Cuts and lineup

So, after Wednesday night's game, the decision was made to not cut anyone until Sunday. This will be after our final preseason games, a home-and-home against the Senators tonight and tomorrow night. Torts has said that Sunday may or may not represent the "final" cuts, which means we have no idea how many people we'll be cutting. Remember that we need to cut at least 4 before opening night. Torts has hinted that we will carry the full 23 by then, meaning we won't cut more than that, but one never knows.

As for who's playing tonight, the forward lines are pretty clear based on yesterday's practice (there is no morning skate today due to flooding(?)). Prospal, healthy enough, will finally make his debut, another first-line-center audition. These are the lines used yesterday:

Frolov - Prospal - Gaborik
Dubinsky - Anisimov - Callahan
Avery - Stepan - Fedotenko
Boogaard - Boyle - Prust

with a fifth line, Kennedy - Christensen - White, wearing orange "we're probably not playing on Friday" jerseys. We can expect these to be the four lines used tonight, with Kennedy, Christensen, and White as the 3 scratches. To me, this reads as more bad news for Todd White, but what do I know?

Also of note: we again see that third line of Fedotenko, Stepan, and Avery. I could like that as a third line a lot, if what people are saying about Fedotenko is true - I like that Torts is trying to push for chemistry there early (this is the first time he's repeated a line in multiple games). I don't actually know which sides Avery and Fedotenko play on when he does this - they're both left wings.

In goal, expect Lundqvist to play the full game tonight, with Biron as his backup, and expect that to switch up for tomorrow night.

On defense, things are less clear. What we know is that Eminger, like Prospal, is now healthy enough, and will be playing tonight. Torts has said he wants both Eminger and Prospal to play in both games, tonight and tomorrow night, so he can get as much look at them as possible before he makes his final cuts. Makes sense to me.

Outside of Eminger, we know that Rozsival, who also did not skate yesterday, will be out tonight. Larry Brooks reports that this is due to a sore groin. He also reports that Eminger will be paired with Del Zotto tonight. So that leaves Eminger and Del Zotto along with 4 of: Gilroy, Girardi, McDonagh, Sauer, Staal, and Valentenko. This would be a lot easier to figure out, but reportedly, Sauer and Valentenko both made very strong cases for themselves on Wednesday night, which is apparently part of the reason they're both still here and cuts have been postponed. So what do you do tonight and tomorrow night?

Andrew Gross of Ranger Rants takes a stab at it, projecting pairs of Staal/Girardi, Del Zotto/Eminger, and McDonagh/Gilroy, scratching Valentenko and Sauer in anticipation of playing both of them tomorrow night, just before cuts are made. This would be reasonable, but so would playing them both to try to gather as much info as possible (leaving open the option of possibly playing them again tomorrow). Again, one never knows.

I believe Torts will be addressing the media sometime before the game today. If I'm still in front of a computer then, I'll post the for-real lineup for tonight. By the end of this weekend, the roster picture will be that much clearer.