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Game 41: NYR-OTT, Midway Pt, Revenge on Wolski?, All-Stars in Town

January 12, 2012, 1:13 PM ET [342 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Rangers welcome in the All-Stars (as Carp so eloquently put it) facing the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. Normally a game against the Senators would have some mild subplots, but tonight there a few big ones.

1) Wolski and Alfredsson. In the second game of the season, Wojtek Wolski delivered an unpenalized elbow to Alfredsson's head. Since then, Ottawa has spoken about possibly getting revenge for that hit, with their opportunity possibly coming tonight if Brandon Dubinsky's sore right shoulder keeps him out of action. Wolski did not play in the last matchup in November and I can't see Torts determining if he does play based on the potential for revenge, but I wonder if tries and controls some of the matchups to keep Wolski off the ice for example when Konopka is on. At some point tonight, especially if the game is out of hand or decided, if Wolski does play, retaliation will happen, the question is who will do it and how will the Rangers respond?

2) All-Stars everywhere. Ottawa stuffed the ballot box, electing Alfredsson, Spezza, Michalek and Karlsson. As we discussed when the information came out, it's hard to argue with Michalek and Karlsson, while Spezza and Alfredsson are also both having solid years. For the Rangers, Hank. Gabby and Girardi were selected while Carl Hagelin, who should have been part of the Rookie game, was not chosen. Michael Del Zotto, Brad Richards and Ryan Callahan did not get in, though sound arguments could have been made for each and they along with Hagelin will get a chance to show Ottawa what they are missing tonight.

More important than one and two is getting a win. There is not much you can do for either of the points I listed above, especially two, so focus on what you can control and that's beating Ottawa, which is no easy task as they are 23-15-6 (52 pts), fifth in the Eastern Conference, and have won six of their last seven games (6-0-1).

Separately, on the Avery front, the key piece to focus on in is what Brooks wrote about today and that's cap room and usage. "Avery’s full cap hit for the remainder of the season is just a tick over $890,000 as of tomorrow. Therefore, the Rangers would be hit with approximately $445,000 of dead cap space upon a re-entry claim. The NHL has calculated that scenario would theoretically cost the Rangers $2 million in available space at the Feb. 27 trade deadline: $1 million of accrued space for which the club would be charged plus $1 million it therefore would not save." Complain all you want how GM Glen Sather is screwing Avery and why won't he just put him on re-entry waivers rather than attempting to deal him on a minor-league deal, but the bottom line is the cap hit. This is a sport but a business, and in this case, business supercedes the sports component.

Lines tonight:

GAS
Dubinsky-Richards-Cally
Rupp-Mitchell-Prust
Hagelin-Boyle-Feds
(if no Dubi, Wolski or Hagelin line up on the Richards line with the other on the Boyle line)

Defense will also be the same:
McDonagh-Girardi
MDZ-Stralman
Staal-Bickel

Lundqvist will be between the pipes

Let's Go Rangers, extend the win streak
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