam Weiman at The Rangers Report writes...

"The better news for Mara: he makes his return to the lineup tonight after missing a month because of facial injuries sustained Feb. 23 in Buffalo.

Of course, don’t start celebrating yet. Mara is back in only because Michal Rozsival is out with what Tom Renney is calling an “upper leg strain.” The coach wasn’t overly concerned about his No. 1 defenseman, who tweaked his leg a few days ago and re-aggravated it again yesterday. It sounds like his absence may only be limited to tonight...Look for him (Mara) to start the game with Marek Malik, while Christian Backman will stay with Marc Staal...

...Mara will also take Rozsival’s place alongside Backman on the power play. The new power play configurations have that pairing with the first line of Martin Straka, Jaromir Jagr, and Brandon Dubinsky. On the other power play, Brendan Shanahan will be with Chris Drury and Sean Avery, along with Fedor Tyutin and Dan Girardi. Petr Prucha is back in the lineup tonight, but is not expected to see any power play time."

...good to see Mara back. Hopefully he'll actually shoot the puck on the power play, unlike the guy he's replacing.

...why in the world is Prucha not on the power play tonight? I don't care how many games he's missed. The power play is horrid and Prucha needs to be on it immediately. This seems like an easy decision. I guess not.

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