It's Rangers game day and the start of another back to back, this time on the west coast as the Rangers prepare for a rematch with the Colorado Avalanche. The first time these two teams met this season was on the back end of a back to back where the Rangers had little time to rest prior and it showed on the ice as they lost 7-3. Tonight, the Rangers will look to have a stronger performance as they not only want to bounce back from their last showing against this team, but they would like to bounce back from the lackluster play in parts of Sunday's 1-0 loss to Nashville.
The Avalanche on the other hand are playing some very strong hockey, not only are they on a four game winning streak but three of those games consisted of Colorado scoring seven goals. With a record of 7-2-1 in their last ten, Colorado has scored 48 goals in those ten games, solidifying their standing at first in the league for goals for per games played with an average of 4.32. The Rangers are going to want to play a similar style of hockey that Nashville just showed them Saturday. Strong defensively, physical with the help of a big goaltending performance.
With Shesterkin still settling into a return, it's likely Alexandar Georgiev will get the start once again. Georgiev, who has gotten consistent playing time as a result of Shesterkin's injury, has found his game and his playing very well. The Rangers will however, need a big game out of him as he will be responsible for stopping the offensive power house that includes Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. While the Rangers will need to be on their game to keep Colorado out of their zone and wear them down on the puck, Georgiev will potentially be a make or break factor in this contest.
Head Coach Gerard Gallant wasn't too happy with the Rangers performance, especially from some of the younger players. Lafreniere and Kakko specifically didn't see much ice time as the game got into its final period. It'll be interesting to see if there's any changes to the lines going into this one but you'd be hard pressed to really think of lines better suited together. The only consideration is reuniting Kaapo Kakko with Strome and Panarin leaving Dryden Hunt with Zibanejad and Kreider. Assuming that doesn't happen, and assuming Lundkvist is healthy and ready to go, expect business as usual in:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Strome - Hunt
Lafreniere - Chytil - Gauthier
Rooney - Goodrow - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Nemeth - Lundkvist
This is a big test for this Rangers team who are still trying to solidify themselves as playoff contenders this year. If they want to seriously compete and have their name in that conversation, they have to find a way to beat teams of that caliber and Colorado is certainly one of them. Look for a much better performance than the last time these two faced off and hope that Sunday's disappoint lights a fire under them and creates for a high intensity game. If there was ever a game to start the Rooney-Goodrow-Reaves line, it may just be this one.
Chris Feldman
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