Eminger a step closer to returning
New York Rangers' Steve Eminger, right, escapes a check from Calgary Flames' Tom Kostopoulos during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Calgary, Alberta. (Oct. 20, 2011) Credit: AP
OTTAWA -- After missing the last 15 games with a sprained right ankle, Steve Eminger is "itching to get back" in the Rangers' lineup. "Hopefully, it's soon," he said after a morning skate Monday at Scotiabank Place.
Eminger, 28, was scratched for Game 3 Monday night but pushed hard in the skate for the second consecutive day.
Messin' with Bartlett's
The Senators must have suspected something. On the lineup board in their locker room, Chris Kreider's name was written on the third line in black magic marker in the morning. On the opposing lineup whiteboard in the visitors' locker room, no players were listed. Instead, this was scrawled: "Bravery is not the absence of fear, but the action in the face of fear." -- Mark Messier. A similar axiom often is attributed to another Mark . . . Twain: "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.''
The Rangers are 34-42 in Game 3 of playoff series . . . They have killed 10 of 11 power plays . . . Artem Anisimov, who has played center most of his career, including as a teenager in Russia, and left wing since the ninth game of the season, was back at center, starting with Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Callahan . . . The other scratches: John Scott, who was chirping at Ottawa's Zenon Konopka during warm-ups, and D Jeff Woywitka.
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