Rangers Pregame: News and Notes
Good Morning everyone, here are a few notes heading into today's game:
You guys posted this in one of the threads yesterday, but I will put it up here anyway; P.A. Parenteau was returned to Hartford yesterday.......here is the official release:
New York, October 31, 2009 - New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced
today that forward P.A. Parenteau has been assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League
(AHL).
No word (yet) on who is in and who is out today, but according to Andrew Gross at Ranger Rants, the three Rangers who sat out the snoozefest in Minnesota (Higgins, Avery, Gaborik) are all hopeful to play today. Gaborik said he wouldn't be at 100%, but I think after the last two games, we'll take Gabby at 50% if we had to.
Avery's injury is a recurrence of the knee injury he suffered in training camp.
John Tortorella said it was "mind-boggling" that all three couldn't play against the Wild. Curious statement, if you ask me. You could read a lot into that if you so choose to.
We've all been saying this over the last two games, and Larry Brooks agrees; every team will suffer when they lose their leading scorer to injuries, but it is no excuse for the lackluster efforts the Rangers put forth against the Islanders and Wild this week.
Some final thoughts from me:
I really think Matt Gilroy and Marc Staal should be paired together, so that each can focus on what he does best. Staal is too worried about his offensive game right now, Gilroy is too worried about his defensive game, and I think the Rangers are suffering for it. Put them together, let Gilroy roam the ice, while Staal can stay back.
This team needs a spark right now, and it needs to come from their goaltender. They need a big game from Henrik Lundqvist today.
Hopefully someone finds Brandon Dubinsky in time for the game today.
Brilliant NHL scheduling today. Do they even look at the schedules of the other sports when they put together the team schedules? Playing an afternoon game on a Sunday during football season is just dumb.