In Toronto, Biron set for NYR debut

And we present tonight's starting goaltender: veteran Martin Biron, making his Rangers debut.

"I've been looking forward to this day since training camp ended," said Biron. "I've been paying close attention to what other teams have been doing and what we've been doing, working real hard in practice and I'm ready to let it all come natural tonight."

"I don't like to guess what's going to happen, but I had an idea I was going to get a game this week; the work in practice was really important. With [goaltending coach] Benoit [Allaire] and Torts we have a good thing going, they know how to communicate with goalies and that's been a real positive."

Head coach John Tortorella said that Biron had "practiced well, Ben feels he's sharp and we'll go from there... We have a plan with Marty and I don't want to move too far away from it. Our schedule's been spread out, it's afforded us to play Hank, but we can't let -- as far as a bit of a struggle for us early on -- we can't teeter from that plan....I'm not even looking past tonight's game. If Marty plays well, I'll be happy because he'll have given us an opportunity to win a hockey game"

Henrik Lundqvist will certainly play one of the the next two games---against Boston and New Jersey on Saturday/Sunday, Tortorella said.

"These are important days for Hank, because when you're playing all the time you're not practicing and working on the things you need to work on. I didn't map it out, I didn't say this was the game. Hank will play, I'm not sure it'll be back to back."

Making adjustments to a different goaltender isn't an issue, Tortorella said. "It's kind of taken out of the picture. We're so concerned about trying to get our game straightened out...we have other things that we're really focusing on."

On a sidenote, Biron will not wear his second mask, which features Gilles Gratton's lion roar. He's saving that for the 85th anniversary jersey...

****

D Steve Eminger is a healthy scratch, so Matt Gilroy and rookie Mike Sauer will be the third d-pair in this rotation. Sauer, 23, had sat out the last two. He looked around at the media crush here at the ACC and had two words: "It's amazing."

****

For the Leafs, big Swede Jonas Gustavsson will be in the net for his second game of the season.