Jesse Rubenstein at The Prospect Park reports that Rangers 2009 first round pick  Chris Kreider (broken jaw) returned to the Boston College lineup last night for the team's NCAA first round matchup against Colorado College.

Unfortunately for Kreider, the defending champion and #1 ranked Golden Eagle fell to CC 8-4 in a big time upset. Kreider had five shots on goal but was held scoreless.

Kreider ended his sophomore season with 11g, 12a in 37 games.

...from all the reports I've read, it sounds like Kreider is going to stay at BC at least another year. And with the disappointing end to his season he might have extra motivation to come back to try and go out on top.

In other playoff prospect news, Rubstein says that Christian Thomas has 2g, 5a in the first two playoff games of Oshawa's first round matchup. While Dylan McIlrath played Marc Staal type defense in helping his Moose Jaw Warriors shutout Kootenay 4-0 last night.

Yahoo's junior hockey blog Buzzing the Net named Dylan McIlrath their 3rd Star for last night, while TheNYRBlog reader Mark M. sent me this article from the Toronto Star on Thomas.

...the more I read about Thomas the more I can't wait for him to be in camp next season.

...as far as McIlrath goes all I have to say is Fowler who?

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Bergen Record - Wiser King doesn't take playoff berth for granted

New York Post - Rangers take step up in class

Daily News - Bruins next as schedule heats up

New York Times - The Bruins’ Percentage Player

Newsday - 7 games left for Rangers to get on track

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Justin Bourne at Puck Daddy takes a look at a few teams that are scarier than their current seading including your New York Rangers...

"In net, the Rangers sport one of the few people who could cancel the pending coronation of Tim Thomas as a two-time Vezina winner. Henrik Lundqvist has led the Rangers to a 7-2-1 record over the past ten games of the playoff push, and appears to be able to play roughly 10,000 consecutive games without taking a night off.

The Rangers, as much as any team if not more, were ravaged by injuries this season. At the deepest depths of their injury woes, it looked like John Tortorella was a shoo-in to be at least considered for the Jack Adams, as he somehow managed to keep them afloat the entire time. As the team has slowly healed, it's come to the league's attention that the Rangers are actually kind of decent -- an annoying realization when you've battled all year for a top seed, only to see a team finally hitting their stride at the bottom of the pack."

...Bourne hits it right on the head here. Hank and health make the Rangers a scary team. The Rangers have finally, after going through almost the entire season with key injuries, gotten their full compliment of players back. And although they struggled initially they really seem to be gelling of late.

...h/t to reader Chris H.

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Bruce Berlet at The Howlings reports that Michael Del Zotto is back skating on his own and hopes to return for the AHL playoffs.

...good to see Del Zotto progressing. Would love for him to gain some confidence before the end of the season which should help going into next year's camp.

...i refuse to get on the 'Dump Del Zotto' bandwagon. Even if it's not next year, I feel he's an important part of the Rangers organization going forward.

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Update, 1:21 p.m.:
Cerny adds that Torts did say he wants to give the Gabby-EC-Prospal line more opportunity together so to expect EC back in tomorrow.

Torts quote...

"I want it to play well, want to force it to play well...I'd like for it to work"

Update, 1:20 p.m.:
While Torts did not reveal tomorrow's lineup, JimCerny feels Sean Avery will be back in it.

Update, 1:05 p.m.:
According to @thenyrangers, John Tortorella says that Anisimov received a maintenance day today and is expected to play tomorrow in Boston.

Original Post:
Andrew Gross tweets that Artem Anisimov is the only player not practicing today.

...could be the reason he wasn't chosen to participate in the shootout last night.

Gross also reports that Henrik Lundqvist was again hit up high with a shot practice, this time from Ruslan Fedotenko.

...don't worry guys it's not like you need him to get into the playoffs or anything.

Yesterday, Marc Staal ripped one off Lundqvist's mask.

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Feeling jealous about Brandon Prust's recent mentions in Page Six of the Daily News I'm sure, Sean Avery can now relax as the Rangers pest is back in his rightful place in the gossip column as he is reported to have been canoodling with supermodel girlfriend Hilary Rhoda during a benefit for the Japanese Red Cross Society Tuesday night.

...while I'm sure Avery is happy to be back in Page Six, I'm sure he'd much rather be back in the Rangers lineup. With EC, MZA and Wolski struggling last night I think he will find himself back in tomorrow against Bs.

...h/t to reader Vincent A.

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I know the Rangers have opened up a seven point lead over the 9th place Hurricanes (Carolina has two games in hand) and they are knocking on the door of sixth place, but one look at the Rangers remaining schedule tells us the playoffs are far from a lock...

3/26 - @BOS
3/30 - @BUF
3/31 - @NYI
4/3 - @PHI
4/4 - vs. BOS
4/7 - vs. ATL
4/9 - vs. Devils

...the next four games all on the road against playoff teams and a natural rival will define the Rangers season.

...when the Rangers schedule came out this offseason I was pumped that the Rangers final three games were at home. Now I'm not so sure that's a good thing.

...seriously, do you see even one layup in those games. Maybe the Thrashers, but even they have been playing better of late.

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James Mirtle at the Globe & Mail lists the man-games lost for every team in the NHL with the Rangers landing at #10 with 294 which is 3.97 man-games lost per game.

...it's funny how injuries always seem to bring a team closer together. Got to give the Rangers major props for fighting through the injury bug this season. It's actually beneficial down the stretch as many players such as Callahan and Prospal are now fresher than they would be if they'd played the entire season.

The number one team by far are the Islanders with 512 man-games lost. The next closest team is the Avalanche with 385.

...512!!! I almost feel bad for the Islanders. Almost.

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Scott Burnside at ESPN.com takes a look at how the Rangers never deviated from their game plan during their January through February slump...

"And yet they have not played differently, they just have had better results. It may seem like semantics, but ask teams that never get to this point after a terrible slide and they'll tell you it's more than just word play."

...if you look back at any of my game recaps during that skid I pretty much said tough loss but this team never stops working hard. That has been a staple of this team and why us as a fan base has fallen in love with the 2010-11 Blueshirts. And to me John Tortorella deserves all the credit.

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Rangers head coach John Tortorella speaks with reporters after the Blueshirts fell to Ottawa 2-1 in an OT shootout on March 24 at Madison Square Garden.


Rangers vs. Senators lowlights

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