The Rangers are back at it on home ice, looking to extend their win streak to four, as they take on the Montreal Canadiens. While Montreal did make it to the Stanley Cup Final last season, the tide has certainly shifted for them over the course of the offseason. That being said, this should be another golden opportunity for the Rangers to get their offense going as the Canadiens rank 31st in goals for as well as 29th in goals against in games played. In their 17 games played, the Habs are 4-11-2. The Rangers can’t take them lightly, however they should certainly go into this one knowing they are the better team.
With Carey Price taking a leave from the team, Shea Weber potentially being forced to retire, Cole Caufield getting sent to the AHL, as well as some other personnel changes, Montreal isn’t quite looking like the team that was battling Tampa for a Stanley Cup this past summer. They rank very low on power play and penalty kill, and are pretty close to the Rangers face-of percentage, which also isn’t good. If the Rangers carry the momentum of last game and play the complete type of game they’ve been slowly building towards, there’s no reason this can’t be a stat night for the Rangers.
While Filip Chytil still hasn’t been a full participant in any team skates, it appears he will be good to go for tonight’s game. Otherwise, the Rangers will have to go with seven defensemen. Greg McKegg has been reassigned to Hartford which is a bit surprising as it has been announced this morning Sammy Blais will miss the remainder of the season. Blais went into the boards hard while his knee went in a completely different direction during Sunday’s game against the Devils and upon further review, it appears he will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
This comes as a huge loss for the Rangers, especially with Vitaly Kravtsov no longer being an option. Blais was off to a good start, proving himself to be a gritty, depth option that can play anywhere in the lineup. Now, the Rangers are short handed, primarily on the right side. They are going to really need Kakko to keep going now and will need Julien Gauthier to take that next step we’ve all been waiting for him to take now. Gauthier has been playing his best hockey as of late and is coming closer and closer to finding the back of the net. I could very well see Head Coach Gerard Gallant rewarding him by putting him on that top line where Blais was playing, however Barclay Goodrow is the safer bet. It’ll be interesting to see how Chytil looks in his return to the lineup considering the Rangers will need him with Blais now out of the lineup.
General Manager Chris Drury may want to use this situation to explore trade options and look into bringing in a secondhand scoring option, in an attempt to fill the void of Sammy Blias. Goalscoring doesn’t always come easy and was certainly a struggle for the Rangers to start the season. Now could be the right time to address this need instead of waiting til the trade deadline to add a piece. There’s plenty of names out there that can come in and immediately make an impact, either on the third or first line right wing spot and it’s better to look to fill that spot sooner rather than later.
With Blais out, no extra forwards and no call ups from Hartford yet, expect the lines I predicted yesterday to go tonight:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Goodrow
Panarin - Strome - Kakko
Lafreniere - Chytil - Gauthier
Hunt - Rooney - Reaves
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Nemeth - Lundkvist
The Rangers get a bit of a break in their schedule this week as their game in Ottawa is postponed due to several Senators testing positive for COVID-19. Therefore, with no back to back games coming up, I’d expect we’ll see the Rangers ride Shesterkin for the rest of the week, starting tonight. The Rangers biggest key to the game will be not taking this team lightly and going out there and taking care of business. With the unfortunate situation regarding Blais, the Rangers will hopefully have a chip on their shoulders and look to win one for their teammate who won’t be able to lace them up till next season. Look for Mika Zibanejad, whose been rather quiet lately to step up and have a big one tonight, hopefully finding the back of the net.
Chris Feldman
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