Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

In case you missed it yesterday, the Rangers made a trio of roster moves in the late afternoon to address players returning to the lineup and an overall lack of defense and effort this past weekend. After previously being waived earlier in the month, Ryan Malone was sent to Hartford, effectively ending that reclamation project. Jesper Fast was called up to replace him. Conor Allen was also returned to Hartford, as John Moore is returning to the lineup.

Let’s start with Allen, as that’s the move that I questioned. There was nothing about Allen’s play that was bad, he was unspectacular, but didn’t appear out of place or lost by any stretch. He wasn’t going to keep Moore out of the lineup, but considering his relatively steady play, didn’t he deserve another game? It’s not like Matt Hunwick has a significantly better pedigree or even a significantly better performance on the ice.

Don’t get me wrong, Hunwick hasn’t been bad and hasn’t deserved to be taken out of the lineup either. It’s not like we have another Dmitri Kalinin situation on our hands here. Hunwick is in fact the Rangers leading scorer from the defensemen, but that’s more indicative of the disastrous play and injury situation on the blue line than anything else. Allen put up a 50% FF close in 39% OZ starts (also in close situations), while Hunwick has a 49% FF close in 60% OZ starts (also in close situations). In that regard, Allen has been better, although those are extremely small sample sizes.

Hunwick’s numbers aren’t terrible either, he’s doing more or less what you expect from a 7D filling in top-four minutes. But wouldn’t now be the best time to see what you have in Allen? It’s not like Hunwick is a long-term answer. Perhaps Allen is a viable solution if Moore can’t put it together. Perhaps he and Brady Skjei could answer a lot of LD questions that are coming in the offseason. You won’t know unless you let him play.

Moving on from Allen, because I could probably go all day on that one, I’m half expecting the Rangers to place Malone on unconditional waivers to terminate his contract –like they did with Matt Lombardi– relatively soon. It was a good idea in theory, but as I mentioned yesterday, he wasn’t able to cut it. He’s just too slow now. It happens. No harm, no foul on this one.

It’s about time the club recalled Fast, who was another one of my “steps” to fixing the fourth line. The kid was killed in DZ starts during his first stint this year, and handled himself well. I’d expect that Fast will play 4RW minutes with….Kevin Hayes and Tanner Glass? Yea, that sounds about accurate. Lee Stempniak will likely be up to the 3RW with Dominic Moore and Carl Hagelin. Yes, that means Anthony Duclair is a likely scratch. He’s been slipping lately.

Hagelin-Moore-Stempniak, Glass-Hayes-Fast. Swap Moore and Hayes and I’ll be ok with it. Sure, Glass is an anchor and asking Moore and Fast to drag him around the ice is unfair, but it’s the reality of the situation.

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