Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Scratches Should Play on Friday

With the Rangers taking all four points from Tampa Bay this weekend, looking very impressive while doing so. Most Ranger fans would probably say if it ain't broke then don't fix it when it comes to the line-up.

To that I'll have to respectfully disagree. Scoring only four goals on 80 shots is more than alarming and when our line-up more often resembles a casting call for Vernon Troyer's stunt double than an NHL team we need to worry.

But scouring the waiver wire for the likes of Mats Sundin and Brendan Shanahan are not the answer. For that the Rangers only need to look skyward. No not towards God, but to the press box.

So far during the two games in Prague and the entire preseason the undersized Petr Prucha and Nigel Dawes have combined for zero goals. While regular season scratches Dan Frische and Freddie Sjstrom combined for three goals during limited time this preseason. Add Patrick Rissmiller's size and the Ranger's could have a very imposing line-up.

So who are the casualties and what would the line-up look like? As I mentioned Prucha and Dawes (I love Dawes by the way) have underperformed and should sit on Friday. The other player is Colton Orr.

In my opinion Aaron Voros has showed enough toughness to compensate for Orr sitting.

This would be my line-up for Friday:

Naslund-Gomez-Drury
Frische-Dubinsky-Zherdev
Voros-Korpikoski-Callahan
Sjostrom-Betts-Rissmiller

While Frische is a center, if he wants to play for the Rangers this year he's going to have to move to the wing. I think his north-south style will mesh well with Dubinsky. And his hard nosed play will help set-up screens and hopefully score some rebounds off of Zherdev shots. Plus they have a familiarity from their time in Columbus.

Voros moving up to the third line will bring some much needed size to that line, while Sjostrom and Rissmiller will bring offense as well as defensive responsibility to the fourth line.

Opinions or thoughts?

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