The New York Rangers and Boston Bruins will run it back for a national broadcast, Sunday afternoon game. The two are coming off of Friday night's matchup where the Blueshirts won 6-2 in decisive fashion. Not much expected to change for the Rangers, who did not practice yesterday. Alexandar Georgiev will get the start once again, no updates on Kakko and Chytil still not ready for return.
The keys to this game for the Rangers are simple, replicate everything they did in their last game. For the most part, the Rangers played a near perfect game combined with playing physical and getting pucks to the net. Getting off to the same start as they did Friday night is crucial in maintaining the momentum against this struggling Bruins team. Boston will without a doubt come out hungrier than they did Friday as that became their second big loss in a row. That mixed with the physicality the Rangers brought and tensions rising throughout the game between these division rivals, expect a closer game than Friday resulted in.
As previously stated, expect the same lineup for the Rangers:
Lafreniere - Zibanejad - Buchnevich
Kreider - Strome - Blackwell
Di Giuseppe - Howden - Gauthier
Lemieux - Rooney - Brodzinski
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Smith
Johnson - Hajek
About halfway through the game Friday, David Quinn moved Lemieux down to the fourth line and brought Phil Di Giuseppe up to the wing with Howden and Gauthier. Lemieux hasn't necessarily played bad, you can always count on him to bring his game day in and day out, however the Rangers need more out of him. He is too skilled to be looked at as just an enforcer/grinder but his lack of scoring and generating offense is cause for concern. He's continued to get chances but as of late can't seem to make the right decision with the puck. Another on-the-fly change Quinn called for was rotating between Lafreniere and Kreider on that top line with Mika and Buchnevich. It seemed anytime the Bergeron line was out there, Quinn would have Kreider on the wing and when the line was out there against anyone else it was Lafreniere on the wing. I have to say that's a solid move by the Rangers coaching staff and wouldn't be surprised if they played that way again today.
Mika Zibanejad still struggling with finding the net despite getting three shots on Friday, one of which coming on a shorthanded odd man rush. All you can do is continue to hope that this will be the game he gets going again and remind yourself that this is only temporary and the goals will come. On the flip side, another Rangers center desperately needs to start producing in Brett Howden. He is on a four game no point streak and only has two assists in 18 games played this season. It's no question depth at the center position has been an issue with this team and you would hope that with Chytil out this would be Howden's chance to shine. Unfortunately, it hasn't and Chytil is on the brink of returning. Keep your eyes on 16 in blue this afternoon as he has continued to produce despite the indefinite hiatus of his line mate Artemi Panarin. Expect another strong performance from the Fox/Lindgren pairing and for Georgiev to have an outing similar to Friday's.
Chris Feldman
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