Today's lineup for the Rangers

Naslund/Gomer/Drury
Dawes/Dubie/Zherdev
Callahan/Korp/Prucha
Riss/Betts/Fritsche

Orr, Sjostrom and Voros out for the Rangers. Given that this is their last tune-up for the first games this weekend, I think it is a pretty clear indication that Sjostrom is done and that Orr will be a healthy scratch against skill teams. Given Voros's physical style, they might have just wanted to give him a day off, but I'm not sure. I think this is a last chance for Prucha to prove he can get it done. He's not great defensively, so it doesn't really make sense to keep him if he is not making the top two lines. Maybe they are giving him one last chance to prove he can play both ends in a 3rd line role. Saturday, I think you will see Voros on the 2nd line, Dawes back to the 3rd line and Prucha out. You heard it here first.

PS: Looks like the Rangers are going to be down 2-0 after the first.

1st Day of Rangers Camp

Steve Zipay at Blue Notes has line combinations and defensive pairings for today's practice...

WHITE (which will open in Ottawa, possibly with some tweaking, on Saturday)
G---Valiquette, Wiikman
D---Rozsival/Staal, Potter/Mara, Denisov/Kondratiev, DelZotto/Murray.
F---Dawes-Drury-Prucha, Voros-Nedved-Rissmiller, Sjostrom-Anisimov-Parenteau, Byers-Moore-Jessiman
BLUE (home opener vs. Ottawa Monday and NJ)
G---Lundqvist, Lafleur, Mike BrodeurD---Redden/Girardi, Kalinin/Fahey, Pock/Sanguinetti, Busto.
F---Naslund-Gomez-Zherdev, Fritsche-Dubinsky-Callahan, Korpikoski-Betts-Orr, Dupont-Pyatt-Jamtim

My thoughts: Naslund-Gomer-Zherdev could be nasty. I also like Fritsche-Dubie-Cal as an energy line. Hate Prucha on the second line. Would prefer Shanny there but don’t see him on the list. I think that Riss might wind up with Voros and Sjostrom in the regular season.

They have so many forwards. Time to start making some moves. Maybe (hopefully) they are trying to showcase Prucha. I think Rozy/Staal and Redden/Girardi are probably a lock for the top two d pairs. Schneider anyone?

Thoughts?

"Guys with Weird Last Names" Signing Day

• Bouwmeester re-signed with Florida. Didn't realize that Bouwmeester played the most minutes per game of any NHL defensemen last year (27 minutes, 28 seconds). Pretty impressive. He has also played in all 82 games for the Panthers for the past 3 years and had 15 goals this past year. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed yet.
• Sjostrom re-signed with the Rangers. There was some question as to what the Rangers would do since they have a number of forwards under contract. Apparently, he was willing to discuss taking less than the ~$800k (don't remember the exact number and too lazy to look it up) he was eligible for as a RFA if they offered him a multi-year deal. Word was that they were talking about 2 years at $650k per. Sjo plays with lots of speed, but I liken him to the skinny guy in Nintendo's original hockey game: so fast that he is sometimes out of control. At the same time, I like him at $650k per year for 2 years.