It’s Garden of Dreams Night at the Garden as the New York Rangers host an original six match-up with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Rangers are currently on their hottest win streak of the season as they will look to continue it with another very good team. Despite a shaky start, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been among the league's best team’s for the majority of the season, currently tied with the Devils for second in the entire league, just three points behind Boston in first. Anytime these two team’s face-off against each other, the action tends to be close and usually low scoring. Expect for that same kind of pace tonight as we should be in for quite a game.
The Leafs have been getting outstanding goaltending from their duo of Ilya Samsonov and hometown hero, Matt Murray. They two of them are both floating around a .930 save percentage, contributing to the team being ranked second in the league in goals against per games played. The Rangers are really going to need to focus on getting pucks on net and can not have a start like they did Monday where it took them eleven minutes just to register a shot on goal. For as good as the Leafs have been at keeping the puck out of their net, it’s no secret that they’re most skilled in offense. With their powerhouse core of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander and Mitch Marner, who has been on a historic 23 game point streak that he will look to keep alive tonight in New York. With that in mind, the Blueshirts will need to tighten up defensively as they can not afford to give up the puck at all, let alone in their own zone.
On the Rangers end, it’s no secret they’ve been heating up and showing signs that they are still the team that went to the Eastern Conference Finals last season. Currently on a four game win streak, this game will be a huge opportunity for the Rangers to put themselves in a great position leading up to Christmas. Getting a win and keeping this wave going against a team like Toronto would be huge as their schedule the rest of the way is a great opportunity for more wins to come. The Leafs are coming off a 7-0 win against Anaheim on Tuesday Night, and are currently 9-0-1 in their last ten. In fact, the Leafs haven’t lost a game in regulation in over a month. (November, 11 vs. Pittsburgh). Three of their last four wins have been shutout wins making it all the more pivotal that the Rangers find a way to score, early and often.
For the Rangers, it doesn’t appear much will change in the line-up. Vitaly Kravtsov is expected to spend yet another night in the press box which makes absolutely no sense. Nevertheless, lines should look the same as they did toward the end of the game against the Devils.
Panarin - Zibanejad - Goodrow
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Kreider - Trocheck - Vesey
Blais - Brodzinski - Gauthier
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Hajek - Schneider
As we all know by now, Gerard Gallant likes what he likes and when he likes it, it usually lasts until a loss. There is no reason for Barclay Goodrow or Jimmy Vesey to be on the first and third line while Vitaly Kravtsov rots away in the press. There’s only so many times I and countless others can talk about how Barclay Goodrow is best used in a bottom six role but Gallant seems to feel otherwise. I understand why Jonny Brodzinski has remained in the line-up, he’s played well and has clearly proven to add more of a spark then Ryan Carpenter did. However, there is no reason for him to be a night in, night out type of guy if it’s resulting in Kravtsov not playing. Barclay Goodrow should be the fourth line center and if you’re not going to try Kravtsov on that line with Mika and Panarin, give Gauthier the chance who has been having a solid year and as I’ve been saying for years now, would complement those two players perfectly.
The most confusing part of the whole Vitaly Kravtsov situation is he wasn’t even playing bad when Gallant took him out of the line-up. That on top of the fact that if the Rangers coaching staff/management isn’t careful, they could burn any potential bridge that would result in Kravtsov having a long term future with this organization. At this point, it’s becoming more and more likely that the Rangers are going to trade him at some point and if they’re not going to play him, they might as well just make a move and move on. I’m not suggesting that Kravtsov should just be given the benefit of the doubt and play every night regardless of performance because of his draft status, but to barely give him the chance to prove he can contribute night in and night out is mind boggling.
Aside from that whole situation, the vibes seem to be great with this team and they should be excited about the opportunity to compete with one of the league’s strongest teams. Anytime the Leafs and Rangers play were usually given a great showing so hopefully tonight won’t be any exception. Hopefully the Leafs did all their scoring the other night and the Rangers can have a sneakily strong offensive showing, something the Leafs haven’t gotten from their opponents in their recent games. As long as Shesterkin gets help from the defenseman and the forwards can get some offense going, there’s no reason for the Rangers to slow down at all.
Chris Feldman
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