Tonight's lineup

So tonight is preseason game 4 of 6 (with the final 2 coming Friday and Saturday), home against the Red Wings, who beat us 5-3 on Sunday. It looks like we'll be using the following lineup:

Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Kennedy - Anisimov - Callahan
Fedotenko - Stepan - Avery
Boogaard - White - Prust

Del Zotto - Rozsival
Staal - Sauer
Valentenko - Gilroy

Lundqvist
Biron

Healthy scratches: Boyle, Dubinsky, Prospal, Eminger, Girardi, McDonagh
Injured: Drury

Not a ton to glean here, but some. Trying Christensen on that top line is no surprise - he'll probably keep rotating the top line center position well into the season, though it seems like that position will be squarely between Gabby and Frolov. Todd White centering that fourth line is not a great sign for him, especially with Kennedy being given more time up on a wing. Seems like he and Fedotenko really have something to prove sooner than later, while Kennedy is doing things Torts likes.

Also, not to be a number whore (who are we kidding; I'm a goddamn number whore), but White's cap hit of $2.375 million is more restrictive than it could be. Now, the Rangers are in a pretty good place cap-wise, and if White is good enough to make the team, we can afford it without a problem. However, if we were to cut him, we'd have the cap space to do absolutely whatever we wanted - the 23 remaining most expensive salaries on the roster would still come in under the cap (assuming a Fedotenko contract would be around the same value he made last season, $1.8 million). There are plenty of configurations that include White, but I think that his age and salary mean he has to work harder to make the team than some of his alternatives.

Meanwhile, on defense, Torts gets another look at Valentenko, Gilroy, and Sauer, while McDonagh and Eminger sit. Not sure how to interpret this. Could be Torts already knows McD is making it, could be he already knows he's cutting Eminger tomorrow, could be he just didn't wanna play all 5 of them and only have room for one of our 4 regulars to play a game. I wish I could see how these guys are playing. I gotta believe that Eminger, who has only played once so far, in that scrub game in Jersey, is given at least one more game to prove himself here. But who knows.

Also, who knows when the next cuts will be? We have to cut 4 more players before opening night - will Torts just do that all at once, after all 3 remaining preseason games? We have no idea, so it's stupid to guess! Anyway, that sounds like a handful of people who have a big opportunity tonight - a big game could move any of them pretty close to a roster spot, a bad game could move any of them pretty close to Hartford. Exciting stuff! If you can watch, I'm jealous of you - go watch. I'll just read everyone's recaps tomorrow.