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Rangers begin three-game road trip tonight in Vegas versus the Knights |
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The Rangers, 3-1-1 in their last five games, kick off a three-game road trip against the Knights tonight. Vegas comes in off a 4-0 loss at home to the Islanders while New York defeated the Devils 3-2 in overtime. Following tonight's game, the Blueshirts have two days off before facing the Avalanche in Colorado followed by the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday.
Rangers likely lineup vs. Knights:
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith
Kaliyev-Brodzinski-Vesey
Edström-Carrick-Rempe
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches:
Healthy: Jones, Groulx
Injured: Chytil (upper body, day to day)
IR: Kreider (upper-body injury)
Filip Chytil and Chris Kreider are on the trip and both of them skated this morning prior to practice. Neither will be in the lineup tonight but the fact that each is on the trip and flew to the West Coast has to be viewed as a positive. With Chytil questionable, the Rangers opted to send down Brett Berard, who had struggled, especially defensively and promoted Benoit Olivier (Bo) Groulx to provide the team some depth down the middle. Berard will get the chance to play top-six minutes in all situations, which he needs for his development. New York will miss the energy and physicality he brought to the lineup. Groulx won't play tonight as Jimmy Vesey, a healthy scratch against NJ will opt back in, likely as the third line wing.
Zac Jones remains a healthy scratch which is not surprising based on the defensive effort last game. His agent has reportedly been given permission to pursue a trade. With the lack of true depth on the blueline, as the team does not really trust Connor Mackey or Matthew Robertson if the need arose to play a d-man on an extended bases, don't look for anything to occur until prior to the trade deadline.
Igor Shesterkin is again between the pipes. After missing four games and having a relatively light game, facing only 23 shots Thursday vs. NJ, no shock he is in tonight. I expect we will see Igor again Tuesday and possibly also against Utah.
PP1 is Fox, Panarin, Lafreniere, Zibanejad and Trocheck;
PP2 is Miller, Brodzinski, Kaliyev, Smith and Cuylle.
The first unit is similar to what we saw Thursday when New York scored twice. Mika Zibanejad, who has points in five straight games and looks to be righting the ship, remains in, replacing Chris Keider. When CK20 returns, it will be interesting to see if Zib stays on that unit or if Alexis Lafreniere moves back to the second unit. PP2 is kind of ugly, but Arthur Kaliyev's shoot first mentality will be a welcome addition to the man-advantage.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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