After the 2-1 win over the Devils, I was able to poll a few Blueshirts on their picks. While some didn’t really follow football enough to give a pick, others fearlessly forecasted a Giant win.

Here are the results:

Henrik Lundqvist: First went with the Pats 24-15, but then changed it to Giants 32-24

Jason Strudwick: 24-14 Pats

Fedor Tyutin: Giants 24-21

Stephen Valiquette: Giants 24-14

Dan Girardi: Giants 30-21

Scott Gomez: Giants 28-17

Tom Renney: Giants 26-23

 

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Tonight the Rangers take on the Montreal Canadiens after demolishing the Maple Leafs last night 5-1.

Henrik Lundqvist is back in goal, but other than that, the same lineup will go out with both Marcel Hossa and Jason Strudwick taking seats.

Tom Renney is looking to build some momentum by getting three in a row for his Blueshirts before they take the dreaded Western Canadian trip next week.

And for those who are counting that’s five games in a row against teams from the north and six out of seven.

Oh Canada!!

Even with such a bad December, remember the Rangers are only three points behind the Devils for the second most total in the conference. So it’s not so bad.

With the power play coming alive and Sean Avery back, the Rangers look like they can take on the world in 2008.

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Ok the Ranger Flu strikes again. Henrik Lundqvist is out with the flu with Steve Valiquette taking the start in goal. Lundqvist will be the backup

Marcel Hossa is out and will be replaced by Nigel Dawes. Greg Moore will be on the third line replacing the demoted Ryan Callahan and Jason Strudwick is on the fourth line replacing Ryan Hollweg.

That means Marek Malik is back with Michal Rozsival and Marc Staal will be with Paul Mara.

Confused yet?

Outside of Lundqvist none of these moves are too earth shattering as they take on the Phoenix Great Ones – I mean the Coyotes.

Speaking of the Great One. Wayne Gretzky has laryngitis and can’t address to the media.

BTW, a good friend is back. Hockeybird, who has been very helpful to me has returned and Bird is posting his daily posts again. He went offline back in October and now is back.

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From Greenburgh, the Rangers has a light practice with everyone particpating except Sean Avery and Paul Mara, who sprained his shoulder in yesterday’s game.

Towards the end of practice, some of the Rangers were hitting pucks off a piece of wood in front of the net to practice rebounds, which is something Chris Drury brought from Buffalo as part of his routine.

Tom Renney put Marek Malik back on the top pairing with Michal Rozsival, while Marc Staal skated with Jason Strudwick.

I asked the coach if these next two games, against division leaders Ottawa and Carolina, were a test and he said that they were and if they can compete with these teams, we may have better insight on how good the team is.

 

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I know this is the moment all the Ranger fans are waiting for when Marek Malik returns, but according to Steve Zipay, Tom Renney may not want to put him back in the lineup on Thursday against the Isles.

Now, he will be coming back, so expect No. 8 to be back there over the weekend. The question is where he will play.

Expect Jason Strudwick to get scratched as Malik filters back into the lineup, but it’s questionable if he will be lining up with Michal Rozsival. Marc Stall fits very nicely at the top and deserves to stay up there, while Malik, who at times can be the Garden pariah, makes some mistakes which cost the Blueshirts.

Breaking up Dan Girardi and Fedor Tyutin doesn’t make sense, so that leaves Paul Mara. Now, Mara has played much better as of late and seems to be getting his stride on. Both he and Strudwick have chemistry together and will that translate with Malik? Or does Renney put Marc Staal back with Mara and Malik with Rozsival, so they can work together.

Believe it or not, the Malik – Rozsival pair worked well together over the past few years and Malik, who has a greak reach does make up for his speed deficiencies.

Also by showcasing Malik, the Rangers may look to trade him towards the deadline and let Strudick play or even bring up someone like Ivan Baranka, who played well last week against Tampa.

The bottom line, no matter how much the fans don’t like him, Malik is here for now.

And I will be at practice tomorrow, so there will be an update from there on this blog.

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Ok now that baseball is over, I will be getting back to this more regularly.

Same lineup as Saturday with Jason Strudwick dressing in favor of Paul Mara and skating with Marc Staal. Renney said he liked Strudwicks influence on Staal on the ice and the bench.

Also this is Henrik Lundqvist’s first game back at the Coliseum since Ice Girl Gate last year…

More Later…

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The Rangers Just Announced two more cuts before the preseason starts tomorrow night at the Garden.

The team sent defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti back to junior and forward Tom Pyatt to Hartford.

The Rangers now have 37 players remaining in training camp, including four goaltenders, 13 defensemen and 20 forwards. 

Here’s the list:

Goal: Henrik Lundqvist, Al Montoya, Steve Valiquette, and Miika Wiikman

Defense: Ivan Baranka, Dan Girardi, Andrew Hutchinson, Darius Kasparaitis, David Liffiton, Marek Malik, Paul Mara, Thomas Pock, Michal Rozsival, Michael Sauer, Marc Staal, Jason Strudwick, and Fedor Tyutin

Forwards: Artem Anisimov, Sean Avery, Blair Betts, Dane Byers, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes, Chris Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Scott Gomez, Ryan Hollweg, Marcel Hossa, Jaromir Jagr, Hugh Jessiman, Lauri Korpikoski, Francis Lessard, Colton Orr, Petr Prucha, Mark Smith, Martin Straka, and Brendan Shanahan

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