So how did Fredrik Sjostrom learn to skate?
From his mom.
No big deal, you think?
Well, his mother, Gunilla Jacobson, won a bronze medal in speedskating in the World Championships in Japan in 1963, and competed for Team Sweden in the 1964 Olympics in Austria in 1964.
"She was a good teacher," said Sjostrom, who will make his Rangers debut tonight on a line with Blair Betts and Ryan Hollweg. (Nigel Dawes' mom also was a speedskater for Team Canada in 1976)
Defenseman Christian Backman also will dress, partnering with Marc Staal again in the morning skate at RBC Center.
Although Petr Prucha (shoulder) is "good to go", coach Tom Renney said, "we want to give our new guys a chance to play." Sjostrom is replacing Colton Orr, whose chest injury is still causing discomfort when skating, said Renney, although there is a chance he'll play Sunday afternoon against Philadelphia.
Henrik Lundqvist, beaten twice by Carolina this season, will be in goal; he's 4-4 with a 2.24 average in his career against the Canes. Cam Ward will be in net for Carolina.
"We'll have a tiger by the tail," said Renney, referring to the Canes, 7-0-1 at home.
Boston, tied with the Rangers with 72 points in the Eastern Conference and two games in hand, hosts Pittsburgh tonight. So, the Rangers, currently in seventh, could move into sixth place.
More from RBC Center later...
Comments (38)
If Orr is ready on Sunday, then who sits? Hollweg or Sjostrom? And now that Cally is on a hot streak, where does Prucha fit in?
Cally and Dawes stay in the lineup no matter what. IMO
prucha should be playing over hollweg its very simple
Prucha replaces Hollweg.
Callahan moves to the fourth line.
Hopefully Renney's vision of playing the 4th line more should be justified by using:
Sjostrom - Betts- Prucha/Callahan
As long as Cally is scoring Prucha either sits or learns to play a defensive game.
Sjostrom adds the depth we need to play the 4th line consistently.
i don't see hollweg having any spot on this team when everyone is healthy. orr is an off and on scratch pending the team's opponent with prucha/callahan the odd man out when orr is needed. hopefully orr will be ready to go on sunday against the dirty flyers.
i dont get this how come we all understand this but renney doesnt that prucha should play over hollweg and i will not complain if the 4th line plays 12 mins i promise ill even write a thank u note
reading through zip's blog, i said to myself that simply putting prucha in hollweg's place would give us a sweet 4th line and still allow the "new guys to play" so i went to write it in here and i see that almost all 7 comments already say that as well as majority of the comments on hockeybuzz. seems like renney's the only 1 who sees it as otherwise
I like sjostrom with Betts and Orr. Think Prucha is the odd man out when everyone is healthy and he is the first one back in with Hollweg second if needed. We are going to need Orr in the line-up so i dont think he sits.
If Backman gets off to a good start I would like to see him and Mara as the 3rd pair and Staal replacing Malek with Rozival....Malek first one in and Strudwick second if needed.....
The team looks good for the stretch run....need to stay healthy and obviously Hank is going to be the difference maker....
Avery-Dubi-Jagr
Dawes-Gomez-Shanny
Straka-Drury-Cally
Hollweg-Betts-Sjostrom
Rosy-Malik
Tyutin-Girardi
Staal-Backman
So this is what we have tonight.
With Prucha, Orr, Mara and Strudwick watching.
We now have the luxury of 4 guys when healthy to be plugged in when needed for nights off, added toughness, etc.
To me at least there is choices. I am reading it as maybe Prucha is not really all that healthy yet, let him sit and get healthy. I do like the sound of the 4th line being Sjostrom-Betts-Prucha. That could be interesting. Looking at it the depth that was added with these transactions is pretty good.
Did leetchpic2 really just site hockeybuzz? Oh Boy! lol
Yeah trade for a tough guy and then send him to hartford,unbelievable. If anyone remembers the last 2 times we played carolina it was nasty games . But send the tough guy down and play another wuss this is beautiful GM'ing. But again sather sucks as a GM so why does this surprise me. From what I keep reading the trades made were just to make hank happy. Here we go again first it was lousy czechs for jagr now mediocre swedes for hank. Doesn't anybody believe moves should be made for the betterment of the team? I guess all those stanely cups sther hasn't won in over 20 years proves just how great he is. NOT!!!!!!!!!!
Timbo,
I agree the rest of this schedule really calls for having a tough guy dressed. I expected to see Gratton maybe even get a shot with Orr nursing this injury just for that reason.
Vince,
All I read was that he is happy about the trades not that they were made to keep him happy? Where did you read that Hank was behind these trades happening?
These trades were made for the betterment of the team. Weren't they? Anybody?
up in the blues,
just siting the commentors, not the trade rumor sources. i dont think many will argue that those are almost always a bunch of bs
I doubt Renney will want to tinker with his magick 4th line with Hollweg. He'll probably say he doesnt want to mess with the chemistry, but I recall some decent chemisty between Prucha in Betts in Prucha's first season. God, Im so smart !!!!
Up in the Blues,
don't try to make sense of that comment by vincea, it's just ridiculous.
yip, gratton was the key to the trade according to vincea...the guy has never made a valid point here
I really don't think it mattered what trades the Rangers did Tuesday or what they didn't do.
No matter what had happened, vincea was going to rip Sather for it, so no use listening to his rationale about it.
If Renney plays Hollweg over a healthy Prucha he needs to have his head examined. Hollweg should be a depth player only. Let Orr and Shoestring alternate depending on the opponent. I also agree that Malik should be the odd man out on defence when Mara comes back.
