Toniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey hockey!

Watched Leafs-Habs and Flames-Canucks last night on Hockey Night in Canada. Didn't really do it on purpose, but ended up seeing a lot of Scott Gomez, Paul Mara, Colton Orr, and Fredrik Sjostrom. (Nigel Dawes was somewhat less prevalent.) The Canadiens put one in with 12 seconds left in OT, which was thrilling. Then Luongo gave up 3 goals on 7 shots in the first, which was a great start to a 12-year contract (which, for those of you who are bad at math, ends when he's 42, in 2021). I know you don't come here to read about other hockey (if you come here at all), but sweet goddamn I missed hockey.

Anyway, what about us? Larry Brooks sheds what appears to be some revealing light on our lineup for tonight, saying that Dubinsky is "primed to center Vinny Prospal and the brilliant Marian Gaborik." I keep being surprised when our coach does what I think is logical for him to do, but I can try to get used to it. Prospal is the "center" I think belongs most on the wing (though I don't know that he's a first-liner?). Anyway, with Prospal as the first-line left wing, and Avery out, the rest of this picture becomes fairly easy to paint:

Prospal - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Higgins - Drury - Kotalik
Lisin - Anisimov - Callahan
Voros - Boyle - Brashear

Obviously, this is just my conjecture. For the record, my father's guess switches Kotalik and Callahan, and he is usually right even more often than I am (which is always), but my money's on the above lineup for tonight. We'll see what actually happens.

Meanwhile, on defense, Brooks confirms what we all pretty much knew: "These Rangers will start with four [defensemen 25 or younger] in Staal, Dan Girardi, Gilroy and Del Zotto." As I said, don't expect to see much of Semenov (whose mythical "contract issues" seem to have magically vanished) until the Del Zotto decision gets finalized, at which point you can expect to see more regular rotation. No clues yet on pairs, but my guesses from Tuesday stand. Here's hoping he keeps the Albatross Twins together.

PS Like Brooks, I love rooting for a team on which a 23-year-old Brandon Dubinsky refers to the big boost to the team brought in by "the young guys."

Stay tuned for Alternate Captain announcements (Torts will be naming them at this morning's skate).

LET'S GO RANGERS!