Tom Renney hasn't decided if Jason Ward or Adam Hall, who practiced on defense, will return to the lineup when the Rangers host Atlanta Saturday. Darius Kasparaitis could also return after being a healthy scratch the past two games. If Thursday's practice is an indication, Ward appears likely to play after skating with Marcel Hossa and Colton Orr.
-- Newsday
Tom Renney hasn't decided if Jason Ward or Adam Hall, who practiced on defense, will return to the lineup when the Rangers host Atlanta Saturday. Darius Kasparaitis could also return after being a healthy scratch the past two games. If Thursday's practice is an indication, Ward appears likely to play after skating with Marcel Hossa and Colton Orr.
-- Newsday
Alright, this says one of two things two me. Either Hall is buried deep in the doghouse and Renney is letting him know it by taking him out of the regular forward rotation and making him practice with the defensemen.
Or
Renney is realizing that part of the reason why Hall is doing nothing close to what he did in Nashville is because we're not using him the way they did. Maybe Using Hall on the point on the PP is a way to get the kid quality minutes without displacing anyone, as it's pretty clear we have no Orr's or Leetch's in our d group.
or (sorry option 3)
Hall is realizing that he's doing nothing and this is a stab, ala Strudwick, to make himself more valuable than the next guy by being more versatile and being able to play D in a pinch.
Renney and Co have done this in other Practices as well. Usually the guy who is going to be sitting the game. I really doubt we'll see Hall in the game at all then.
I'm not going to get bent out of shape for this, unless Hall actually dresses as a defenseman for a real game. And then, I'm going to call 911 and respectifully request that they send the rubber wagon to the Garden for pickup. Maybe spending a night in Bellevue would make Renney a little more sane.
You would think that it's just for practice, and it lets the guy skate. If a player is slumping, you would think that a coach would make him practice in a situation that would help him improve his position and make his game better. Playing D is not Halls game.
I think they do that every practice to make the lines even during certain drills. If you have 7 guys on D than you need one of them to constantly take a turn with the 7th guy. It's a lot easier, if you have an odd number of forwards, to just have one of them play D this way you have 4 pairs on D. I don't think it has anything to do with what they're going to do in a game, it's normally just the worst forwards who take turns playing D for parts of practice.
