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Around the rink - Wednesday, January 19th

Carolina Hurricanes v New York Rangers

at Madison Square Garden on January 5, 2011 in New York City.

Bruce Bennett

It’s a light night around the league with just three games but they’ve each got their own side stories and drama unto themselves. See, every game counts for something in the NHL, doesn’t it? That’s your feel-good moment of the day and you can just tuck that away into your pocket and save that smile for later. At least we’ve got an Original Six battle to fall back on tonight. All times are Eastern.

7:00 p.m.

Toronto @ NY Rangers

A pair of teams butting heads on two-game losing streaks. As any promo might say, “Something’s got to give.” For the Rangers they want to put slow starts and bad efforts against Philly and Montreal behind them and jump out fast. Will we see a change in Marian Gaborik’s game after getting benched for parts of the game against the Flyers? We’re thinking he might break out against the Leafs. That’s not because the Leafs have been bad lately, just one guy’s dumb gut feeling. The Leafs are hoping Gaborik can stay quiet at least one more night so they can get back on the winning side. After a pair of lacking efforts in a row, the Leafs are hoping their anemic offense can break out against the defensively tough Rangers.

7:30 p.m.

Columbus @ Florida

Columbus’ Sunshine State tour concludes in Sunrise after a shootout loss to Tampa Bay last night. They’ll be dealing with a Panthers team that’s won three of their last four but are coming off a shootout loss to Atlanta. Perhaps both teams would like to avoid going to the skills competition to settle things then. Columbus would just like wins, period. They’ve lost seven of their last eight games. Their effort against Tampa Bay was better and continuing that against Florida would be a show of consistency the team hasn’t had since October.

9:30 p.m.

Minnesota @ Calgary

The Wild expect Niklas Backstrom to be back and ready in goal but maybe sticking with Anton Khudobin might not hurt. If it wasn’t for a dumb fight by Brad Staubitz leading to an Oilers power play goal late, the man they refer to as “Borat” would have two straight shutouts. Winning two in a row will have to suffice. The Flames come into this one losers of five of their last seven games and teetering on the edge of irrelevance in the Western Conference. Getting a win over a divisional foe at home would help stem the tide of failure.