Faced with an early face off today in Montreal, the Rangers have avoided another roster decision following the return of Christensen but coupled with the loss of Chris Drury. It seems that EC will slot into the fourth line making up a very irregular fourth unit. Usually it’s the home of checkers and the less skilled (to be polite) variety of hockey player. If the Rangers go with Avery-Christensen-Zuccarello it may highlight the depth the Rangers have but also the unclear make-up of the roster, not many teams have that kind of bottom three.

EC is not a player for the 4th unit. Nor is Zuccarello and nor is Avery. What ice time they get remains to be seen and Avery, recently, deserves more than the typical 4th line player receives. The key here is Christensen however. Once more it is high noon for the enigmatic pivot as he needs to show something pretty quickly if he is to get more ice time or even maintain his place in the line up. With another 3 weeks minus Fedotenko and a few more games without Drury it’s become audition time for some of the Rangers forwards beginning with EC. If his line gets favourable match ups they have a  chance to do some damage because the line possess a lot of skill but the Montreal and Detroit (Monday) games are a real tests for EC and his future.

I’d like to see the unit force Tortorella to deploy them regularly thanks to their effectiveness. I’d like to see EC control the puck but not dangle or hold on to it unnecessarily. He needs to use Avery’s cycling ability and board play and look to get Zuccarello in space. Christensen needs to show that his skill deserves more ice time. Of course we’ve been saying this regularly since he came to NY. With his maddening inconsistency it’s tough to predict what he will show us over the next two games but he certainly needs to show us something. I suspect Rangers fans will be watching him very closely over the next few games and he can be rest assured so will the management. It will be interesting to see how he looks after his spell on the sidelines but he doesn’t have the luxury of easing his way back in. Christensen needs to make an immediate impact.

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