Newly signed defenseman Anton Stralman has yet to make his debut as a New York Ranger despite being acquired by the team nearly a month ago, but it seems as if that time will come sooner than later. Yesterday in practice, head coach John Tortorella used Stralman on the struggling powerplay unit as a source of offense from the point. As I discussed yesterday, that powerplay could use any help it could get, so if the coach liked what he saw from Stralman, we could very well see the 25-year-old Swede make his Rangers debut tonight against the Florida Panthers.
I think part of the reason we haven't seen Stralman yet was because of the solid defense the team was playing already while on their seven-game winning streak. Also, as the coach stated several times, it was important that the Blueshirts had Stralman fully prepared to work under the system before just throwing him out there, and after a couple of weeks of practice I would imagine he is good to go from that standpoint.
It will be interesting to see who the coach decides to scratch in place of Stralman, because there are a few ways he could go with this. The first is by scratching Michael Del Zotto, who struggled heavily in Saturday's 4-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens. Torts usually isn't a fan of scratching the younger guys, though, so I think it's more likely that Jeff Woywitka may sit next, whether that is tonight or not.
The reason I say Woywitka is because he lacks speed, and that's something Tortorella has been quick to point out. Stralman will bring a quicker product of hockey to the blue-line, and that may better suit the Rangers right now, especially with the Capitals, Flyers and Penguins coming up on the schedule.
Here's a video of Stralman talking to Blueshirts United after practice yesterday:
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