It’s Rangers game day and the Blueshirts are on the road again as they cross the border into the Great White North to pay a visit to the Montreal Canadiens. Similarly to the Hurricanes, the Canadiens are a team the Rangers have not yet seen this season, as they will go against them for the first of two meetings in a two week span tonight. Montreal hasn’t had the easiest time this season as they are currently second to last in the Eastern Conference. That being said, the Rangers cannot take them likely as they are riding pretty hot going into this one and will look to build off their success from their big win at home Tuesday Night. Before we get more into pre-game talks, we have some news to discuss that dropped yesterday afternoon involving Rangers forward Jimmy Vesey.
The Rangers announced yesterday that the team has agreed on a two-year extension with forward Jimmy Vesey that carries an average annual value of $800,000. Jimmy Vesey returned to the Rangers on a professional tryout going into this season after a couple stints in Buffalo, Toronto, Vancouver and New Jersey. The former Hobey Baker Award Winner came into the league and showed great promise of becoming a middle-six, goal scoring type of forward. However, the Rangers sold high on him and he never really found his footing after the trade. His best season was his last with the Rangers where he put up 35 points before stints with four different teams that left him averaging about 15 points a season, never really amounting to what was expected of him. The last couple seasons have especially been difficult for the 29 year old forward as he struggled to be a consistent part of lineups as he bounced around from team to team on tryouts and league minimum contracts.
However, since reuniting with the Rangers Jimmy Vesey has been a breath of fresh air as a relied upon, bottom-six forward who can play anywhere in the lineup when needed. As we’re now nearing the midway point of the season, Vesey has six goals and six assists on the year. While at times, he was seeing top-six minutes, those are the kind of numbers you want from your secondary scoring type of players. Even so, there’s much more to his game that goes into consideration when evaluating his contributions to the team this year. While his goal scoring abilities aren’t as prevalent as they were in college, Vesey has established himself as quite the role player who is smart with and without the puck in either end of the ice. He rarely makes mistakes and unless he’s finding the back of the net, is seldom noticeable which is oftentimes a good thing. He only has two penalties on the year, is a good penalty killer, blocks shots, generates offense at even strength, there’s a lot to like about his game.
For barely north of league min, you’re not going to do much better than you can with Jimmy Vesey. Surely we’re sick of mentioning the Rangers salary cap challenges but it’s going to be imperative to have the right cheap depth players moving forward and since his PTO, Vesey has proven capable of being exactly that. Not to mention, it’s hard not to root for a guy who started his career with the team and made a bit of a comeback several years later with the same team. Good for Jimmy and assuming he can keep up this pace for the next couple seasons, (which I should mention he’s on pace for putting up his best numbers since his first tour in New York), he’s a perfect fit in a third or fourth line role moving forward.
Now as for tonight’s game, just like the man of the hour with the new contract said, they can’t take this team lightly. “There aren’t any easy games in this league” and the Rangers need to have that mindset going into one of the league’s more historic arenas. The Canadiens are a young team and while they haven’t been great this year, have tons of skill and young players that can make this a difficult night for the Blueshirts. Not only are they skilled, but they have some names on that roster that play a physical game and can really slow the Rangers down. One of those names in particular is defenseman Arber Xhekaj, who has been one of the come up stories of the year. He’s among the players to watch tonight as he leads the Candiens with a goal and two assists for three points in their last five.
Along with Xhekaj, the Canadiens have Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki and the league’s most recent first overall pick in Juraj Slafkovsky. Slafkovsky hasn’t had as immediate of an impact in the league as first overall picks tend to. He’s currently playing a fourth line role and only has ten points on the season, (4 goals, 6 assists). Nonetheless, at 6”3, 238 pounds, he plays a hard game and alongside Jake Evans and Michael Pezzetta, could wear the Rangers down. On the topic of first overall picks, look for Alexis Lafreniere who is a Quebec native to go into this one with a little extra pep in his step. He’s certainly due for one as he’s been limited to just one point in his last five with an assist against the Islanders. Not to mention, you have to think after being a healthy scratch for a game, he’s hungry to make an impact and will look to stand out against his fellow 1OA.
On the Rangers side, you can expect much of this same as far as the lineup goes. I made a point to question Gallant’s decision to move Chytil down to the fourth line in the third period of Tuesday Night’s Game but as it turns out, Chytil has been under the weather which was the reason for less ice time. A good example and reminder that we the fans don’t always know the full story and sometimes have to sit back and trust that there is a method to our coaching staff’s madness. Although, Gallant did say that he should be back to his normal spot as the third line center tonight and hopefully is feeling better, so we can expect the same lines of:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Trocheck - Kravtsov
Lafreniere - Chytil - Vesey
Blais - Goodrow - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
With four games, very well-spaced out over the next week and a half, it’s fair to expect Igor Shesterkin in net for the next four games. The Rangers have a back to back starting one week from Sunday when they play the Canadiens again so it would make sense for them to save Halak for that one. Aside from a few hiccups, the Rangers have been outstanding as of late, having gone 10-2-1 in their last thirteen games. A win tonight would not only help them in the standings, but would make for Saturday’s matinee with New Jersey to be all the more significant as the Rangers could potentially be within a point of them, if they lose to St. Louis tonight. Look for that third line to be a difference maker tonight as Vesey will have some swagger to his game after signing that extension and Lafreniere will want a big game in his homecoming.
Chris Feldman
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