After two games of being a healthy scratch, rookie Lauri Korpikoski will rejoin the lineup tomorrow night in Buffalo, going back in for Aaron Voros. It looks to be a straight swap, with Korpikoski skating on Brandon Dubinsky's left wing with Nikolai Zherdev.
Korpikoski has gone scoreless in his last eight games but that does not mean he has not played well. On the contrary, the 22-year-old Finn has gone through stretches where he's been the best player on the ice, certainly one of the hardest forecheckers.
Voros, whose hooking penalty led to the Canadiens first power-play goal in the third period of last night's 6-3 loss to the Canadiens, looked rather despondent in the Rangers' dressing room after this morning's practice, to the point that both Markus Naslund and newly-minted All-Star Henrik Lundqvist (see previous post) sat down with Voros at his stall and asked how he was doing. At one point, Voros just shook his head.
Still, Voros, who has eight goals and six assists in his 40 games, has gone scoreless in his last nine games and has just one assist in his last 14 games. Not that the 6-foot-3, 215-pound Voros is necessarily counted upon to be one of the Rangers' top point getters. But if he's not effectively getting to the net, not creating traffic there, not taking whacks at rebounds, he's not really helping the team.
Other than Korpikoski in for Voros, the lines remained the same today and, thus, will likely be the same against the Sabres:
Markus Naslund-Scott Gomez-Ryan Callahan
Nigel Dawes-Chris Drury-Petr Prucha
Lauri Korpikoski-Brandon Dubinsky-Nikolai Zherdev
Fredrik Sjostrom-Blair Betts-Colton Orr
Coach Tom Renney gave a strong endorsement to Korpikoski prior to last night's game when he was asked whether Korpikoski would be returned to Hartford if he wasn't playing. Renney said that Korpikoski was an NHL and he liked the security of having Korpikoski here, even if he wasn't skating that particular game.
"It's good to hear," Korpikoski said. "It helps me when I've got that confidence from the coaching staff."
"Basically, they wanted a different look in the lineup," Korpikoski said of the last two games. "That's normal. It's not like we're on a winning streak. They haven't really talked anything specific with me. They said I was playing good and they wanted a different look."
Still, Korpikoski, who has one goal and two assists in 30 games, said he wasn't worried about being re-assigned to Hartford, as he was for a five-game stretch from Oct. 30-Nov. 8.
"You've got to keep your mind as if you're here," Korpikoski said. "I don't really think about it too much."
"It's always the offensive part of the game," Korpikoski said when asked about what improvements he wants to make. "Maybe somebody looks at the stats. Scoring goals is something you can work on. Now I'm feeling more comfortable and confident. Sometimes it takes one lucky bounce to get going. I hope to do that."
Voros is freakin terrible. He makes me want to take a nap.
Posted by: jagrmiester | January 08, 2009 at 01:23 PM
good i was hoping the kid would get put back in for buffalo. he deserves to be in the lineup
Posted by: Ryan McFadden | January 08, 2009 at 02:18 PM
this has been a very unusual season. we've had very limited amount of injuries - look at montreal last night and all they were missing. the downside of a healthy lineup is certain guys = notably fritsche and prucha earler, are constant healthy scratches which affects their morale.
Posted by: LI Joe | January 08, 2009 at 02:45 PM
Here is a writeup about the Wolfpack's number one goaltender:
http://theahl.com/news/league/index.html?article_id=9272
Posted by: will | January 08, 2009 at 07:14 PM