The Rangers have one more stop on the road before heading home for the holidays (and one more game) as they’ll face-off tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Fewer teams are hotter than the Blueshirts who are 8-1-1 in their last ten, currently riding a seven game win streak. The Penguins however, are one of those teams. On top of being 7-2-1 in their last ten, the Pens have only lost five games since the second week of November, two of which being in overtime. They struggled with a lengthy losing streak to start the season but have since turned things around and haven’t looked back. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since Artemi Panarin sent them packing in the game seven overtime of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals. Needless to say, we should be in for quite a game.
It’s been business as usual for the Penguins who are being led by their top guys, Crosby, Malkin, Guentzel. One of the few bumps in the road they’ve had as of late came in losing Kris Letang for a handful of games. Letang, who suffered a stroke for the second time in his career, miraculously managed to return to the Penguins line-up less than two weeks afterwards. Letang’s first stroke came back in 2014 and was the result of a small hole that never fully healed in his heart. The fact that he has been able to return to hockey from that and has returned so quickly after suffering one for the second time is absolutely wild. Glad to see that he is doing alright as anytime something as severe as that comes up it is certainly a scary situation. Have to think Letang should absolutely be in the Bill Masterton conversation later this season.
As for the rest of the Pens, Jake Guentzel and Evgeni Malkin have had the hot hand lately, leading the team over the last five games in goals and assists. On top of the incredible story relating to Kris Letang, he along with his partner Marcus Pettersson have looked great as the Penguin’s top pair on the back end. Up and down the line-up, the Penguins have threats on each of their lines and the Rangers are going to have to be ready for a much stronger effort than they saw over the weekend with Philly and Chicago. In net, the Penguins have also gotten great help with Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, both of which, having save percentages well over .900.
On the Rangers end, they will need everyone to pick up the pace as they will be without Filip Chytil who likely won’t play again until after Christmas. While there hasn’t been many updates on Chytil’s status, it’s fair to assume he isn’t going to play tonight and with what we’re all expecting his injury to be, there’s no reason to rush him back with a bit of an extended break coming up. That being said, there will definitely be a tweak in the lines and Julien Gauthier should return to the mix, likely moving Barclay Goodrow back to center. It’ll be interesting to see if Gallant keeps Lafreniere and Kakko together or if he splits things up a bit. If I had to guess, I would expect to see something along these lines.
Panarin - Zibanejad - Kravtsov
Kreider - Trocheck - Vesey
Lafreniere - Goodrow - Kakko
Blais - Brodzinski - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
It’s kind of up to debate which line was really considered the second line versus the third line for the Rangers. You had the Kid Line and Trocheck/Kreider/Vesey essentially acting as a 2A, 2B option. With Chytil out, it makes the most sense for Trocheck to slot in as the second line center but you have to wonder how much Gallant really wants to change things. He does have the opportunity to mix things up with Chytil out. While it’s most likely he just slots Goodrow in between Kakko and Lafreniere, he could look to split those two up, perhaps move one of them to the top line or move one down to the third. Another thing to consider is Jimmy Vesey is not only among the leaders in goals through recent games, but has the best +/- on the team over the last five games. With that in mind alone, I wouldn’t be surprised if that Trocheck line is the second line and Goodrow plus the kids becomes the third until Chytil is back.
Assuming that’s the case, this should be the perfect opportunity for Gerard Gallant to get Vitaly Kravtsov minutes in the Rangers top six. One thing that has been evident in Kravtsov's first real season with the Rangers is Artemi Panarin playing a mentor type of role for the young player. With that in mind, it should make all the sense in the world for Kravtsov to slot in for Goodrow on that top line and see what he can do with Panarin and Zibanejad. In goal, expect Igor Shesterkin to get both starts the rest of the way leading up to the break as they will definitely need him in order to compete with Pittsburgh and eventually the Islanders. This should be quite the exciting night for Rangers hockey as I’m sure many fans like myself are reminiscing on the Rangers wild playoff run from last season. Expect that to be quite relevant to tonight’s narrative as both teams are sure to have that in their heads as well.
Chris Feldman
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