The Rangers are right back at it for some New Years Eve hockey as they take on hockey's other Floridians, a team no stranger to success, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Both teams are coming off losses to the Panthers, the Lightning coming off their's a little sooner and perhaps with a bigger chip on their shoulders as they were blown away by a score of 9-3 last night in Sunrise. What's even more impressive about that win for the Panthers was the fact they were outshot by Tampa 42-37. Nevertheless, this will be a good test for the Rangers and one they may even have the edge in having had more rest in the last 24 hours.
Tampa is first in the Atlantic Division with a record of 21-7-4, just two wins more and one loss less than the record the Rangers have accumulated thus far this season. The Lightning are among the teams around the league missing a good chunk of key players from COVID protocol including their Vezina winning goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky as well as Anthony Cirelli and Mikhail Sergachev. Assuming Tampa runs the same line up they did last night, the Rangers have a bit of a reunion on their hands as Tampa's third defense pairing is former Rangers prospect Sean Day and former Hartford Wolf Pack member Darren Raddysh.
Once upon a time before the days of Adam Fox and Nils Lundkvist and even Ryan Lindgren, Sean Day was among the most coveted Rangers blue line prospects. Once described as a "linebacker on skates with all the tools to be an elite skating, shutdown difference maker" by Eldon McDonald of thehockeywriters.com , Day has yet to have his "big break" having just played his first NHL game earlier this week, likely only because of COVID. In his younger days, Day was expected to be a top prospect but personal matters affected his play and he has yet to show the kind of promise he did when he was in the OHL. Nevertheless, glad the kid is finally getting a chance in the NHL and if you know anything about the Rangers, you're calling your bookies to bet the house on him scoring his first NHL goal tonight.
On the Rangers end, I wouldn't expect any changes in the lineup. Filip Chytil had a maintenance day yesterday but Head Coach Gerard Gallant said he should be all set to play tonight. While it seems like a no brainer to give Zac Jones a look in place of Libor Hajek, I'm sure Hajek will stay in the line up against the team that drafted him, against two time Stanley Cup Champion Ryan McDonagh who was part of the infamous blockbuster trade involving Hajek just about half a decade ago... No comment.
Speaking of two time Stanley Cup Champions, Barclay Goodrow will take on his former team for the first time. Mollie Walker of the New York Post spoke with him after practice yesterday regarding "insider insight" on how to beat his former team but was pretty standard about it, mostly saying that as long as the Rangers play a "full 60" and have "all four lines rolling, playing the right way" they'll be fine. Likely, those four lines will look the same as they did Wednesday:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Strome - Hunt
Lafreniere - Chytil - Gauthier
Goodrow - McKegg - Reaves
Miller - Trouba
Hajek - Fox
Nemeth - Lundkvist
Shesterkin will look to have a bounce back performance as he has that Henrik Lundqvist kind of hatred toward losing. Him along with the rest of the team will be locked in on getting back in the winning column and have a good chance to do so. With Tampa playing last night, it's imperative the Rangers get off to a quick, physical start getting as many pucks on net as possible. Assuming Vasilevsky remains on the COVID protocol list, it's essentially a coin flip on who will be in net for Tampa since both of them played last night. Regardless, scoring early will be huge against a team that just gave up nine goals the night before.
Chris Feldman
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