Stephen Valiquette would get another shot at the Maple Leafs tonight (7:00pm – MSG) when the Rangers visit Toronto. New York has a four game winning streak, but the Leafs have had some success lately, and shut the Rangers out the last game they met, a 1-0 shootout win in New York last month.
The Leaf’s plan is to not fall behind early, which isn’t surprising given they’re playing with a low margin of error, though Tom Renney certainly isn’t taking them lightly despite their play of late.
According to Steve Zipay’s blog, the Rangers will once again dress Dan Fritsche, and he’ll play alongside Markus Naslund and Chris Drury. Nikolai Zherdev will be reunited with Brandon Dubinsky and Aaron Voros.
There’s also been some rumors about changes to the Rangers power play, which continues to struggle. One player who seems to be starting to find his touch on the power play is Naslund…one player who isn’t: Michal Rozsival.
News has surfaced from Russian that Rangers prospect Alexei Cherepanov should not have been playing hockey, but should instead have been with the Russian Army for compulsory military service. Regardless of where he should have been, Cherepanov is just another example of the misfortune that has plagued Rangers first round picks.
1997 first round pick Stephan Cherneski suffered a career ending knee injury in a freak collision along the boards while playing for Hartford. 2001 first rounder Dan Blackburn suffered nerve damage in his shoulder while lifting weights and was unable to make it back, and 2003 first round pick Hugh Jessiman missed most of the season following being selected, when he injured his ankle.
Whether Jessiman would have made it to the NHL anyway is up for debate, but his career will now run through Nashville, gone in a trade that saw the Predators give up basically nothing.
Despite the bad luck with first rounders, the Wolf Pack has managed to produce several NHLers in the past four years. The AHL has an article recapping some of those graduates.
Speaking of the Wolf Pack, they fell 4-2 to the Worcester Sharks last night. The Pack also have reportedly lost Dane Byers (torn ACL) and Brian Fahey (Concussion) to injury, and have called up Andreas Jamtin and David Urquhart from Charlotte.
Jamtin has had a good run offensively since being assigned to Charlotte, and scored his third goal of the year in a 5-0 win to pace the Checkers to a 5-2-0 mark. Urquhart also had two assists, and Rangers prospect Ryan Hillier also had an assist.
David Stepan registered his first NCAA goal for Wisconsin last night against North Dakota, but couldn’t help prevent the Badgers from falling to 0-6 on the season.
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