Yesterday at practice, as Larry Brooks notes, John Tortorella put Christopher Higgins on the top line to skate with Marian Gaborik and Vinny Prospal.

But as Brooks notes, putting Higgins up there leaves the Rangers thin down the middle:

If Higgins vacates his temporary spot in the middle, does that mean fourth-line center Brian Boyle would be trusted with the 12 minutes or so a third-line pivot would receive?

Read more at the NY Post

…It doesn’t appear that the Rangers will call anyone up from Hartford and thus that is how it could work. There are worse players that could play 12 minutes a game than Boyle, but he isn’t the ideal player there.