It’s Rangers game day and we are officially at the halfway point of the season as the Rangers host the Minnesota Wild. In what is usually recognized as the return of Mats Zuccarello, it’ll be Ryan Reaves who gains a majority of the attention tonight as this will be his first time playing the Rangers since being traded. While I’m sure Reaves probably went out to dinner with Goodrow and a bunch of the guys last night, as soon as that puck drops it’s going to be all business as one of the league's few remaining enforcers while undoubtedly look to make an impact, mostly physical. That being said, it could be worth throwing a couple of Washington’s on a Ryan Reaves anytime goalscorer prop as that’s just how these things tend to go. Reunion’s aside, this should be a good test for both sides as the team’s have very similar records at this point in the season.
On Minnesota’s end, they’ve played two less games then the Rangers have but have the same amount of wins. In their last ten, they put up a record of 6-3-1 but are coming off a weekend of back to back losses where they picked up a point in an overtime loss in Buffalo. The Wild have been quite busy splitting the back to back at home and on the road and kick off a week in the big apple as they’ll play on Long Island Thursday. The Rangers will have the advantage of being well rested after having two days since their matinee in Newark. Another advantage the Rangers have is having a fully healthy squad as the Wild have dealt with some adversity as of late, dealing with numerous injuries and ailments throughout their recent stretch. So much so, that they had to use one of their top young defenders, Calen Addison at forward in their last game as they were without Jordan Greenway and eventually lost Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek in the midst of their outing with St. Louis.
In addition to those aforementioned injuries, the Wild seemed to be without Marc-Andre Fleury temporarily as it was brought to Twitter that he was leaving the team for personal reasons. While it was noted as a temporary leave, it seemed to really just be a quick trip home as he just missed Sunday’s game and has already rejoined the team in New York. It’s unclear on whether he or Filip Gustavsson will get the start tonight but either way the Rangers need to keep their opposing netminder busy and put lots of pucks on net in hopes of avoiding being outshot as bad as they were in Jersey. Former Rangers fan-favorite Mats Zuccarello is also among the injury list in Minnesota but has been noted as feeling better so perhaps we could see him in tonight’s action.
This will be the second and final meeting between these teams this regular season as the Rangers last saw the Wild in Minnesota for the second game of the season where they won 7-3. A lot has changed since that last game but one of the things that hasn’t is the expectation that these are two playoff teams who at this point in the season will be looking to up the stakes as they hope to climb the standings and continue distancing themselves from Wild Card positions. With the Wild having a rough weekend and the Rangers wanting redemption from their OT loss against the Devils, the stage should be set for the Rangers to come out firing on all cylinders to get two points in front of their home crowd.
Not much should change on the Rangers end as to much surprise, Gallant didn’t toy with the lines over the weekend. This could be a night to get Jonny Brodzinski back in the mix but the chances of Gallant scratching anyone on the fourth line in his favor are a bit slim. That being said, expect the same lines going into tonight’s game:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Trocheck - Kravtsov
Lafreniere - Chytil - Vesey
Blais - Goodrow - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
Igor Shesterkin will be expected to see a majority of this week’s workload aside from one of the weekend’s back to back outings. Hopefully the puck he took to the mask against the Devils on Saturday was routine enough and didn’t have any negative impacts on him. Assuming that’s the case, expect him to lock in for the week ahead and be a key factor in the Rangers finding success against their upcoming opponents. On the Wild’s side, Kirill Kaprizov per usual will be the name to watch out for as he has four goals in his last five games despite his right hand man being out in Mats Zuccarello. Calen Addison, who was mentioned earlier is another name who has been hot as of late with a goal and four assists in his last five. The Rangers have gotten similar contributions from Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox lately who will look to continue leading the way for this Blueshirts team looking to have a strong back nine of the season that starts tonight.
Chris Feldman
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