It’s New York-New York for the second of three meetings this season tonight at MSG. The Islanders come in of a comeback 4-3 overtime win over the Flames last night, rallying from a 3-1 deficit. The Rangers had a disappointing 3-2 overtime loss to the Red Wing on Sunday during which the lines were changed, which is a theme tonight.
As seen, the lines are materially changed, similar to an extent to what we saw Sunday. Artemi Panarin is on a line with Mika Zibanejad, which was the case in the third period Sunday. Chris Kreider, moved to the fourth line Sunday, is on the third line with Filip Chytil and Vitali Kravtsov, who returns to the lineup after being sidelined with an upper body injury since October 29 against Dallas. Jimmy Vesey slides up ago skate with Vincent Trocheck with Alexis Lafreniere moved back to his strong - left - side. Barclay Goodrow is back on the fourth line with Ryan Reaves expected to be a healthy scratch. Julien Gauthier missed practice with an upper body injury. If he plays, look for Ryan Carpenter to be scratched with Gauthier on the fourth line.
Coach Gerard Gallant got a little testy when discussing the move of Kreider to the fourth line Sunday and changes for tonight’s game. He made a point of noting that Kreider was not being singled out, but his tone of annoyance was clearly evident in the questioning by the beat writers. Gallant highlighted the need for all lines to be better (see quote below) and the leaders to leaders. Pushing him, as I thought the writers did a bit Sunday and yesterday, yields somewhat better responses, though Gallant doesn’t give much and is at times adversarial. I would love the writers to keep pushing and holding Gallant’s feet to the fire more on some of the moves or non-moves.
On wanting to make changes, but also show confidence in the players “That’s a coaching job. You’re responsible to get your team to play better and that’s what I want. Like I said, we always point out Chris Kreider went to the fourth line last night. Well, he did, but we switched a lot of the lines around and today at practice, you mix and match your lines a little bit because I want everybody to be better, not just Chris Kreider. He’s got to be one of our leaders and he’s got pull his weight instead of going the other way and that’s what we need from our players our leaders, our top players. They got to lead our team when we’re not playing as well. That isn’t giving the young guys an excuse or giving the third and fourth an excuse. It’s got to start at the top. When you’re real good, our best players got to be our best players and they gotta pull the other guys with them. And I’m just not happy with the way we’re playing and I think it’s going the other way and we’ve got to change it.”
Kreider knows he is not playing well. Beyond the lack of scoring, his comments show a recognition that he is not engaged enough. Kreider highlighted the need for him to be better in all the aspects of the game besides scoring. Granted the team needs him to score, but if he is not succeeding in that component of the game, Kreider still needs to contribute elsewhere, which has not been the case. He needs to be a leader in all three zones not just offensively. When he uses his speed and is better engaged, positive results should ensue.
“For me, it's the details," he said. "It’s skating, it’s hitting, it’s establishing that forecheck and getting my nose over pucks. Those are things that I can do consistently, whether or not the puck is going in."
The blueline should be the same as Sunday. Ryan Lindgren is expected to miss his second straight game with the upper body injury he suffered against Boston. Gallant admitted that Zac Jones was benched Sunday. Why he didn’t just state that Sunday night and had to say ask Gord Murphy still is unclear. But with Lindgren sidelined and no other options available right now, Jones will be in the lineup again tonight.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»