The 2022-23 NHL Regular Season is officially underway! Game 1 of 82 as the New York Rangers pick up right where they left off, in a battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning. In what has been one of the shorter off-seasons, it's felt quite long for Rangers fans who watched this team come so close just three months ago when the Rangers were one of three teams remaining in the chase for the Stanley Cup. Tonight, they will look to get the revenge tour started on the right foot and no better chance to do that than against the team that ended their brilliant run last season. With a couple of new faces, high hopes for younger players and a captain for the first time in half a decade, there is tons to be excited about for this Rangers team that hold high expectations.
After a long, borderline monotonous pre-season that left fans continuously guessing what this final roster would look like, the Rangers seemingly made their tough decisions and have a final roster ready to go. While it seemed that all signs pointed to the Rangers opting to carry a 22 man roster versus a 23, a late pre-season injury to Sammy Blais leave the team carrying 23 names as of this morning on opening night. There may be more decisions coming once Blais is good to go again but alas, it seems for now the lineup is good to go. Among the new faces to the Rangers lineup are Vincent Trocheck, who replaces Ryan Strome as the second line center. Ryan Carpenter, who essentially replaces Kevin Rooney as a fourth line depth forward. By far the oldest Rangers player, veteran goaltender Jaroslav Halak who replaces Alexander Georgiev as Shesterkin's backup. Vitaly Kravtsov, who despite having a few games as a Ranger under his belt, opted not to report to Hartford last season, making the team to start the season, hoping to finally become an NHL regular. And lastly, new-old Ranger Jimmy Vesey who earned a contract after a great tryout during preseason.
With some new faces in mind, it appears that for night one were looking at the following line combinations based on yesterday's practice:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Trocheck - Kravtsov Lafreniere - Chytil - Goodrow
Hunt/Vesey - Carpenter - Reaves
Lindren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Jones - Schneider
With Blais being doubtful for tonight, Goodrow slots up on the third line as Kakko and Kravtsov will get their chances in the top-six. While Gallant made it clear at the start of camp that he would look to slot Kravtsov on that second line with Panarin and Trocheck, it wasn't looking so sure by the end of pre-season. Kravtsov played in a majority of the exhibition games but didn't really impress all that much and was a healthy scratch for the final game. While the thought of him not making the team was relatively unfathomable in terms of asset management, it really wasn't all that clear that he did enough to earn his spot. Nevertheless, he will get his chance and it will be very interesting to see how he does on that second line in games that matter, especially with Trocheck in regular season mode.
Kaapo Kakko, who could very well be the player to watch tonight, will get a look on that top line with Zibanejad and Kreider after an eventful preseason, finding the back of the net on more than one occasion. While there are such high hopes for so many of these young Rangers players, Kaapo Kakko is so due for a big year and with the right start, could very well kickstart that year with this opportunity playing on the top line. As long as Kravtsov pulls his weight on that second line, a healthy Sammy Blais could slot in on the right side of Lafreniere and Chytil, leaving Kakko on line one which could make for the ideal everyday line up in New York.
On the back end, Ryan Lindgren has been day-to-day for the back half of preseason but given the stature of who Lindgren is, it's hard to imagine he'll miss the action tonight. In the event that he does, K'Andre Miller, who is also showing great signs of a breakout season, would likely move up to the top pair, putting Zac Jones with Jacob Trouba and Libor Hajek with Braden Schneider. Zac Jones similarly to Kravtsov, has also earned his spot in the big leagues after a solid camp and some experience playing in the NHL previously. With Nils Lundkvist being trade and now Jarred Tinordi being lost to waivers, the Rangers will certainly rely on Jones to have success on that third pairing as the team's defensive depth looks rather bleak past Libor Hajek as the seventh defender. Igor Shesterkin will undoubtedly get the start in net as he looks to build off his first Vezina winning year.
On the other side of the ice, the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are coming off their first year not winning the Stanley Cup after doing so two years in a row, will look to get of to a good start as they hope to continue being the dominant, power house of a team they have been for quite a few years now. One of my hot takes going into the new season is that the Bolts will regress a bit, mainly due to their loss of Ondrej Palat. While Tampa has no shortage of superstar talent, Palat was such an important part of this team over the last decade, they are definitely going to miss what he brings to this team. Aside from Palat's departure, the team will look pretty similar to how it did last year with the return of one familiar face in Vlad Namestnikov, who is back with the team he started his career with. Unfortunately, Namestnikov nor any other roster news for the Lightning are their biggest story right now as Ian Cole has rightfully been suspended from the team until further notice, leaving the Lightning with only five defensemen as of 9:30 this morning.
**TW/SA**
Due to allegations of sexual assault that surfaced regarding Ian Cole, the team made the right call in suspending him as investigations begin to take place. I won't get into the details but as I'm sure many people have already seen the tweet going around, allegations of Ian Cole grooming and assaulting a minor during his tenure in the National Hockey League have been made public as of Sunday Afternoon. Assuming the allegations are true, Ian Cole's career could very well be over and rightfully so. It's sickening how frequently these sexual assault cases are coming out, especially with all the Hockey Canada stuff. There aren't enough words for how awful it is and while it sucks to talk about, it has to happen if we're ever going to address this issue and make the necessary change to ensure this kind of behavior stops and is truly not tolerated in the NHL and in sports in general. Accountability is a huge part of it and the Lightning are doing right by suspending him until the investigation is settled. We'll hear more regarding that situation as the investigation continues but for now, the Lightning may have to juggle their roster around if they plan to dress six defensemen in tonight's outing.
Aside from that, this should be a great matchup as it will have the attention of the hockey world on tonight's National ESPN Broadcast. It will be a great opportunity for the Rangers to show they mean business in their follow up season making the Conference Finals. Look for big games from Kaapo Kakko and K'Andre Miller as the New York Rangers 2022-23 regular season is officially underway!
Chris Feldman
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