Coming to you with a melancholy T and M, as our leading scorer, Brandon Dubinsky is out 3-4 weeks. Oh, joy. Quickly becoming one of the heart and souls of this team, this loss is huge.

-Let’s start with Dubi. How do you replace your leading scorer? How do you replace a guy who plays first line minutes? Who plays on the PP and PK? Who is maybe one of the top 2 or 3 most important forwards? You don’t. What you do, is you hope guys step up. Marian Gaborik HAS to step up. Granted, his first game without Dubi was stellar. Four goals is not your average day at work. But I’m not going to judge based on one game. He needs to be consistent. They’ve been able to get by without him being his best. Not anymore, they need him to play well. They need him to dominate games again. They need him to be Marian Gaborik again.

-Guys like Brian Boyle, Wolski, Stepan, and MZA have to step up. Anisimov needs to step up. All the guys, the core guys, need to play well. Dubi is a huge loss. But, it’s a part of hockey. They’ll have to deal with it.

-The good thing is, I don’t think his presence will be missed that much on the PK. Penalty killing, I think, is a job where you can just plug guys in. Kris Newbury may get some time. Gabby may get some time, like he did last year.

-And now, Fedetenko is out. He’s been so good this year, and he would have been someone who could have stepped up in Dubi’s absence. Brodie Dupont, who I’ve always been a fan of, takes his place. He is a grinding winger who can also play PK.

-The big thing is, everyone has to step up. Can they do that? The answer may determine playoffs or not.

-Off Dubi for a second, I’m starting to think the disappearing act of Marian Gaborik has at least a little to do with the absence of Vinny Prospal. They worked so well last year. And with Prospal out, Gabby has struggled. An excuse? No. An explanation? Possibly.

-I think Gabby may be injured, for what it’s worth. The burst isn’t there.

-Anyone else really impressed with Ryan McDonagh? I knew he was a talent, but, I did not expect this. Looks very poised for his age. He won’t be an offensive guy, but a shut down defender is in his very near future. Can’t believe Montreal gave him up for Scotty Gomez.

-Speaking of Gomez, from our friends at 5-Hole, a somewhat funny, somewhat annoying clip. Listen here.

-Good for Hank. About freakin’ time:

-It’s not like Hank. But if no one else was going to stand up for him, he had to. And he did. He’ll be hated in Montreal for a long while.

-It would have only been topped by a goalie/goalie fight. One of these days…

-The Rangers really need Callahan and Prospal back, and soon.

-Seriously, the Rangers must have pissed off the injury gods, because this just ain’t fair.

-Let’s see how they respond to the Dubi injury. Lots of games coming up, and they need to keep pace to be in the playoffs. Will they? Should be interesting to watch.

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