Welcome to the NHL, Lauri Korpikoski

May 1, 2008   ·   Lenny   ·   Jump to comments

Update: I was wrong and Orr was in tonight… Great win for the Blueshirts… Look for some recaps later tonight and tomorrow.

You are reading that right, Lauri Korpikoski will make his NHL debut in the most important game of the New York Rangers’ season. Blair Betts has an orbital fracture under his left eye, and will require surgery to fix it. This is the same surgery that fellow Ranger Paul Mara underwent towards the end of the regular season. Chris Drury is experiencing some kind of rib injury, but has been telling teammates that he is ready to play tonight. So here are the lines for tonight, should Drury play:

Straka – Dubinsky – Jagr

Prucha – Gomez – Shanahan

Callahan – Drury – Dawes

Hollweg – Korpikoski – Sjostrom

As for defense, Jason Strudwick may be entering the lineup for Christian Backman tonight, who has done nothing impressive this series. I am not in favor of the Korpikoski move, as Colton Orr would be a much better choice to man the fourth line with Ryan Hollweg shifting to center. The line gets all of six minutes a game though, so it really shouldn’t make a difference.

With both Betts and Sean Avery out of the lineup, and Drury nowhere near 100%, the Blueshirts will be missing three penalty killers. Tonight more than ever they must stay out of the penalty box. Jaromir Jagr has to play like the man he was the last two games and every puck that has a chance to get in front of the net, needs to get there. Hollweg, Callahan and Prucha need to get powerplay time and battle in front of the net and create havoc for Marc-Andre Fleury.

Henrik Lundqvist also has to be better tonight. While he stole the show in game two, he was awful in game three. Coming back isn’t impossible, and I’m even still optimistic because this has been such a close series so far. Four in a row will be tough, but no insurmountable. Here’s to hoping I can write another one of these on Sunday.