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Rangers continue road trip in Music City to take on the Predators |
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The Rangers continue their road trip, facing the Predators in Music City tonight. New York won the first two games of their four-game excursion outside of MSG while Nashville comes in off a 2-1 win. The Blueshirts complete the road trip Saturday in Ottawa.
Lines in practice Wednesday:
Ryan Strome (COVID) will miss the game, putting him at risk and likely out of Saturday's game. Of a broader concern has to be if someone else will test positive, since the length of time missed and fact that Strome is still out would seem to indicate a positive test. Hopefully that is not the case. In addition, while each case is different, seeing what Mika Zibanejad went through after he was sick while trying to recover has to raise the level of nervousness slightly.
Artemi Panarin and Zib, paired together in the third period Monday, will be on a line together at least to start the game. Coach Gerard Gallant is pushing his chips to center ice, pairing the two big dogs together. This change might last only as long as Strome is out. As a result of that pairing, Alexis Lafreniere moves down to the second line, joined by Sammy Blais. I likely would have gone with either Barclay Goodrow or Julien Gauthier in that spot, but Blais brings a physical presence and can chip in offensively a bit.
The hope is that Morgan Barron is in the lineup. I would have him center the third line and Kevin Rooney as the pivot on the bottom-trio. Greg McKegg should be the odd-man out with Ryan Reaves as the right winger.
On D, Larry Brooks wrote the other day that he would like to see Libor Hajek in the lineup. Yesterday, he created a stir with his tweet at the start of practice, noting that Hajek was paired with Patrick Nemeth, seemingly indicating he would be in the lineup for Nils Lundkvist. This appears to be a false alarm, as Lundkvist was paired with Nemeth in practice, so this just might have been for the start of the session.
No word yet on who will be between the pipes. With the extra day off after the Maple Leafs game, Igor Shesterkin should be in net. This is especially so since the team has no back-to-back games for two more weeks, so they can ride Igor if need be.
Kravtsov:
If you believe Brooks, the real reason why Vitali Kravtsov went back to Russia has nothing to do with his strained relationship with GM Chris Drury. The decision was entirely based on his belief he would never get a crack at a permanent spot on the Rangers’ top six because wingers Panarin, Kreider, Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko were ahead of him on the depth chart.
If true, and I emphasize if, that is a damning indictment of the player, in essence calling him mentally soft and not willing to compete for a spot. As we have discussed, Kravtsov likely figured that a spot was his when Pavel Buchnevich was traded. But New York first tried to move Laf to right wing and then shifted Kreider there, taking him one of the two-top six spots. But if you think you deserve the spot, prove it.
Brooks has a source for that info. Obviously, we don't know who that source is. In addition, much of the recent bits of data have been skewed towards management rather than the player. Meaning, like any info leaked from the organization, a certain amount of skepticism needs to be applied. Irrespective of that, even if partially true, not a good look for Vitali.
In the article, Brooks notes that Drury, in addition to Gallant, as reported by Elliotte Friedman, reached out to Kravtsov. Though it's not clear if before or after he went back home. Nick Kypreos reports 15 teams have interest while Brooks reports there is tacit interest but nothing close to a deal. New York rightly won't just give him away, so expect this to be status quo for a while.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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