Strudwick & Hollweg In Lineup for Game 1?!?!?!?

At The Rangers Report, Josh Thompson reports...

— It appears Brendan Shanahan will return to his usual spot alongside Scott Gomez and Sean Avery. Shanahan, who played the fourth line in Sunday’s finale, skated there during practice. To me it’s not much of a surprise as the club becomes so dependent on leadership from its oldest player this time of year. That leadership’s a lot easier to provide from the second line, wouldn’t you say?

— The LW spot alongside Blair Betts and Fredrik Sjostrom may fall to Ryan Hollweg. The ‘Stached One skated there today. Petr Prucha worked himself in, but Hollweg earned most of the ice time next to Betts.

— The most interesting of the three lineup decisions (Shanny, LW on 4th line, Backman’s partner on D) appears to be in the back end. Jason Strudwick was paired with Christian Backman for practice, leading to speculation that he’ll end up there tomorrow. It would constitute as a surprise when you consider Strudwick has played just once since March 15th (Thursday vs. the Islanders) and only four games since Feb. 24.

...if this is true I think Renney has officially lost his mind. First he changes up the three lines that actually had chemistry for no reason and now he has the stache bros. playing in Game 1. How does he justify Strudwick playing over Mara? This means that Tyutin will be back on the power play. The only time the power play clicked this year was when Renney finally took Tyutin off of it.

...I understand we need some toughness in the lineup, but not at the expense of needed offense.