It's finally Rangers game day, as it's been three days since the Rangers last played puck. Probably for the best, as there's been bigger things going on in the hockey world the last couple days that deserve our attention. There are not enough words in any language to explain how disgraceful and horrifying the events that transpired within the Chicago Blackhawks organization in 2010 and the years following have been. Kyle Beach, who was previously known as John Doe in the lawsuit against the Blackhawks for the sexual assault from the then video coach Brad Aldrich, identified himself on Wednesday and publicly discussed the situation for the first time. Kyle Beach is nothing short of heroic for what he did and you can only hope that some light comes from all this bad and he begins to find healing and the league begins to change.
On the Rangers end, there's a couple bits of news heading into tonight's game as one player comes off the IR and another heads to it. Kaapo Kakko, who hasn't played since the first half of the third game of the season in Montreal, is off IR and is set to return to the line up tonight. Ryan Reaves, who was banged up during Monday nights game against Calgary, has been placed on the IR list, meaning he'll be out for at least a week. While the addition of Kakko is huge, the loss of Reaves is heavy. What he brings to this team from a personality standpoint is huge and his presence certainly seems to be a key part to why this team is clicking off and on the ice.
Columbus is off to a similar start as the Rangers as they are 4-2-0 to start the season, most recently coming off a 4-1 win against Dallas on Monday. The teams have both gone three days without playing a game with a similar record therefore, we should be in for a pretty even matchup as far as wins and losses are concerned. The Blue Jackets however, have much better numbers in the face-off circle, on the power play and in goals for and against. Quite frankly, that doesn't say much as pretty much every team in the league is better on power plays and 30 out of the 31 other teams are better than the Rangers on face-offs. Although, the Rangers were much better at winning draws on Monday thanks to the return of Ryan Strome.
The Rangers are going to want to focus on playing 5 on 5 hockey as much as they can for this one, they're almost better off not even drawing penalties as the power play isn't very effective. If they carry their improvements on face-offs into tonight's game and clean up the turnovers they struggle with against the Flames, they should be able to get back on track and hopefully find themselves another win. Elvis Merzlikins, who has yet to lose a game for the Jackets this season, will likely get the start in Columbus' net tonight. The Rangers are going to want to create traffic in front of the net and get as many pucks through as beating him will be key to winning this game.
It's hard to know for sure what the Rangers are going to put together for lines tonight as Kreider had a maintenance day yesterday. The first line at practice appeared to be Goodrow-Zibanejad-Gauthier as Lafreniere has been moved to the third line where he's found success with Chytil and Blais. Assuming Goodrow is the placeholder for Kreider and he will fill in for Reaves' roll on the fourth line, we can expect the following:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Gauthier
Panarin - Strome - Kakko
Lafreniere - Chytil - Blais
Hunt - Rooney - Goodrow
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Nemeth - Lundkvist
I have to say, I really liked that Laf-Chytil-Blais line when they were together in the past, therefore I'm excited to see how they perform on a line together tonight, especially on the third line with less pressure than being on the second. I'm ecstatic that Julien Gauthier is finally getting a proper look and hope that I'm right in assuming he will get another look on the top line tonight. He's certainly been performing the best he has in recent games and is potentially one goal away from finally breaking out and the timing can't be better.
Expect Shesterkin to battle Merzlikins on the other side of the ice tonight and expect him to have a big performance, looking to get his team back in the winning column. While losing Reaves certainly hurts the teams chemistry a bit, you have to hope they find some chemistry in these new lines and are able to get the wins going again. The Rangers have yet to really get going offensively, specifically, Zibanejad and Panarin. You have to think that Artemi Panarin will come out with some fire against his former team and hope that things start clicking and he hopefully begins to find the back of the net. All in all, we should be in for a great game and the Rangers have a real opportunity to get themselves going again.
Chris Feldman
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