Ranger lines for tonight in Motown

September 18, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Tonight, the Rangers play their third exhibition game when they visit Motown to take on the always strong Red Wings with faceoff on MSG after 7:30 ET. So, who can we expect to play? Well, certainly not Marian Gaborik who already may as well be on the injured list.

You might say it’s only preseason. But if this is how it’s gonna be, yikes. I was dumb enough to protect him last year in my league and that quickly backfired which is why I can’t explain why Brian did for our upcoming draft next weekend. Guess he wants to tempt fate.

Here are tonight’s lines per Steve Zipay:

Higgins-Drury-Callahan

Brashear-Boyle-Voros

Avery-Crowder-Parenteau

Grachev-Anisimov-Lisin

Redden-Rozsival

Heikkinen-Potter

Semenov-Sanguinetti

Supposedly, Lundqvist will split with Zaba. John Tortorella indicated he wanted to take a look at Paul Crowder who played 11 games after being signed with the Wolf Pack notching three assists. The 24 year-old out of Victoria, British Columbia played two seasons with the University of Alaska Anchorage in the WCHA averaging 23.5 points. He has decent size going 6-2, 180 and is a right-handed shot. Apparently, with Brandon Dubinsky still unsigned, the Rangers want to see what he can do.

Also of interest tonight is how afterthought Bobby Sanguinetti will do in his first look. Has the organization which superhyped him soured completely? He’s only 21 and put up 42 points in his first full pro season with Hartford last year. Is it a case of another first round bust or is that too early? Ilkka Heikkinen (Heineken) is also playing along with invite Alexei Semenov and Corey Potter, who remains in the competition.

Up front, Evgeny Grachev gets another game with Russians Enver Lisin and Artem Anisimov who needs a strong showing. So, that should be interesting.

A final thought based on what we’ve seen minus Gaborik and Dubinsky. This team is awfully thin. Especially if the big ticket misses time. Not having Dubinsky here is trouble. They can’t expect to go into the season with Drury, Prospal and two huge question marks. That is not a good idea.

I do feel Dubi wants too much due to the situation and can earn an extension if he takes less. But the longer this goes, the worse it looks. In a competitive division already with an improved East, they are playing with fire.