Peepin' Foes: Florida Panthers

The Rangers come off of a three day break to battle the Florida Panthers on Saturday night at the Garden (7p, MSG).

Where We Are: Struggling to find scoring. Larry Brooks wrote a column detailing all of the issues with the team and Blueshirt Banter finally thinks we should start looking at Torts as the cause of some of the troubles, so I am feeling quite validated as all that both say have been detailed in this space to date. It is nice to go from 'that pessimist who is never happy' to the realist who wasn't blinded by the shiny 7-0 streak.

Where They Are: The Ranger game will be Florida's third in four days. They beat the Sabres in Buffalo 6-2 on Wednesday, beat Detroit 2-1 in overtime tonight and will be back east for our game tomorrow.

Who To Watch For: Wily vets Steven Reinprecht and Cory Stillman are proving that they have plenty left in the tank (EDIT: Stillman hurt his knee and won't be playing. Boo ya!). Michael Frolik is finally finding some of his potential. Nathan Horton is on a three game point streak but hasn't elevated his game to star status just yet. And you know former Rangers Radek Dvorak and Dom Moore (forget aboot it) would love to score in Garden again.

What To Watch For: Bryan McCabe has just 10 points but is certainly capable of making the Panthers power play a force to contend with should the Rangers get sloppy. Scott Clemmensen is expected to start UPDATE: looks like Vokoun as Clemmensen made 39 saves (!) against the Wings; not like that is any help as Vokoun has one of, if not the, best save percentage since the lockout. See what kind of jump the Rangers get out of the puck drop, a slow start could doom them. That is, if they can't find the secondary scoring they need so badly. And see if they can get through an underrated defense that includes the tough Keith Ballard and Bryan Allen.

What We'll (Hopefully) See: Florida too tired to put up a fight. The Avery Rules not to be in effect. Sean, Higgins, Cally ... hell, anyone who isn't Gabby or Vinny to score a damn goal. Redden and Rozy not to lose the game for the team, and then have Torts hurt the confidence of the rookies as a result. Someone to beat up Greg Campbell, if only to get back at his dad for being so bad for the sport.

Also Check Out: There aren't many blogs about the Cats but they do have The Rat Trick, On Frozen Pond (different from the Caps one) and SBN's Litter Box Cats.