The Rangers are back at it in New York after a pair of games in Washington. The Rangers came away with a 3-1 win on Saturday, bouncing back from Friday nights loss. In what was a very similar game, the Rangers were the once who had the third period spark this time. Mika Zibanejad is back, looking like last season Mika and apparently feeling it as well, scoring a beautiful goal off a great fore check to take the lead in the third. Ryan Strome gave Howden the empty net goal to put the icing on the cake and now the Rangers come back home to face Buffalo, a team they should absolutely be able to beat.
The Rangers finish off March and kick off April with Buffalo tonight, two games in Philly, two with Washington then two more in Buffalo. The Rangers should win at the very least five, if not six of those seven games. Buffalo hasn't won a game since February 23rd, having only won six of their 29 games this season. Of course, one of those came against the Rangers earlier this season but Buffalo is on a very long losing streak and the Rangers are coming off a big win. The Blueshirts have to come out strong with the mentality that they are going to win this game. Not in the sense that it's Buffalo and they're not a good team but in the sense that this has to be the start of the tide change of this season.
The Rangers have continuously flirted with being above or below .500 all season and now is the time to take the lead. The Rangers are currently only three points behind the struggling Philadelphia Flyers and six behind Boston. If they want to sneak into the playoff picture, this stretch of seven upcoming games is critical in doing so. We've said this before in recent parts of the season but we are getting closer and closer to the trade deadline which means were over the hill of the season and crashing toward the end of regular season.
There is still no updates with the coaching stuff, Igor Sheshterkin or any other changes to the line up as of this morning. Shesterkin was considered a possibility for Saturday nights game so there is a strong chance he could be ready at some point this week. However, his injury seems to continue to nag him and the Rangers are doing the right thing by not rushing him back to action. As for the line up, there should be no reason not to get Julien Gauthier back in there. I mean that fact that he hasn't gotten a look in place of Blackwell on that second line is concerning but obviously the coaching situation is a little hectic right now so it's kind of hard to point the blame. It will be interesting as well as Vitaly Kravtsov should be ready to join the team within the week making piecing the line up together even more difficult of a puzzle.
Have to assume the lines more or less stay the same for tonight:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Buchnevich
Panarin - Strome - Blackwell
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Lemieux - Rooney - Howden
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Smith - Hajek
Starting goalie decision can pretty much be a coin flip at this point. Both have played well, both have struggled, we're all just waiting for Sheshterkin to come backk quite frankly. The more pressing issue should be the forward lines. Fans were excited about the "kid line" but it seems the kids are indeed not alright as they haven't been all that productive since being put on a line together. Granted it's only been a couple games but I don't think a rental depth forward should be seeing more ice than your first and second overall picks from the last two drafts. Bring Gauthier back for Blackwell and either try him on the second line right wing spot or bump up Kakko.
Chris Feldman
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