The Rangers and Lightning meet up for the second time in 10 days, or as it may be called, Reunion Part 2. Last week, it was Ryan Callahan, Brian Boyle and Anton Stralman returning to the arena they called home for several years. This week, Martin St. Louis gets to experience the same emotional reunion and possibly crowd reaction in his first game in Tampa following his trade last year to the Rangers. Clearly, much of the focus will be on that subplot, but for the Rangers, and likely the Lightning as well, the game itself should and probably will have more importance.
Last Monday, the Lightning came in and waxed the Rangers 5-1. In that contest, Callahan got his revenge, scoring twice in helping lead Tampa Bay to the win. Following the loss, many of us questioned the Blueshirts effort level, and I will say it, heart. New York showed they have both in spades, rebounding with possibly their best two games of the season, in shutting out Philadelphia and Montreal. For the Rangers, beyond all the emotion that will go into tonight's game, maintaining that level of play against a top quality opponent is paramount.
Shortly, New York will be fully healthy. Ryan McDonagh, out since November 1, practiced in full yesterday and is inching closer to returning. There has been some speculation he could play tonight and seems to be a good bet for at least one of the back-to-back games Friday and Saturday versus Philly. Personally, I would sit him to next week, regardless of if he is healthy or close to being so. McDonagh was injured last year, missing the last five games of the regular season but returned for the playoffs. He was initially ineffective before righting the ship as the postseason wore on. He lasted a month this year before suffering a similar injury. Because there may be a weakness in the area, I would err on the side of caution and sit him out an extra day or two to make sure he truly is 100% healthy before restoring back to action as a top-pairing d-man.
It will be interesting to see who sits, Matt Hunwick and John Moore. A week ago, the answer would have been Moore. Now, I could see Hunwick scratched, as Moore has upped his game substantially since he returned from his suspension. AV doesn't have an easy choice, but if Moore sits, the combinations likely will be: McDonagh-Girardi, Staal-Boyle and Hunwick-Klein. If Hunwick sits, slot Moore onto the third pairing with Klein. The good news is that New York has seven d-men who can play, so if an injury does occur, that extra defenseman can just be slotted in with little decline in play.
Forwards:
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan- Martin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Anthony Duclair
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast
Defensemen (projected pairs):
John Moore-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Dan Boyle
Matt Hunwick -Kevin Klein
Starting goalie:
Henrik Lundqvist (Cam Talbot backup)
Now on to the subplot,
the return of Martin St. Louis to Tampa Bay. I understand the viewpoint of the Tampa fans, which was expressed in
Michael Stuart's blog, as they believe MSL was a turncoat, who put his personal feelings over that of the organization during rather than after the season. To a certain extent, that is similar to how Rangers felt about Callahan and his negotiations. The believed that the rumored offer was sufficient and that his wanting more resulted in GM Glen Sather deciding to trade him. While there isn’t a direct 1:1 correlation, in both cases, one more vocal than the other, each team's captain paved their way out of town (and yes, I know that depends on how your Cally's negotiations versus the "stand" Sather took).
In St. Louis' case, does a few months of public dissention and forcing a trade outweigh 12+ years of stellar play and community service? While MSL started his career in Calgary, his career was made in Tampa. St. Louis scored 356 of his goals and 953 of his 998 points in 972 games for Tampa, while helping lead the team to their only cup in 2004. What he did for the organization and the broader community should be sufficient enough to drive the crowd response, but neither may be enough.
Neither St. Louis, who comes in red-hot with seven goals in his last eight games and 10 points in 10 contests, nor the entire Tampa organization knows what to expect from the fans tonight. I figure that the response will be similar to what Callahan got, a video tribute from the team at some point, cheers and some boos from the fans, but wouldn’t be shocked if the boos are more broad based from the get go. Once the game wears on, the return notion and what he did in the past will lose any weight it had and it will just be an opponent facing the home team, just like it was for Callahan.
For New York and St. Louis, getting a win is the main concern. While for both, it's to help keep the win streak going; for St. Louis, I am sure he would like to excel in front of what was his home crowd and rebound from the minus-four rating he had last Monday. In addition, the cherry on the top for MSL would be getting the two points he needs for 1,000 in his career.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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