Despite the quality of opposition increasing in the coming two weeks, new signing Anton Stralman still not completely ready (despite playing in his first game the other day), and the continuing absence of Marc Staal the Rangers need to spread the ice time around a little more among the blue line.
It’s absurd that two Rangers blue liners (McDonagh and Girardi) average more than 25 minutes a game with Dan Girardi over 27 minutes per contest. Meanwhile, despite Mike Del Zotto showing solid progression this year he is not ready for the 22(ish) minutes per game he is receiving. Young players can burn out later in the year with so much expectancy on their shoulders, not to mention the actual physical demands, so if Tortorella wants to continue to ride his top 3 so hard, Stralman and Staal may come in and find the rest of the blue line is out of gas.
The Rangers coach needs to show a little more faith in the bottom pair or if they are not ready or able, he needs to turn to Connecticut for...
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November 26, 2011
