Higgins to Fourth Line; Dubi Talks Benching

Steve Zipay at Blue Notes reports from today's practice that Chris Higgins wore a yellow jersey and skated with the fourth line. He'll most likely be there tomorrow night because Donald Brashear is expected to miss his third consecutive game with a sore hand.

...Higgins should be excited to be on the fourth line, because as I noted last night, numerous Rangers (Anisimov, Lisin and Kotalik) have been able to find their offensive game there.

...anybody else notice that the Rangers losing streak has coincided with Brashear being out of the line-up.

On benching Higgins, Torts said...

"I thought Higgy gave us some good shifts, but he’s not doing enough right now. I’m not trying to turn this into a bigger story than it should be, but the player needs to do more. Will he get a chance to show more offensively. I think he will. It’s not trying to embarrass him at all."

On whether Torts explained to him the benching, Dubinsky said...

"Nope…I think it was pretty obvious what happened. Sometimes you make mistakes and you’ve got to pay the consequences…I certainly know what I did and what happened to me and you certainly can’t make those mistakes. It was a big turning point in the game and I’ve got to take care of the puck and be strong on it."

Later Dubinsky added...

"...I’ve been playing hockey for 20 years and been benched plenty of times for stupid plays. I feel like I’m a pro, and I’m not gonna dwell on it or pout about it, just come back and not make those mistakes."

...like a few of you mentioned in my game recap, Torts' benching of Dubinsky was a bit excessive. It's not like Dubi's mistake was due to laziness or not working hard. Dubinsky has played too well this season to deserve a full period benching.

Finally, Zipay reports Henrik Lundqvist practiced but his leg was still stiff from being jammed into the post in a collision last night. ZIpay expects him to play tomorrow against Phoenix.