One Door Closes, Another Door Opens

The title was one of my mother's favorite sayings, she had many. Tom Renney has adopted the same philosophy in regard to Petr Prucha's injury. He is right. No sense crying over it. His theory is that Prucha's injury opens the door for another player to step in. Prucha's rise to prominence was started by the injury to Rucinsky. Remember he was in Hartford earlier in the year. On 11/1/05 the Ranger Pundit wrote that it was time for the Rangers to recall Prucha, Hollweg and Purinton. They were brought up, except Purinton. I had forgotten Purinton was on a ten game suspension and could not be brought up. Purinton's ten game suspension ended on 2/2/06 and was returned to Hartford. Purinton was on the taxi squad so he is now eligible to be called up by the Rangers.

Hollweg should be returned to the lineup and give the HMO line its more normal ice time. Colton Orr needs more ice time, maybe Hartford could be an option for a while. He served his purpose in his fights with Godard of the Islanders and Brashear of the Flyers but needs the time to improve his skating abilities. Ville Nieminen should join Jason Ward and Marcel Hossa in Prucha's place. There are three big games before the Olympic break. Ottawa, tomorrow night, is five points ahead of the Rangers for the number two spot in the Eastern Conference. Toronto, which we face in a home and home this weekend, is fifteen points behind the Rangers in the eight spot.

Prucha will be tough to replace. However, remember when Rucinsky went down, we all said the same about him. Then Prucha came along and we almost forgot about Rucinsky, until he came back. So let's see what Nieminen and Hollweg can do. If not, there is Hartford and a whole slew of young players including Jarkko Immonen who the Ranger Pundit has been touting all year to be brought up to the Garden.

ICINGS:

The New NHL - Hockey cartoons, New York Rangers GardenVision videos.

The Old NHL - HockeyFights.com has the Orr vs. Brashear bout from Feb. 4th in their video library. The Ice Block reviews some recent heavyweight action.

Georges Laraque actually fought last night. His dance partner was Todd Fedoruk and he had little trouble with the Fridge.