The Rangers are back at it at the Garden for the first time in almost two weeks against the Philadelphia Flyers. The teams have only played twice thus far this season, splitting the series 1-1. The Flyers are 5-5 in their last ten and are coming off back to back losses against the Washington Capitals. The Rangers will be looking to build off their big 4-0 win against Boston while the Flyers will want to shake off the games against Washington and get back in the wins column. Philadelphia is four points ahead of New York in the standings so these next two games are extremely important for this Rangers team.
Couple of updates over the weekend, Phil Di Giuseppe has been placed on the leagues Covid-19 protocol list and therefore will be unavailable until further notice. Jack Johnson was one of two players placed on waivers around the league yesterday. We will find out later today if he clears, more likely than not this will be the case. With Vitaly Kravtsov's KHL season coming to an end and beginning the process of joining the Rangers, there are sure to be lots of little cap moves such as this in order for the Rangers to be compliant with cap regulations. Not sure if this is exactly why Johnson was put on waivers, if it means Bitetto could be returning soon or if it is just simply a cap crunch move but either way, expect Hajek and Smith to remain that third D Pairing going into tonight's battle.
As for the forwards, with Di Giuseppe out it is a safe bet that Julien Gauthier will return to action. Whether or not David Quinn scratches Lemieux, Blackwell or in an extreme case Rooney to bring Howden back in the line up is up in the air. It wouldn't be surprising given Quinn's not so subtle liking to Brett Howden, however it shouldn't be a question whether or not Gauthier returns. As mentioned in the last few articles, Gauthier has constantly been improving and is playing with noticeable confidence for the first time in his young career. Why he hasn't been given a look on that line with Strome and Panarin or on a line with Zibanejad is borderline baffling. Nevertheless, expect the lines for tonight to look like:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Buchnevich
Panarin - Strome - Blackwell
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Lemieux - Rooney - Gauthier
Quinn could also opt to take Lemieux back out and return Gauthier and Howden to the line up as Lemieux hasn't really impressed yet this season and only saw about seven minutes of ice time against Boston. Expect Keith Kinkaid to get the nod again as he's coming off his first shutout in a year and a half and has been a pleasant surprise to the organizations depth this season. No updates have been given on Sheshterkin other than it's very much a day by day situation and he continues to skate. If he remains out all week, look for Georgiev to get the start for at least one of these games to try to help him find his game again.
The last time the Rangers played Philly, Chris Kreider single handedly kept the team in it in an otherwise sloppy game. Look for a much cleaner performance from both of these teams who are going to be hungry for a win. Lots of breakaway's and odd man rushes came from the last meeting of these two as well so the Rangers will want to be solid defensively and look to take any opportunity they get to create a rush on the breakout. If the team plays like they did on Saturday, they should have no problem taking the series lead on the season against one of their bigger rivals.
Chris Feldman
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