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Rangers face Lightning at home tonight with five games remaining |
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The Rangers return to action tonight at home against the Lightning in a rematch of the Eastern Conference Finals. Both teams are all but locked into the third seed in their respective divisions, New York in the Metro and Tampa Bay in the Atlantic. Following tonight's contest, the Blueshirts are in St. Louis tomorrow to face the Blues, which will be a homecoming for Vladimir Tarasenko and Niko Mikkola, and then Columbus on Saturday.
Projected Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kane
Panarin-Trocheck-Tarasenko
Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Motte
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Mikkola-Schneider
Patrick Kane, who took a maintenance day Tuesday, participated in the sparsely attended optional skate Wednesday am and looks to be a game-time decision tonight. With pretty much nothing to play for, New York needs to smart and rest him if there is any question as to his future availability. If Kane does not dress, look for Jimmy Vesey to likely move back into the top-six and the team deploy an 11F/7D lineup with Ben Harpur the "extra" blue liner.
Barring unforeseen events, Ryan Lindgren, who has played in just one of the Rangers' last 18 contests and missed six straight games due to an upper-body injury, is expected to be back in the lineup. Lindgren will resume his normal position opposite Adam Fox with Mikkola slotting back down to skate with Braden Schendier, pushing Harpur to the bench, depending on the above. The goal for the next five games, besides health, which is paramount, is for the first and third units to regain the chemistry, especially for the last pairing, that had begun before Lindgren was sidelined.
As a reminder, I am out of pocket starting sundown tonight until Saturday night due to Passover and the Sabbath. My father-in-law's funeral is Sunday and then the holiday begins again Tuesday night through Thursday night. Shiv starts Thursday night for a week, so my availability may be sporadic. I will do my best to get fresh blogs up after Saturday, before the last two days of the holiday and during the Shiva week, but that will depend on schedules.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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