Injured Rangers Ryane Clowe, Marc Staal still questionable to return

Thu, 23 May 2013 03:14:00 GMT

Source: www.newsday.com --- Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Injured Rangers Ryane Clowe and Marc Staal remain questionable for the series, no matter how far it goes. ...

Practice: Marc Staal and Darroll Powe On The Ice For The Optional

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:58:30 GMT

Source: snyrangersblog.com --- Tuesday, May 21, 2013
According to Katie Strang Marc Staal and Darroll Powe are on the ice at the Rangers optional morning skate. Steve Zipay says that 15 players are on the ice at the Rangers optional morning skate. Pat Leonard says that both Powe and Staal are about to go through conditioning skates with the scratches. ...

Until Marc Staal comes back, the defense will struggle against deep teams

Mon, 20 May 2013 15:00:49 GMT

Source: www.blueseatblogs.com --- Monday, May 20, 2013
Al Bello/NYDN Something that was very obvious during yesterday’s loss was that the Rangers defense had a lot of trouble matching up and shutting down the Bruins forwards. Prior to the series, coach John Tortorella swapped his defense pairings to prepare for a much deeper Bruins club. In doing so, he split up Dan Girardi/Ryan McDonagh, and put Girardi with Michael Del Zotto. Let’s be clear about one thing, Del Zotto is a top-four defenseman in this league. He’s a top-50 guy, which puts him in the upper echelon of second pairing defensemen. He’s not perfect, he’s not going to do well against the top scorers in the league, but he will be able to hold his own. That said, the pairing of Del Zotto/Girardi has never worked. It didn’t work two years ago, it didn’t work last year, it won’t work this year. Neither defenseman is perfect, and both have flaws that can be easily exploited by smart teams. We saw this last night. Girardi was on the ice for all five goals, and MDZ for four. We can spend all day pointing out how the Bruins did it, but that isn’t the point of this post. Marc Staal’s absence leaves a gaping hole that the Rangers are not able to fill. Staal’s presence in the lineup gives the Rangers four top-four defensemen, five if you count Anton Stralman as a bottom-tier second pairing (or top-tier third pairing). More importantly, it makes a possible Girardi-MDZ pairing unlikely to occur. The fact here is that the Rangers aren’t ...