“I GUESS I ELBOWED MY WAY OUT OF THE NHL”

That’s what forward Andre Deveaux told reporters in New York yesterday after clearing out his locker upon completing his suspension for a blatant elbow to the head of  Florida Panthers forward Tomas Fleischmann. The Rangers then put Deveaux on waivers Wednesday and he cleared at noon Thursday and has been assigned to the Connecticut Whale.  While it’s an unfortunate situation for Deveaux, it’s a good thing for the Whale who’ve been playing a forward short with Kris Newbury serving his own four game suspension for his hit to Bridgeport’s Justin DiBenedetto. That suspension is now also completed which means the Whale will have two more forwards for Head Coach Ken Gernander to insert in his lineup.

SPOTLIGHT: ROSTER FLUX

BY: Bruce Berlet

Suspensions to Kris Newbury and Andre Deveaux impacted both the New York Ranger and Connecticut Whale rosters Thursday and Friday.

Newbury, the Connecticut Whale’s fifth-leading scorer despite missing five games while on recall to the Rangers, received a four-game suspension from the AHL on Tuesday for an illegal check to the head of Bridgeport Sound Tigers left wing Justin DiBenedetto in a 3-2 overtime victory last Friday night. Newbury missed a 3-2 overtime victory over Portland on Wednesday night, sat out a 6-2 loss at Bridgeport on Friday night and has to miss games Saturday night at Springfield and Tuesday night at home against Hershey, the first Battle of the Bourque Brothers – Ryan of the Whale and Chris of the Bears.