Punishments and moves forward

Tuesday night: super-brawl. Thursday morning: punishments doled out. So, under an automatic NHL rule, Byers, for receiving an instigation minor in the final five minutes of a game, also receives a one-game suspension (and his coach gets fined). This is an automatic suspension, which you'll recall from when Gary Bettman decided it didn't apply to Evgeni Malkin back in the Spring. Well, this was just some regular season game involving some team that hasn't been branded the Commisioner's "model franchise," so the rules were applied as normal: Byers won't be eligible to play tonight in Edmonton.

On the flip side, Shane O'Brien was summoned to a disciplinary hearing and awarded a not-at-all-automatic one-game suspension - you know, for spearing Avery with his stick while they were both on their benches. Avery, reached for comment, smiled and said, "I'm surprised they haven't called me for being in the area."

Without Byers, we're down to 13 potential forward, two of whom are Enver Lisin and Donald Brashear. The good news is that Lisin skated at practice today, so he may actually be in the lineup. Failing that, they will probably dust off Donald Brashear, throw in some WD-40, and see if he's still scary.

Gaborik and Lundqvist were both out from practice today with minor bumps and bruises. Both should be able to play tonight, though it seems to me to be a real good time for Torts to throw Valiquette into the lineup instead.

After my long talk with him last night, John Tortorella has agreed to recreate Prospal-Dubinsky-Gaborik as the first line. Torts also said he really liked Higgins-Anisimov-Kotalik, so we may see that tonight as well. That would leave Drury and Callahan looking for a left wing, a job for which I would choose Sean Avery, but that Lisin will probably fill if he's healthy enough. This would leave Avery-Boyle-Voros as the likely fourth line, or, if Lisin doesn't make the cut, and Avery is up on Drury's line, Brashear-Boyle-Voros. It seems like we won't be flying anyone like Parenteau or Grachev out to deal with the lack of Byers (it would be silly to).

I like these line ideas, significantly more than I like the stuff we've been playing with lately. I can only hope they work tonight, so we get to keep them. 9:30, at Rexall Place, Let's Go Rangers!