The Rangers are back at it for stop number two on their four game road trip for a rematch with the Minnesota Wild. The last time these two teams played each other was on Henrik Lundqvist night and the Rangers did not look good until the game's final minutes. The Rangers fell short by a goal after almost tying it up on a questionable goaltender interference call. Nevertheless, the Rangers will need to play a lot better if they want to even up the season series with this Wild team.
Minnesota has hit a bit of a rough patch as of late, going 3-7 in their last ten games, most recently losing to the Dallas Stars 6-3. They have dealt with their share of injuries throughout that stretch and are just now close to having a full roster. There’s not a doubt they will look to come out of this one with a win as they look to get back on track. The Rangers on the other hand are 6-2-1 since coming off their two week break and are heading into Minnesota with a three game winning streak. With the wins piling on and Igor Shesterkin playing as well as he has, you have to think they’re feeling pretty good about themselves going into this one.
Despite falling off a bit during this recent stretch, the Minnesota Wild are still holding on to third place in the Central Division; although Dallas and Nashville sit right behind them all within a point of each other. This will be a big game for Minnesota as they now find themselves in a tight race within their division. Lucky for the Rangers, Minnesota’s stats aren’t all that great aside from their goals for average where they rank third in the league at 3.68. With Shesterkin playing the way he has, this shouldn’t be too much of a concern however the Rangers should definitely limit time spent in their own zone, keeping Minnesota’s chances to a minimum.
With McKegg and Rooney not on the trip it was assumed that Morgan Barron would get more of a look however, head coach Gerard Gallant opted to roll with seven defenders in the game against Winnipeg. His reasoning for this being that he wanted to get Libor Hajek back in there and wanted to lessen the workload for some of their guys who typically eat a lot of minutes. It will be interesting to see if he goes this route again against an offensively strong team but after yesterday’s practice, it looks like Julien Gauthier will get back in and three of the four remaining forwards will make up the fourth line. Best guess:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Lafreniere
Panarin - Strome - Hunt
Goodrow - Chytil - Gauthier
Barron - Brodzinski - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Nemeth - Schneider
You have to think that Gallant not making any changes to the lineup isn’t totally off the table but with the forwards they have, it makes more sense to run four full lines. Keeping Julien Gauthier out of the line up isn’t ideal and unless Morgan Barron is or isn’t doing something that we can’t see, you have to think now is a good a chance as this team will get to give the young center a real good look. Nevertheless, the Rangers should be in for a good one tonight as they look to keep on rolling.
Chris Feldman
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