The Rangers had a very heroic comeback win last night. I am in Atlanta, thus I could not watch the game. But I was getting text messages and saw that the Rangers, down 2-0 going into the second fired off four unanswered goals, three in the second period, en route to the 4-3 victory. It was a good victory, even if flawed during the first period. Torts relied heavily on his workhorses, and they delivered. Those workhorses did not include the recently called up Corey Locke or Anders Eriksson.

Starting with Eriksson, the defenseman played just 7:44, none of which were on special teams. With this decreased playing time, only two possible conclusions can be made. The first is that Eriksson was being taught a lesson by coach John Tortorella, and was benched for a period of time, or that Eriksson simply has not won over the coach, and his ever decreasing playing time is a result. Regardless, it makes sense to insert Matt Gilroy back into the lineup if Eriksson is only playing seven minutes a game.

Moving on to Locke, whom many fans wanted to see on the Rangers due to his “pretty” statistics in the AHL, the tiny forward skated in just 6:35 of the 60 minute game, with his time tapering off towards the end of the game. He also did not play a single second on the powerplay, which is supposed to be his specialty and source of all his points in the AHL. When Enver Lisin generally sees more ice time, it is safe to say that Locke’s debut wasn’t a success. I wouldn’t expect him to be with the Rangers much longer. Hopefully, Sean Avery and Ryan Callahan will be back in the lineup for the trip to Florida, and there will be no need for Locke in the lineup.

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