Girardi Day-To-Day, Prust Unknown

Add two more names to list of Rangers players that have been injured this season.

Both Dan Girardi and Brandon Prust did not finish yesterday’s game against Atlanta.

Girardi was injured during his fight with Thrashers captain Andrew Ladd after a borderline dirty hit on Marc Staal. According to Tortorella, Girardi has a pulled rib muscle.

Brandon Prust was hobbled after blocking a Dustin Byfuglien shot from the point. Prust was limping and could barely skate after the play. X-Rays taken on Prust’s foot came back negative and his status as well as Girardi’s are unknown for the Rangers game against the Capitals on Monday night.

The Rangers have recalled defenseman Michael Del Zotto and forward Evgeny Grachev for Monday’s game. They have also sent down forward Dale Weise. Grachev had a hat trick Saturday night for the Whale and Michael Del Zotto has 7 assists since joining the Whale 8 games ago.

Dubinsky Out A Month

The Rangers suffered a huge blow today when the team announced leading scorer Brandon Dubinsky will miss 3-4 weeks with a stress fracture in his left leg.

The Rangers season has been filled with injuries and this just adds to the list.

With this, Dubinsky’s name is added to the lenghty list that includes Callahan, Christensn, Frolov, Prospal, and Boogaard.

Rangers Rip Pens; Lose Callahan

The Rangers continued the hot play on the road today winning their 12 game of the season on the road tonight.

The Pens got on the board first late in the first period when Crosby fed Malkin the puck who snuck it past Lundqvist with 13 seconds left in the first. That would be the only goal Lundqvist would let in.

The second period went by with no scoring and it wasn’t until Cooke took a penalty for tripping Stepan that Christensen grabbed the puck and streaked along the left wing boards and ripped a shot off the crossbar and into the net tying it at one. Fifteen seconds later after a battle in front Alex Frolov ripped a shot past Johnson making it 2-1.

The Pens responded when Malkin and Crosby entered the Rangers zone and Malkin shot it toward the net and beat Lundqvist. That is until it was waved off immediatly by the referee as Lundqvist had been interfered with.

A few minutes later, Anisimov entered the zone and wristed a shot past Johnson for his second goal in as many games. Boyle added a fourth goal for the Rangers to seal the deal for the Blueshirts.

It wasn’t all good news for the Blueshirts though, as 15 minutes into the first period, Ryan Callahan left the game after blocking a shot. It was revealed later in the broadcast that Callahan had a broken hand.

This is pretty bad news anyway you look at it. A broken hand is a pretty serious injury and one that takes a little while to recover from.

Dubinsky broke his hand last year, and missed a month and a week. If we take the same timeline for Callahan, he would return close to Martin Luther King Day, if not later.

This may be a blessing for Eric Christensen, who may now still have a roster spot following the injury.

Callahan has been placed on the injured reserve.