The only thing more exciting than Friday's are Friday's in the greatest city on Earth, New York City. The Rangers are back at it on Broadway tonight against the Washington Capitals. The Caps are currently one of the hotter teams in the NHL having won their last six in a row and are 8-2 in their last 10. Luckily for the Blueshirts, they are coming off a 9-0 statement win against the Flyers on Wednesday so look for them to build off of that success.
The Rangers will continue to be without their coaching staff for the back to back games this weekend as they remain on the Covid-19 protocol list. Alexandar Georgiev will get the nod again tonight following a huge shutout performance that he truly needed to regain some confidence. Igor Sheshterkin however has been ruled as a possibility for Saturday. Chris Kreider had a maintenance day yesterday but should be good to go for tonight's battle. Assuming there aren't any last minute changes today, god willing. the line up should look the same as it did Wednesday:
Kreider - Zibanejad -Buchnevich
Panarin - Strome - Blackwell
Lafreniere - Chytil - Kakko
Lemieux - Rooney - Howden
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Smith - Hajek
Kris Knoblauch as well as his associates have said they aren't looking to change much to the teams game plans, describing their decisions on the team collaborative with Quinn. It sounds as though the plan was to get in touch before the flight to Washington to discuss and go over things. Ryan Lindgren who had spent some time with Hartford in the past had nothing but great praises to say about the teams new temporary coaching staff.
I'd say the only pressing decision going into this game is going to be whether Julien Gauthier returns to the line up. Gauthier has played very well in every aspect except staying out of the penalty box and ultimately, that is going to be the deal breaker going into this weekends back to back. Personally, I think Gauthier needs to be in the line up everyday, however, gaining a win streak at this point of this season is critical. This team just won 9-0 and for the most part, stayed out of the box. I don't think the coaching staff is going to look to change all that much, at least until they see how tonight goes.
Especially when playing the Capitals who are always a threat on the power play with Alex Ovechkin. The Rangers are definitely going to want to stay out of the box and take advantage of any power play opportunities they can get. The Rangers have a few things going for them, the fact that they have already beaten Washington twice this season and the fact that Washington hasn't played in the last two days. Hopefully the team can build off the momentum from Wednesday night's game and start building the win streak they so desperately need.
Chris Feldman
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