The Rangers continue their four-game home stand with a contest against the Blues. Following today's contest, the Blueshirts face Washington on Thursday and New Jersey on Saturday at MSG. After this bit of home cooking, New York plays three straight on the road, facing three Western Conference teams vying for the playoffs (Dallas, Colorado and Arizona). Alexandar Georgiev is back between the pipes against St. Louis.

David Quinn after practice Monday:

“Regardless of your opponent, it’s all about us coming ready to play and doing the things we need to do consistently to put ourselves in a position to win hockey games, and that’s all we’re going to focus on tomorrow night.” - Coach Quinn pic.twitter.com/xbYUOqwkoN

— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) March 2, 2020

Lines:
Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Di Giuseppe
Panarin-Strome-Fast
Howden-Chytil-Kakko
Lemieux-McKegg-Gauthier

Lindgren-Fox
Trouba-Smith
Staal-DeAngelo

Di Giuseppe remains on the top line, for now. That situation will be free-flowing, as Quinn said before Sunday's game. Panarin could move up, same with Kakko and maybe Gauthier. Why Di Giuseppe? Quinn said: “I love his pace, he plays a lot like Fast, he has that hard working mentality, gets to the net, plays at a pace, he can create room for Buchie and Mika.”

Quinn on Kreider: "He’s in a boot. How quickly he heals will depend on when he gets back." No surgery was required, so it's possible Kreider is back in a month. Until then, New York has to find a way to win and get production up-and-down the lineup. That includes the top-six, but especially the third line, who need to play like a second line, and to a certain extent, the bottom trio.

Georgiev gets the nod in net for the Rangers. He stopped 74 of 79 shots against the Islanders and Canadiens last week before giving up five goals on 40 shots against the Flyers last Friday. Henrik Lundqvist, who turned 38 on Monday, surrendered five goals on Sunday. His reactions were slow, maybe partially due to rust, and I thought there was an outside chance he went tonight. But Quinn is going back to Georgiev, who was good in beating the Islanders and Montreal. I wouldn't be shocked if Hank starts against the Devils, but if Georgiev is brilliant the next two games, he will start versus New Jersey

On Shesterkin’s timeline: “it might be sooner, it might be later. With this type of injury it’s very free flowing, how quickly can you recover? He’s feeling better. He was out there again this morning before we practiced and he’s making a lot of progress.” Shesterkin is still only seeing low shots but the good news is that he should be able to maintain his conditioning by being on the ice.

Playoff race - back to back losses to the Flyers have not helped the Rangers' chances.

Monday, no games of playoff import. Today, Montreal at the Islanders is the main contest, with maybe Ottawa at Pittsburgh of import as well.

Toronto - 78 points - 66 games
Philly - 83 points - 65 games
Pittsburgh - 80 points - 63 games
Islanders - 78 points - 64 games
Columbus - 75 points - 67 games

Carolina - 75 points - 64 games
Rangers - 74 points - 65 games
Florida - 73 points - 66 games

Eastern Conference Playoff Race (Games Ending 3/2/20) #nhlplayoffrace pic.twitter.com/A5Y8wNeK7b

— Damian Echevarrieta (@Ech28) March 3, 2020

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