The Rangers take on their tunnel rivals, the Devils, at MSG tonight. Igor Shesterkin will be between the pipes for his second straight start after defeating the Avalanche 5-3 on Tuesday. After today’s contest, New York takes on the Stanley Cup Champion Blues in St. Louis on Saturday night.
Here are the projected lineups:
New York
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin - Ryan Strome - Jesper Fast
Brett Howden - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Steven Fogarty - Greg McKegg - Brendan Smith
Brady Skjei - Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal - Anthony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
Igor Shesterkin
New Jersey
Wayne Simmonds - Nico Hischier - Kyle Palmieri
Blake Coleman - Travis Zajac - Nikita Gusev
Jesper Boqvist - Pavel Zacha - Miles Wood
Kevin Rooney - Ben Street - John Hayden
Andy Greene - P.K. Subban
Sami Vatanen - Damon Severson
Will Butcher - Mirco Mueller
Mackenzie Blackwood
Ryan Lindgren, who left Tuesday’s game with a cut on his check resulting from his fight with Nazem Kadri after his hit on Joonas Donskoi, was on the ice Thursday morning. He is projected to play opposite his usual partner, Adam Fox. Following a phone hearing with the NHL Department of Player Safety – an oxymoronic name if I ever heard one – Lindgren was absolved of any wrong doing and was not suspended (see below).
(1/2) After thoroughly reviewing all available video and following a telephone hearing today, the Department of Player Safety has determined that there will be no supplemental discipline assessed to NY Rangers’ Ryan Lindgren for his hit against Colorado’s Joonas Donskoi.
(2/2) While there was significant head contact on this play, Lindgren took a proper angle of approach, did not extend outward or upward and hit through Donskoi’s core. Therefore, under Rule 48.1 (i), the head contact was determined to be unavoidable.
I tweeted that one solution, as proposed by others, would be to make all head shots, regardless of why it happened, illegal. This would remove the subjectivity of analyzing intent etc. from the review. This would not be the end all and be all solution but clearly would be a step forward from what’s in place now.
The
Lias Andersson saga played out further in the media yesterday. The translation of the interviews Andersson conducted, as expected, led to speculation by all of us as to the underlying reasons behind what led to his decision to head back home. What we do seem to know as part, per Andersson, is that he is dealing with injuries to both feet, making skating difficult. Resolving those ailments is a priority, since that would enable him to at least skate pain free, physically. Everything else is pure speculation, my hope is that if he needs assistance, he receives that as broadly and quickly as needed. But until we know more of the underlying, we are just holding a finger up in the air and trying to see which way the wind is blowing with few facts. Yes, I know as I write this, I am just as guilty of speculating, so giving advice to myself as much as I am to anyone else.
I would love to see
Kakko find his footing tonight. He has struggled lately. Maybe a match up against the team that passed on him to take Jack Hughes – which was expected- helps get him going by providing additional motivation.
Can’t say I am overly surprised
Shesterkin is back between the pipes after his debut Tuesday. I expect Henrik Lundqvist to face the Blues on the road Tuesday, unless Shesterkin is dominant this evening, positing a shutout. What this means for Alexandar Georgiev also remains to be seen. The Rangers have the cap room to carry three goalies. Whether that’s wise short- or long-term is up for debate but having all three with the team won’t impact the cap materially for the balance of the season. Determining how to deploy all three will be the hard part of managing this arrangement.
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