Chris Drury is good to go, evidently. Hard to imagine, but that’s what we’re hearing after a 10-minute skate around the rink this morning. Regardless, we all know that Drury won’t be anywhere near full-strength tonight. Here’s hoping that Renney sticks with Scott Gomez between Nigel Dawes and Ryan Callahan - a combination that was dying for a test drive in the season’s second half, yet somehow never made it out of the garage.

The news on Blair Betts is not so good. He’ll undergo surgery in the next few days to repair a fractured left orbital bone. Note to the Rangers: Stay out of the penalty box!

Taking Betts’ spot at the fourth line pivot will be Lauri Korpikoski, just called up from Hartford. I recall being fairly optimistic on Korpikoski’s upside back when he was drafted in 2004, however it seems that since then the Finish forward has done nothing but slip down the organization’s depth chart. If nothing else, I’m hoping Lauri shows me something this evening. More on Korpikoski, via Hockey’s Future.com:

Korpikoski brings an impressive array of skills to the table, not to mention plenty of speed and a decent frame. Excellent on face-offs, with good anticipation and reach, he brings a solid defensive game to the table. Additionally, he has a quick release on his shot, and when his shot, top notch skating, and fine defensive play are combined with very good on-ice vision, Korpikoski has all the physical tools to be an excellent NHL player.

And one last bit of roster news. According to the Daily News’ John Dellapina, Jason Strudwick is likely to replace Christian Backman on defense. Backman’s been a complete bust, and is looking like a great salary dump by the Blues (Thanks JD!).

Speaking of John Dellapina and the Daily News, needless to say, the reports of Sean Avery’s death were greatly exaggerated. Avery did not go into cardiac arrest at any point prior or subsequent to his hospitalization with a lacerated spleen. While clearly a very serious medical condition, the situation was not nearly as dire as Dellapina and the News initially reported. According to the Journal News’ Sam Weinman, Brendan Shanahan even joked that “he knew the rumors were going too far when he read that he was the one who had to issue mouth-to-mouth to his distressed teammate.”

Of course, the Daily News is now getting razzed in all corners, and while we hate to pile on, John, we can’t help ourselves after reading your impassioned defense of your paper’s reporting. Ever heard of a mea culpa? I’m normally a fan of Dellapina’s work, but some humility here would be nice.

I also have to question what games the intrepid reporter has been watching these last few days after hearing him appear on WFAN yesterday morning (at least I thought it was WFAN…I can’t seem to find the audio now. Maybe it was SNY - they’re like kissin’ cousins these days…). Dellapina believes the Rangers have been by far the better team in the series, and doesn’t see how anyone watching the first three games can think the team is overmatched.

While I agree that this could have been a different series had the Blueshirts held their 3-0 lead in Game 1, the reality is they blew it. While I agree that the Blueshirts have generated a plethora of scoring chances, the reality is they haven’t scored when they’ve needed to. But most significantly, while I agree that the team perhaps deserves a better fate than down 3-0, I disagree vehemently with anyone who thinks the Rangers have played a good series here.

I’d advice Dellapina to open up his eyes if he thinks the team has been anything close to sound defensively. I’m not prepared to take this measure since I don’t have the patience for it, but I’d like to take a running tally tonight of how many times the Rangers dump the puck when Pittsburgh attempts to stand them up at the blueline and how many times they simply skate it into the teeth of the defense. I’d like to count how many times the Rangers force the Penguins to skate end-to-end to generate their scoring opportunities, and how many times they simply hand them the puck at center ice.

Sure, you can lament the fact that turnovers are magnified when they seem to always end up in the net, but couldn’t you argue that that’s the very definition of being overmatched? If the Rangers were as efficient capitalizing on Pittsburgh’s turnovers, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Then again, the Penguins know better than to turn the puck over like the Rangers do.

Overmatched. Out-coached. Out-played. I’m ready for the offseason.