Leetchpic2,
It was just jokes. People that know me posting here know how I feel about that site. What a joke. It aggravates me the recognition that guy gets from good outlets.
I just want people like vincea that say stuff like that to offer some proof in what they say. The articles all talk about the relationships and the excitement of playing with each other. But, what message board turned it into that Henrik wanted them here. It's OK to read and comment or maybe even try to interpret but, to totally change it to try and make a point really don't fly.
If something says different from a credible source that the trades were made to please Henrik I would love to see it.
I don't think that anyone should really be clear cut man out. When everyone is healthy and ready to go we will have 4 healthy players on the bench, 2 D and 2 Offense. All of them well capable enough to play a spot and fill a 'role'. Play your a$$es off boys and get in that lineup.
I love reading the comments from all the armchair coaches on this blog. Believe me, there's nothing you know that Tom Renney, a respected former Hockey Canada coach, and an owner of a pretty impressive record with the Rangers, doesn't. Does that ever enter your mind, that maybe he, not you, knows whats best for his team?
To clarify my thoughts, have some competition to get in these three spots and see what happens.
Avery - Dubi - Jager
Dawes - Gomez- Shanny
Straka - Drury - 1
2 - Betts - 3
1. Could very well be Cally's to lose right now. With that Prucha, Cally and maybe Sjostrom can all compete for it.
2. Same as 1, with only the left over two guys fighting for it.
3. Orr or Hollweg, and Hollweg needs to know when and pick the right spots to do the job of dropping the gloves.
On Defense:
Rosy - 1
Tyutin - Girard
Staal - 2
1 and 2 can all be competed for by Malik, Mara, Strudwick and Backaman.
Thoughts?
I typed Jager. LOL
JAGER BOMBS!
JAGER BOMBS!
JAGER BOMBS!
Anybody seen that video on youtube? If you have you know what I am talking about.
no prob. i didnt take any offense
Blues,
Do you remember what I said earlier today. Your feeding him.
If Renny thought Prucha was 100% I think he'd play him Sunday anyway.
He's been out a few games now, practice has been lighter than normal, and putting out 2 new guys and a winger that could probably us the extra days anyway (because of the beatings Hollweg and Orr let him take but that's a different conversation).
Not to mention a new D-man.
So all and all, the team on the ice is more likely near a 100%.
Now the idea of a Pru Betts Shoe line are very very interesting!
tom renney, i mean greg, do u agree with everything he has done and please explain. thanks
I don't know why Dawes spot is secure. Hes putting up some points but I feel like hes invisible if hes not scoring. Prucha should play over him, Hollweg whoever. Renney doesn't use Pru properly. If Orr is in I don't think we need Hollweg.
Matt, by no means do I agree with everything he does but I also think his overall body of work has been better than anyone else obviously who's had the job in the last 10 years. You see all the comments over here throughout the course of the year about how bad he is and he's the worst coach in the league and it's his fault the Rangers aren't the top team in the East. If the Rangers were to fire him he would be hired in a heartbeat by any team with an opening.
Becky, I agree that on the nights Dawes isn't putting up points he does seem invisible but it seems like he scores some big goals. I like Prucha but he's been invisible in all but about a half dozen games this year. Hopefully he'll find a spark or some confidence or something but I guess being out of the lineup won't help that either.
or having his ice time cut
So for all the ripping Henrik Lundqvist has taken this this year considering the following:
last year his GAA was 2.34 and he finished with 5 shutouts.
this year his GAA is 2.33 and he already has 8 shutouts.
very interesting.
why do people still consider hollweg an intimidation on the ice? he shouldn't be compared to orr. the guy fought and consistently got beaten last year. the rangers had no force on the ice until orr started playing regularly. he's only had i think two fights this year and those were both hugfests. the only thing he's good for is hitting and the occassional bad penalty, although i'll admit he's been much better this year taking fewer bad penalties. the way i see it hollweg doesn't deserve to be in the lineup with or without orr.
I don't think anyone really thinks very highly of Hollweg in any way.
For all our disagreements on this blog, I think everyone here for the most part believes Ryan Hollweg should just go.
I didn't say Hollweg was Orr. All I was saying was hes the closest thing to Orr and if Orr is in the lineup then he doesn't need to be.
vincea you really need attention.
Avery-Dubinsky-Jagr just flying tonight!
Rangers look good so far tonight.Dubinsky seems to improve every game.I just wish they would get rid of Joe Micheletti.No more islander cast-offs,please.Any chance he'll be replaced next year?I think John Vanbiesbrouck would make an excellent announce parter for Sam.
Guys ,it's quite simple
team is winning, chemistry is great.........the top 3 lines are NOT changing for the foreseeable future
the 4th is good with Betts , Sjostrom and then it's up to Renny........Prucha would make it more offensive and dangerous but I understand if they think they need Orr to beat the heck out of the other teams enforcer
when talking about Philly on the weekend you need Orr if healthy........Hollweg is the odd man out and should'nt see the light of day with everyone healthy,haha............I don't mind him on the team for grit or if someone goes down but it's a rotation of Prucha and or the 4th for me...........once again top 3 stays we're winning!!!.............Sjostrom stays to, he's young ,fast, defensive and brand freaking new.......so they will let him play
Mara won't be back for like 3 weeks, he won't be rushed with them having 7 now and Struds is a great team player but the 7th D man
'competed for Team Sweden in the 1964 Olympics in Austria in 1964.'
What was that year again? I don't think it was clear.