DUN… DUN DUN….. DUN…. DUN DUN. DUN… DUN DUN…. DUN… DUN DUN
*sick Keith Moon drum fill*
OUT HERE IN THE FIELDS! Ladies and Gentlemen, the New York Rangers have punched their ticket to the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. What a time. Unlike last year, they did so without having to win a game. Given the standings, if the Sabres and Panthers both lost last night, the Rangers would clinch their playoff spot and sure enough, thanks to a Montreal shootout win, the Sabres lost and the Rangers clinched a playoff spot. With nine games remaining, they still have seeding to play for but it’s certainly nice to know that no matter what, they’re in and after the season they’ve had, it’s well deserved.
As for tonight, the Rangers take on the Columbus Blue Jackets and have a serious opportunity to catch the Devils in the standings for home ice advantage in the playoffs. It’s been a while since the Rangers saw Columbus, who they are 1-1 with on the season. Their last matchup came back in January when the Rangers came out on top 3-1 but to give you context on how long ago that was, Vitaly Kravtsov had a goal in that game. Prior to that, the team’s saw each other in the first game I got to see in person this season when the Rangers got beat up and embarrassed in a 5-1 loss that gave Daniil Tarasov his first NHL win. Needless to say, this should hopefully be a very different game as the Rangers got significantly better in the months since and the Blue Jackets have gotten… well, closer to the possibility of Connor Bedard wearing the blue and red.
The Jackets are firmly in the basement of the Eastern Conference and tied for last overall with the San Jose Sharks with a game in hand. They’ve only won 23 games this season and are coming off a pretty brutal loss to another struggling team in Montreal where they lost 8-2 on the second half of a back to back where they beat the Islanders the night before. In their last ten, Columbus has gone 3-6-1, allowing 56 goals in the process. Columbus is among the worst teams in the league in terms of goals for, goals against with special teams units that don’t particularly get much accomplished. That being said, this should be a great opportunity for the Rangers to jump start their power play unit which has been struggling as of late.
Hopefully, the Rangers can get back to their types of performances they had against Pittsburgh and Nashville the other weekend and take control of this one early and in dominant fashion. All that really matters from this point on is getting as many points as possible to try and leap frog New Jersey and get those power play units going. Get off to a strong start, net a couple goals and then sit back and let time go by to get out of this one with as much ease as possible. It’ll be interesting to see if they continue to hold Ryan Lindgren out of the line up as there really isn’t a dire need for him to be back until absolutely necessary. Whenever they do decide to get him back in the mix, it wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world to start him on the third pair with Schneider just to manage his ice time and decrease his workload and chance of re-injury.
Assuming he stays out, expect much of the same with the lines:
Panarin - Zibanejad - Tarasenko
Kreider - Trocheck - Kane
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Vesey - Goodrow - Motte
Mikkola - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
Look for Igor Shesterkin to get back between the pipes as he had the weekend off and can use this one as a warmup to their big matchup with the Devils on Thursday. After that, I’d only really play him on a necessary basis. Let him get nice and rested and ensure that he’s feeling good and confident going into the postseason. As long as the Blueshirts go into this one knowing they aren’t going to be gifted two points, they shouldn’t have much issue walking out of there with a win. The Jackets have some young stars who will definitely need to be looked out for but all around the lineup, the Rangers out match this team. One thing I will keep reiterating to all the fans out there… sit back, relax and enjoy the calm before the storm as much as possible because we’re getting closer and closer to the craziness!
Chris Feldman
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