Chris Drury and Vinny Prospal have officially been placed on Injured Reserve. This brings the roster down to 23, including Todd White and Tim Kennedy, both of whom have cleared waivers and remain quite happily as the Rangers' 13th and 14th forwards, for now. As for Drury and Prospal, they won't be permitted to play for 7 full days. Fortunately, that period is retroactive back to the original injury, which for Drury was September 20th and for Prospal was the 24th, so they're both already eligible to return according to NHL rule (though they won't, of course, until they're healthy).
In bad news, Torts seems to expect Prospal out for a significant chunk of time, saying today "I don't expect him for a little bit here... he's an important guy for us, but we can't depend on that. We need to move on. Not to disrespect Vinny but we need to understand that we need to be playing without him right now." He also said he would likely be appointing another Alternate Captain, given both Prospal's and Drury's absences. Ouch.
And now, please pardon this interruption for a Special Rant about the second game of our regular season, on Monday.
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SPECIAL RANT:
Fucking Columbus Day?!? Why the fuck do we have a hockey game at 1:00 on a fucking Monday?? No one gets off for Columbus Day; it's fucking Columbus Day! I have to miss the second goddamn game of the season, and a game against the fucking Islanders, no less? Because someone thought it was a good idea to schedule three NHL games, two of which are division rivalries, in the middle of the afternoon on fucking Columbus Day?? What the fucking fuck?!? I can't take a fucking day off to watch hockey on a shitty TV feed because NHL Center Ice can't be bothered to use my $180 a year to broadcast me a goddamn HD feed more than twice a year! How am I supposed to watch this?!? Fuck you so much, NHL! You're supposed to be from CANADA!! What the ever-living bed-shitting smallpox-blanketed fuck are you doing assuming people are celebrating goddammit COLUMBUS DAY?!? FUCK YOU!
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Ahem. So, the Rangers opening night 23-man roster has been officially decided, and here it is:
Forwards: Anisimov, Avery, Boogaard, Boyle, Callahan, Christensen, Dubinsky, Fedotenko, Frolov, Gaborik, Kennedy, Prust, Stepan, White
Defensemen: Del Zotto, Eminger, Gilroy, Girardi, Rozsival, Sauer, Staal
Goalies: Biron, Lundqvist
As for the starting lineup, obviously nothing is set in stone, but it seems overwhelmingly likely that the cuts of White and Kennedy, and the lines we've been using in practice the last few days, will stay, and with Staal back at practice today, it seems like we know what most of the lineup is going to be. The forward lines for opening night should be:
Frolov - Christensen - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust
As for the defensive pairs, we should have Staal/Girardi and Del Zotto/Rozsival, leaving Eminger, Gilroy, and Sauer for the final pair. We may see these three rotated into the final two spots a lot throughout the season, which I would not be opposed to, but it's anyone's guess what our opening night third pair will be. Most people expect it to contain Matt Gilroy, and people are divided as to whether they think his partner will be Eminger or Sauer.
Oh, and, um, Lundqvist will be starting in net, with Biron as his backup.
Let's go Rangers!
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