Pregame: Rangers Confident they will Respond to Isles on Away Ice

Tonight’s game may have a bit more meaning than your routine regular season hockey tilt. I say this not because it is just a rivalry, but rather because it is an opportunity for the New York Rangers to respond to their worst effort all season long, and if they do not, it could very well mean some drastic changes within the organization in the near future. This is a time where the players need to step up and show something, or anything, as their fans think quite lowly of them at the moment.

Anyway, it will be the second of the home-and-home between the Rangers and Islanders, who are now ahead of our Blueshirts in the standings once again. The Islanders win last night was pretty much a cake walk as they easily dominated the game. It just did not have the feel that these rival games normally do, but maybe that will change when the series shifts to Nassau Coliseum in this one.

As my earlier post describes, there will be some notable changes in the Blueshirts lineup tonight. John Tortorella has chosen to scratch veteran defenseman Wade Redden and forward Ales Kotalik. Torts said it is not just for their last game, but for their poor and inconsistent effort as of late. So just when we though the fiery coach did have the spine to make such a move, he did it to two players that have been invisible. Supposedly Redden was not at all happy with the decision, and could be heard arguing with Tortorella. Tough. This means Bobby Sanguinetti and Erik Chirstensen will be in the lineup.

Rangers Projected Lineup

Prospal - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Higgins - Drury - Callahan
Avery - Anisimov - Lisin
Boyle - Christensen - Brashear

Staal - Rozsival
Del Zotto - Girardi
Sanguinetti - Heikkinen

Lundqvist

Scratches: Wade Redden, Aaron Voros, Ales Kotalik

Henrik Lundqvist will get the back-to-back start tonight, which Tortorella went as far as to say that this was not his original plans. He planned to have Chad Johnson get his first National Hockey League start, but that will not be the case. “Hank’s got to play” was his brief explanation.

I have read several articles which say that they would not be surprised if Vinny Prospal and Marian Gaborik are reunited on the first line, with Brandon Dubinsky in the middle. This was the trio that began the season and did quite well during October but later faded. We will see if they can accumulate some points against an Islander defense which was spectacular on shot blocking on Wednesday.

Rookie defensemen Bobby Sanguinetti and Ilkka Heikkinen will be paired up on defense for the Rangers, a duo that was also together down in Hartford with the Wolf Pack (AHL). That leaves Staal with Rozsival, who also must be worried about being scratched at some point, and Girardi with Mike Del Zotto.

Islanders Projected Lineup

Moulson - Tavares - Comeau
Bailey - Neilsen - Okposo
Joensuu - Schremp - Hunter
Sim - Thompson - Park

Streit - Meyer
Sutton - Hillen
Witt - MacDonald

Roloson

Captain Chris Drury said that his was confident that the team would play with passion and a more willing attitude tonight than they did in front of the angered Garden Crowd on Wednesday. I, personally, will not set myself up for disappointment, so I will not expect as large of an effort as Drury describes, but I do expect them to improve their play slightly. Hey, maybe they will surprise us all. Who really knows with this team anymore?
(Photos courtesy of Getty Images)