Good Morning Rangers fans far and wide! A happy holidays to all, as we gear up for one last puck drop before heading into the Christmas break and what better way to send it off then with a rival match-up against the New York Islanders? Believe it or not, this will already be the third game against the Islanders this season, as this will be the last time the two teams see each other this season barring any possible playoff match-ups. Not the best scheduling on the NHL’s part but nevertheless, the Rangers haven’t had the best success with the Islanders so far this season. Between that, the fact that this is their last game headed into break and they are coming off a tough loss that ended a seven game win streak, they should be rather hungry for this win tonight.
We should be in for some good hockey tonight as both teams have a fairly similar record and are currently holding the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers with three points over the Islanders. While both team’s have 18 wins on the year, the Islanders have not had as much recent success as the Rangers, having gone 3-5-2 in their last ten. They’ve had a couple days off coming back to New York after a four game road trip where they most recently lost in a shoutout after a scoreless game to the Avalanche. They’ll wrap up their road trip tonight at the Garden and have one more game on their schedule before the holiday as they take on the Panthers tomorrow night on Long Island.
The Islanders have been a bit on the shorthanded side as Cal Clutterbuck, Semyon Varlamov and Kyle Palmieri are all listed as day-to-day, along with Adam Pelech who has been out for most of December with an upper-body injury. The Islanders are not a deep team by any means, so any injuries that arise in their line-up prove to be problematic. For the Rangers, who are mainly healthy and have the ability to confidently run four lines, matching up against the Isles team should work out in their favor. The Islanders are strong on the penalty kill and tend to not let a ton of goals in so it will be integral for the Rangers to get as much traffic to the net as they can and shoot the puck any chance they get. With the back to back for the Islanders, there is a slim chance we could see Cory Schneider in net for them if they opt to save Sorokin for Florida and if that ends up being the case, they really need to take advantage of it and capitalize on their scoring chances.
On the Rangers end, shouldn’t expect to see many changes aside from Julien Gauthier potentially replacing Sammy Blais. The team took the day off yesterday so we likely won’t know of any possible changes until they take morning skate in a couple of hours. That being said, I’d say to place your bets on this being tonight’s lineup:
Panarin - Zibanejad - Kravtsov
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Kreider - Trocheck - Vesey
Goodrow - Brodzinski - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Harpur - Schneider
We saw Vitaly Kravtsov skating on that top line with Zibanejad and Panarin in the third period of the game in Pittsburgh Tuesday Night and with Gauthier potentially replacing Blais, it would make sense to keep Kravtsov on that top line, moving Goodrow to the left side of the fourth line, opening up the right for Gauthier. While there’s a strong chance Gallant could see otherwise, it makes the most sense to keep Kravtsov on his preferred side and let him make the most of his opportunities as he’s played pretty well since returning to the line-up. Considering the Rangers are coming off a loss and that seems to be the only time Gallant likes to shake things up, there is also the possibility that Libor Hajek comes back in for Ben Harpur but at the same time, Harpur has been decent on that third pairing so who knows.
It’s been the Kreider-Trocheck-Vesey line that has been red hot for the Rangers, Kreider leading them in goals over the last five with Trocheck leading in points and assists (two goals, seven assists). In addition to that, Jimmy Vesey has had three goals in the same span so continue to look to that line to generate a good deal of the team’s scoring chances. With those three carrying the weight as of late, Mika Zibanejad has been a bit on the quiet side, especially with the power play struggling. It’ll be tough for the Rangers to get that going again since they’re going up against one of the top penalty killing teams in the league, however Zibanejad will be the difference maker in any event they can begin to find their mojo once again.
Like I said at the top, we should be in for quite the outing tonight and with how well this team has been able to turn things around, finally getting out of their slump, they deserve to head off into the break with their heads held high. As long as they play the game with the urgency behind that logic, they should be in great shape to take this one from the Isles in their final meeting of the season. Expect much of the same efforts from that Kreider line as well as a strong showing from Igor Shesterkin, who has been tremendous since the team’s resurgence.
Chris Feldman
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