Looking Forwards

I had a dream last night in which Torts shifted things around so that our second and third lines looked like:

Avery - Dubinsky - Antropov
Korpikoski - Drury - Prucha

Yes, in the dream, we had gotten rid of Callahan, not Prucha. But even if you replace Prucha with Callahan in this lineup, there is no way that's going to happen. And I wouldn't want it to. But it does speak to some kind of deficiency in me that this is what I dream about. Anyone know what kind of chemical I'm missing, that makes me waste sleep cycles inventing bizarre Rangers roster combinations? Leave a comment (yes, I know no one reads this. That makes it funny to ask for comments).

Okay, so realistically, what happens? Honestly, I think there's only one variable in this roster:

Naslund - Gomez - Zherdev
Dubinsky - Drury - ???
Avery - Korpikoski - ???
Sjostrom - Betts - Orr

where, obviously, Antropov and Callahan are the question marks. I believe that, until Torts learns a lot about these skaters, he will stick to what he can stick to. Obviously, the simplest thing to do would be make the third line Avery - Korpikoski - Antropov, thus leaving the other 3 lines intact. So there's a strong argument for that. From there, what moves might Torts make? It's likely that he'll make as few as possible, but I think there's one that might be necessary. I think Antropov needs to be a top 6 guy, we got him as a big acquisition, and as everyone says, Torts needs to "light a fire under him." Holding the big names accountable starts with IDing them as big names, and I think Antropov counts as one of the big names. Meanwhile, Callahan is absolutely the least-remarked-upon of the top 6 (we keep saying it: Torts is a "top 6 guys" guy), and the easiest of the 6 to move out of that slot. They're both RWs, so it's an easy switch to make, and I wouldn't be surprised at all if we see Antropov skating with Drury tonight.

If Antropov can be whipped into shape and use his refrigerator of a body to get the puck, no matter who is between it and him, to the slot, where Drury is remembering to do his job, that's a pretty sweet line, by the way.

Goddamn it tonight is going to be fun.