Blue Notes

BOSTON----One musical note before we get down to business.

Bob Seger's saxophonist Alto Reed (how's that for a stage name?) is scheduled to play the national anthem. If Seger can get here from Detroit in time, he may sing, we're told.

Thinking of night moves, Rangers' lineup is the same as in Philly.

Forwards Jason Ward and Colton Orr and defenseman Thomas Pock are healthy scratches again, and the same lines and defensive pairings were to be employed.

The rationale? "Success out of Philadelphia," coach Tom Renney said. "Pretty good synergy between the lines that we had. Dan Girardi played well enough to stay in the lineup for now. I liked the looks of those combinations of people. The bottom line is you always want to get yourself to the point where you have interchangeable parts, I'm hoping that's where we are now, and we'll work off whatever's successful and keep doing that."

Reunion Arena: Ryan Hollweg and Bruins winger Stanislav Chistov played together as 13-year-olds in San Jose for a year. Chistov was part of a Russian exchange program. They haven't played against each other since.

Duckpins next? Renney confessed that he was among the worst bowlers at a team outing on Sunday night. "But at least I didn't throw the ball while the pins were being set like Straks (Marty Straka) did."

More later...