It’s round two of the Battle of the Hudson as the New York Rangers host the New Jersey Devils. This is a huge game for the Rangers, who are currently on a three game winning streak as they took care of business on their brief West Coast road trip. These teams met exactly two weeks ago when the Devils came from behind to beat the Rangers 5-3. Since then, the Devils have gone every other, with a pair of wins and a pair of losses, one of which in overtime. On the flipside, the Rangers have gone 4-1-1 since last seeing the Devils, as they have seemed to find a way to turn things around, at least for the time being. Which is why this game is so important for the Blueshirts as they need to go on a longer win streak to truly snap out of their disappointing November showing.
The Devils will be equally as hungry for a win as they are coming off a 6-4 loss to the Islanders on Friday. They’ll be looking to keep up their pattern of winning every other as they hope to avoid back to back rival losses. With the Rangers hopefully putting to rest their days of half hearted efforts and giving up winnable games, the two teams should match-up extremely well, making for this to be an exciting showing. As we all know, the Devils have been one of the better teams this season, now sitting at a 21-5-1 record. They’ve been getting great goaltending from Vitek Vanecek and their young studs in Jack Hughes, Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt and more have been leading the way. On the Rangers side, they’ve also been getting more consistent contributions from their top players, specifically Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad.
Through their last five games, Artemi Panarin has nine assists contributing toward his count of 34 on the year. While he hasn’t been finding the back of the net as often as we might hope, he has been pivotal in the team’s success as of late, including the game deciding goal in the shootout win against Colorado. As far as regulation goals, Mika Zibanejad has been heating up as he has four in his last five, including two against Vegas and one in the shootout against Colorado as well. There has been a bit of a resurgence in his game since moving Kakko and Lafreniere to his wings, a combination that will continue to roll as the team’s top line again tonight.
Gallant has seemed to find lines that he likes again as they will look the same as they have the last couple games. No changes to the mix as we should expect the following yet again:
Lafreniere - Zibanejad - Kakko
Panarin - Chytil - Goodrow
Kreider - Trocheck - Vesey
Blais - Brodzinski - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Hajek - Schneider
The Rangers have also gotten a boost on the back end as Braden Schneider has been stepping up as of late, with four goals in his last eight games. With Trouba, Miller struggling and Lindgren getting banged up, Schneider really stepped up, playing a good overall game while continuing to find the back of the net. Thankfully, the Rangers are starting to get a bit of a resurgence from their second pairing as K’Andre MIller has not only found the net and picked up a couple of assists, but has been a plus five through the teams last five games. He and Trouba were really struggling throughout November as far as being on the ice when the other team scored. They spent a handful of games split up but have since begun to turn things around, looking much better and the numbers back it up.
While the team as a whole has been looking much better, Igor Shesterkin has also appeared to get back into his top form, usual self. It’s kind of funny how we spent so much time talking about his struggles and watched him beat himself up over not playing well when he still has pretty great numbers. As a whole, the team is one of the top ten teams in the league in the goals against category, averaging in just outside 2.8 a game. The Devils are going into the first half of a back to back tonight as they will take on the Dallas Stars at home tomorrow, therefore it’s unclear which goalie will get the nod on their end. If it was up to me, I’d probably save Vanecek for tomorrow night where they’ll be tasked with shutting down Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz and company but perhaps they’d rather have their starter against the rival opponent. Either way, Akira Schmid, Vanecek’s back-up has been very solid in his six starts with a record of 5-1 and a .940 save percentage. Regardless of who’s in net, the Rangers will need to do everything they can to keep their offense going.
The Rangers have not won more than three games in a row this season making it all the more integral for them to get the win tonight as they must further separate themselves from the November losses. They have six games left before the Christmas break, all of which are certainly winnable. The schedule is also pretty fair with just one back to back and at least a day, if not two in between games the rest of the way. Their toughest opponents come tonight and Thursday on home ice so if they can find ways to win both those games and really build a win streak, they’re going to be in great shape moving forward. The vibes surrounding this team have definitely seemed to turn around a bit, now it’s on them to keep it going.
Chris Feldman
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