The Rangers return to action Saturday night in one of their house of horrors - the Bell Centre - versus the Canadiens. The bad taste from the loss Tuesday against the Devils still stings and it will be good for the team to get back to game action. The past three days has seen substantial changes, both in terms of who is on the ice in practice and who will be in the lineup Saturday.
Projected lineup:
Carl Hagelin-Brad Richards-Ryan Callahan Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Mats Zuccarello Brian Boyle-Derick Brassard-Derek Dorsett Benoit Pouliot-Dominic Moore-J.T. Miller
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi Marc Staal-Anton Stralman John Moore-Justin Falk
Cam Talbot
The key changes have been italicized. First, Dominic Moore, who missed seven games with his strained oblique, is back in the lineup, replacing Brandon Mashinter. I think many of us believed that Benoit Pouliot could and should have been the odd-man out, but he gets another reprieve. That leash on life is getting smaller and smaller, due to his struggles and the return to health and lineup of several players. One of those players could be Rick Nash in the short-term. Nash, who started skating last week, practicing Tuesday and is now going through full-contact practice, so if he has no setbacks, the next step will be him regaining his conditioning. I doubt he plays Sunday against LA, but could Tuesday against Boston (sure the game I had tickets to and had to sell because I will be on vacation) , Thursday at Dallas or Saturday at Nashville be a possibility? Even if not, I expect him to travel with the team, as he is doing to Montreal, and get back in the lineup sometime during the five-game road trip starting after Tuesday's game.
When Nash does come back, the next decisions are who sits and how the lines work. Personally, I think Pouliot will sit, unless he has a couple of real strong games. The Kreider-Stepan-Zuccarello line should not be touched, though I have heard whispers that Nash will slide in for Zucc moving him down to the third line, which I think would be a huge mistake. Don't mess with the chemistry AV. I would rather see Nash slide in to play with Richards and Callahan, who he did see time with last season and whose skills would compliment Nash's. That allows Hagelin to play on a line with Brass and hopefully Miller, as a third line with speed who can transition from D to O and who could provide some scoring to balance out the top-two lines. The last line would be Boyle-Moore-Dorsett, who would be an excellent checking line.
Second, Michael Del Zotto will be a healthy scratch again. MDZ, who has been a healthy scratch once before and is clearly deep in the doghouse, was benched for most of the third period last Thursday against Columbus. He and was a minus-1 in 16:09 on Tuesday against the Devils and this is now due to a one-time event but a build up over time, commencing in the scratch Saturday. Justin Falk, a healthy scratch the past 11 games, will be the sixth defenseman. For all the talk we have had about needing another forward, maybe if Aaron Johnson, Conor Allen, Danny Syrvet and/or Dylan McIlrath are not ready, obtaining another d-man, who can shoot from the right side, as Glen Miller wrote in the blog comments a few ago, may be key. In addition, count me on board to get Tom Gilbert because if MDZ isn't moved back to the left side, his struggles likely won't cease and the team needs depth on the back line.
Last, no surprise that Talbot and not Henrik Lundqvist is in the lineup. Martin Biron started both games last season in Montreal because of Hank's struggles there. Of course, the struggles are also team-wide, as Andrew Gross pointed out today that the Rangers are on an 0-7-1 skid in Montreal, including five shutout losses. Overall, the Rangers are 1-8-2 at Montreal since Feb. 19, 2008. All I hope is that Hank gets one game down the road and has a solid effort, so if the two teams did meet in the playoffs and the Rangers lacked home-ice advantage, they wouldn't be behind the eight-ball even before the series started.
I will try and get a new blog up before I leave for vacation Sunday.