The Rangers' forward rotation continues as it's now Petr Prucha's turn to rejoin the lineup. The Czech native was in the lineup for the first two games of the season in Prague and a healthy scratch the past three games. He'll skate on rookie center Lauri Korpikoski's left wing along with Ryan Callahan. Dan Fritsche skated in that spot in Monday's 4-1 win over the Devils and Patrick Rissmiller took a whirl before hurting his right ankle in Saturday's 4-3 win at Philadelphia.
Coach Tom Renney said he isn't necessarily looking for anything different out of Prucha. "We'd like to see him feel good about contributing offensively, we'll take the rest of it no matter what," he said.
The Rangers go for a franchise-record sixth straight victory to open the season tonight when they host the Buffalo Sabres at 7 p.m.
Rissmiller returned to the ice today after not skating since Saturday. He, Fritsche and Nigel Dawes will be the healthy scratches tonight.
The defense pairings remain the same: Wade Redden-Michal Rozsival, Dmitri Kalinin-Dan Girardi and Paul Mara-Marc Staal.
The lines besides Prucha-Korpikoski-Callahan are the same: Markus Naslund-Scott Gomez-Chris Drury, Aaron Voros-Brandon Dubinsky-Nikolai Zherdev, Fredrik Sjostrom-Blair Betts-Colton Orr.
Nice scene of the day: Wade Redden's father, Gordon, was in town for the first time and the two had the day off together in NYC yesterday, just walking around, seeing the sights. Gordon Redden said he used to visit Wade about once a month when he played for the Ottawa Senators.
Thought of the moment: Going to Philadelphia with six defensemen was OK since an emergency fill-in from Hartford could have arrived in time for the game, if need be. Saturday in Detroit is a different story. If I'm the Rangers, I'd feel more comfortable taking seven to Detroit. We'll see.
As for Alexei Cherepanov's memorial service today in Omsk, the Rangers' representatives were Vladimir Lutchenko, who scouts the Russian leagues, Christer Rockstrom, the team's European director of player personnel and Jan Gajdosik, a European scout. Renney said those three already had Russian visas in place and it would have been too difficult - based on the Russian regulations - for others in the organization to arrange for visas on short notice.
More later from the Garden.
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