Game one of two in a row against the Carolina Hurricanes as these next two games will be crucial in terms of how the Eastern Conference playoff standings shape out. The Hurricanes are currently the top team in the East, a title they are barely holding onto as the Devils are right behind them with 97 points and the Rangers quickly climbing the charts at 92. A pair of wins from either team this week could be a huge difference maker in the standings as the amount of games remaining continues to grow smaller and smaller. If the Rangers are serious about wanting home ice advantage in the playoffs, they have to consider these next stretch of games as playoff type of match-ups and given their recent play, that hopefully shouldn’t come as too difficult a task.
For the Hurricanes, they are coming up on the end of a three game road trip where they split games with Maple Leafs and Flyers. In their last ten, they have gone 5-5 and have actually struggled scoring quite a bit. They had back to back shutout losses last weekend against Vegas and New Jersey and haven’t been able to generate much consistently. One of the biggest news breaks around the league came with Carolina recently as it was announced that their star forward Andrei Svechnikov would miss the remainder of the season plus playoffs as a result of a knee injury. This comes as a massive hit to Carolina and as much as we don’t want them to succeed as the Rangers’ division rival, you hate to see this happen to such an elite player in the league. Hopefully Svech has a smooth recovery but their loss certainly comes as an advantage to their opponents not just tonight, but in the coming postseason as well.
The Rangers are currently undefeated against Carolina this season as they beat them 6-2 in February and 5-3 in January. It’s clear so far this year the Rangers have had the Canes number but with playoff seeding at stake here, expect a much more intense effort from both sides. We could be looking at this Rangers team at their very best tonight as all signs are pointing to Ryan Lindgren finally making his return tonight. As the Rangers take morning skate, he is currently slotted back in on the top D-pair with Adam Fox which is a great sign that he could be back tonight. This will be a massive addition as the Rangers are arguably playing the best they have all year and now will finally have a full, healthy line up with all their trade deadline additions in the mix.
With that in mind, expect the following tonight:
Panarin - Zibanejad - Tarasenko
Kreider - Trocheck - Kane
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Vesey - Goodrow - Motte
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Mikkola - Schneider
Lindgren, who hasn’t played since the end of February, missing 11 games will be a huge boost to this team. With how they’ve played lately, you’re hard pressed to really find anything wrong with the Rangers performance. As long as they keep up their recent effort, they should have no problem skating with the Hurricanes, especially with Lindgren back in the mix. One area of focus tonight should be for the Blueshirts to take advantage of the power play whenever given the chance. Carolina plays aggressive on the penalty kill and has just as much of a threatening power play so special teams will without a doubt play an important role. Look for Igor to get back in net after his split efforts with Halak that resulted in a perfect weekend for the Rangers.
Chris Feldman
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