It's reunion night at MSG, as Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman return to face the Rangers at MSG for the first time since departing the team. In addition, with Callahan back in, obviously Martin St. Louis faces his old team as well. New York comes in off another shootout loss, this one to Pittsburgh on Saturday, their fourth in their last eight games while Tampa defeated the Islanders on Saturday.

Let me discuss the return of Callahan, Boyle and Stralman. The Callahan contract negotiations were discussed ad nauseum, ad infinitum last year. The biggest sticking points among the fanbase were the length of the deal he wanted, dollars per year requested and concern his style of play would cause him to break/wear down a few years into the deal. In addition, GM Glen Sather was unhappy with the no trade/movement clause he wanted that ultimately proved to be one of the tipping points to moving him. To me, it also was a further movement away from the Tortorella philosophy, which was a shot-blocking one, to AV's, which is where St. Louis was viewed as a better fit. Callahan has played well in Tampa and showed more offensive skills than we may have thought, but that could be due to the talent he is playing with there. There should be a video tribute to Callahan, who was a perfect captain for this team and who gave his all on every shift.

Boyle and Stralman each left under slightly different circumstances. The Rangers appeared to have strong interest in retaining Boyle, but his playoff play upped his value. I always thought the fanbase overvalued the 20 goals he scored the first year and held him to that standard rather than realizing what he brought to the table. Boyle was strong on faceoffs, good on the penalty kill, could play center and wing and stepped up his game in the postseason, all of which came to light last year. I wanted him back and thought NY should have negotiated earlier and tried harder to sign him, even though his wife is from the Florida area, which may have influenced his decision.

Stralman is the poster boy for advanced stats, as we have discussed before. I am not about to get into that debate here, but Stralman parlayed a second lease on life after signing with New York into maximizing his skill set. With Victor Hedman out, he has been a godsend in Tampa. Stralman clearly wanted to stay here, but as been noted before, once NY found out that Dan Boyle wanted to come here on a short-term deal, that sealed his fate out the door. I liked Stralman and thought he was one of the better d-men for NY in the playoffs and would have liked him back. The Rangers decided a short term deal with Boyle was a better fit. The jury is out on that one and a big determinant if that move was a wise one will depend on if Marc Staal re-signs. If he does, that decision to let Stralman go looks better, if not, then not having Stralman long-term entering the prime of his career will look worse.

Anthony Duclair will play on Monday night after three consecutive healthy scratches, replacing the Jesper Fast. The third and fourth line will look as we have suggested repeatedly lately: Duclair, however, will start on the third-line right wing alongside left wing Carl Hagelin and center Kevin Hayes. Lee Stempniak gets moved down down to the fourth-line right wing with left wing Tanner Glass and center Dominic Moore. If Glass plays as if he did against Pittsburgh, he will remain in the lineup. If not, Fast could get back in or J.T. Miller might get a look see again.

Pat Leonard reported that: "the Rangers released defenseman Tomas Kaberle from his professional tryout (PTO) with the Hartford Wolf Pack on Monday morning and reportedly offered Kaberle a second PTO that the veteran rejected. So Kaberle remains an unrestricted free agent."Interesting that Kaberle had two assists on the power play Sunday but wasn't offered a deal. A bit surprised he didn’t accept a second PTO after not garnering much interest following his stint in training camp for the Devils.

RANGERS:

Forwards:
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Martin St. Louis
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello
Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Anthony Duclair
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Lee Stempniak

Defensemen (projected pairs):
Marc Staal-Dan Girardi
Matt Hunwick-Dan Boyle
John Moore-Kevin Klein

Starting goalie:
Henrik Lundqvist (Cam Talbot backup)

LIGHTNING:

Forwards:
Valtteri Filppula-Steven Stamkos-Ryan Callahan
Ondrej Palat-Tyler Johnson-Nikita Kucherov
Jonathan Drouin-Vladislav Namestnikov-Alex Killorn
Brenden Morrow-Brian Boyle- Cedric Paquette

Defensemen (projected pairs):
Jason Garrison-Andrej Sustr
Mark Barberio-Radko Gudas
Matthew Carle-Anton Stralman

Starting goalie:
Ben Bishop (Evgeni Nabokov backup)

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