Following all the excitement surrounding the Rangers clinching a playoff spot, the Blueshirts will kick off their second to last back to back of the season on home ice against the Carolina Hurricanes. While the two teams have already secured playoff positions, it’s likely they will treat this game with just about as much importance as any other this season. The teams have only met twice this year and will look to hone in on their play against each other in the event that they meet again down the stretch of playoffs. That being said, the stakes aren’t very high by any means so I wouldn’t lose too much sleep if the outcome of this one isn’t perfect.
The Hurricanes are coming off a 5-2 win at home against the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday and have gone 5-3-2 in their last ten. Aside from the Florida Panthers, they were among one of the first teams to secure a playoff spot. While they can breathe a little easier knowing they’re locked in for playoffs, the Rangers are knocking on their door just two points behind them for first place. In this final stretch of the season, the teams will likely be battling it out for first place and the final two meetings with the Rangers will have big implications on whether they can hold first place in the Metro or if they will be the ones playing Pittsburgh in the first round of playoffs.
On the Rangers end, you have to think they’re feeling pretty good after that big win against Ottawa on Saturday. They will look to carry that momentum into tonight’s battle as they’re going to try and leapfrog the Hurricanes in the standings. While many fans may agree that Pittsburgh might be the more ideal first round match-up, Gerard Gallant isn’t going to tell his team to tank games for the purpose of picking their own match-ups. The expectation will be that this team has a chance to take the top seeding and will look to do so, without overworking their top players in the process.
As for the lineup, you have to think Shesterkin will go against Carolina tonight and Georgiev will get tomorrow’s game in Philly. You want Shesterkin to build some confidence against teams the Rangers could potentially run into in playoffs and Shesterkin has yet to get a win against the Hurricanes. For the lines, don’t expect many changes to the lineup. While Filip Chytil did skate yesterday, it appears as though they won’t look to get him back in the mix just yet. With that in mind, expect:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Vatrano
Panarin - Strome - Copp
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Hunt - Rooney - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Braun - Schneider
The Rangers will look to have as close to a playoff lineup as they can for tonight. Patrik Nemeth did not skate yesterday again for personal reasons. We don’t know much about what’s going on with Nemeth but Gallant did make it a point that it had nothing to do with the lingering Covid effects he was experiencing earlier in the season. All you can do at this point is hope for the best for Nemeth, however off ice circumstances aside, it seems that Braun and Schneider may be the best bet to at least kick off playoffs. I’d expect to see them get plenty of opportunities together in these final nine games.
Chris Feldman
Comments