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Rangers’ Chris Drury will return Friday, potentially steal spot on first line

Chris Drury

New York Rangers’ Chris Drury plays against the Columbus Blue Jackets during the first period of an NHL hockey game Friday, Oct. 24, 2008, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Jay LaPrete)

ASSOCIATED PRESS

It was mere speculation just the other day that Rangers captain Chris Drury could return to action by Friday and as it turns out, speculation became truth today. Rangers coach John Tortorella declared today that Drury will be in the lineup on Friday for the Rangers’ home opener on Friday against Toronto. Andrew Gross of Rangers Rants has the details of Drury’s return as well as the possibility that Drury gets to start on the team’s first line right out of the box.

Coach John Tortorella has confirmed that captain Chris Drury will return to the lineup for Friday’s home opener against the Maple Leafs. He’s not ready to say where Drury might fit into the lineup and answered it was still a possibility Drury could play wing.

However….

Tortorella also said Artem Anisimov’s line with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan was the team’s best during Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Islanders and that Derek Stepan’s line with Sean Avery and Ruslan Fedotenko was not far behind. Therefore, Tortorella said he’s not inclined to tinker with those two lines. If that’s indeed the case, Drury would seem ticketed for the top line since nobody on the Derek Boogaard-Brian Boyle-Brandon Prust line is likely to fill a top-line role.


Give credit to Tortorella for not wanting to monkey around with early solid chemistry, but Drury and Marian Gaborik never had a chance to click well last season and mixing in another guy like Frolov makes the dynamic all the more intriguing for the Rangers. Obviously Brian Boyle isn’t a threat to start on the first line, but it could be Boyle who comes under the gun later on when Vinny Prospal eventually returns to the lineup.

What makes things all the more perplexing in New York is that while the Rangers have a lot of guys that can play center, most of them aren’t very good at the position and Drury is their best natural centerman. Putting him on the wing is something they can do with virtually anyone on the roster that plays center, so that’s nice. That said, Drury is a solid faceoff man and while he’s not at all like the scorer he was in Buffalo, there is the wacky thought that maybe having him center Frolov and Gaborik he could rekindle the magic he once had with Daniel Briere in Buffalo. It’s a pipe dream, sure, but stranger things have happened.

One thing that cannot happen for the Rangers when everyone is back healthy is to find a way to slow down the development of sudden phenom Derek Stepan. After scoring a hat trick in his first game as a Ranger, Stepan has quickly become the toast of New York. He’s shown through two games so far that he can stick in the NHL and if the Rangers are serious about his development they have to know right away what their plan is for him. When Prospal returns to the lineup and should Stepan be slated to be buried on the fourth line somehow, the best thing would be to send him to the AHL. If they want to keep Stepan in New York, they need to make sure to give him the minutes and the patience to grow into the NHL on the job. If they don’t want to do that, then he should be ticketed for the AHL. Given Prospal’s state, however, the Rangers have more time to consider their options.