Rangers News: Christensen's first day, Heikkenen, Dubinsky skates
Happy Friday Ranger fans. The weekend is upon us, we've got two Ranger games on the slate, and some big college and pro football on the slate. Send the family out Christmas shopping, and settle in for what will hopefully be a great sports weekend. Here are some of the headlines making news in the Rangers world:
Jim Cerny has reported on Twitter that Wade Redden will not play at all this weekend, Chad Johnson was not told how long he will be with the Rangers, and that Brandon Dubinsky skated before practice today with Mike Sullivan.
Jim Cerny at Rangers.com has a good story on one of the newest Rangers, Erik Christensen. While as fans we tend to look at new players as some kind of saviors, let's remember that Christensen is a guy who has never played a full NHL season, and has not showed the ability to score at the NHL level that he did in the minors.
But, he does give the Rangers another true center, and he looks to be a good face-off guy, something we know the Rangers desperately need right now.
Metro Hockey has a look at what lies ahead for the Rangers, funny stuff. My favorite:
March 2: Chris Higgins scores his third goal of the season.
Larry Brooks says the Rangers are hopeful the changes made this week will lead to some wins:
As far as Rangers shakeups go, this is not waiving Eddie Giacomin a week before trading Jean Ratelle and Brad Park in 1975.
Having said that, the personnel moves over the last two days, in which the Blueshirts acquired center Erik Christensen off waivers from Anaheim, exchanged goaltenders by waiving Steve Valiquette to the AHL while recalling Chad Johnson from the Wolf Pack, and promoted defenseman Ilkka Heikkinen from Hartford, are indications that management is not going to sit still while the club nosedives to the nether regions of the East.
Andrew Gross has the updates from practice today:
Donald Brashear is also out for the time being, having re-aggravated his right hand/wrist injury.
Tortorella on Dubinsky:
"For a while, we didn’t see the healing," Tortorella said. "There’s healing in there now. I don’t think we’re at risk to do any damage if he hits it. Of course, we don’t want him falling. Also, we need to get him on the ice. He’s been off for a while. So when we started seeing the healing, we’re going to slowly get him on just to get his skating legs."