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Rangers face Blue Jackets on the road looking to extend win streak to three |
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The Rangers head to the road to face the Blue Jackets tonight. Fresh off a 3-2 shootout win over Los Angeles, New York looks to extend their win streak to three. The Blueshirts face the Wild tomorrow on Henrik Lundqvist night followed by contests Sunday at home against the Kraken and Tuesday versus the Panthers before the Olympics break.
The blender was in full effect yesterday in practice with the
projected lines below. Julien Gauthier gets his chance to skate on the top line. He does bring a physical presence and has some skill, but as we have seen, he lacks finishing ability. Maybe the move to that line will be the elixir, though my guess is this is another in a long line of shuffles.
Filip Chytil is out tonight but might be able to go tomorrow. Kaapo Kakko will likely be out until after the break with his injury. Sending good thoughts to Patrik Nemeth who is sidelined due to personal issues for the second time this season. Alexandar Georgiev gets the nod between the pipes, saving igor Shesterkin, the Heir apparent, for tomorrow's game with Lundqvist in the building.
Kreider - Zib - Gauthier
Panarin - Strome - Goodrow
Laf - Barron - Hunt
McKegg - Rooney - Reaves
Larry Brooks wrote the below column yesterday. One major focus was Ryan Strome, who is slated to become a UFA at the end of the season. The two sides are talking, though nothing is close. The good news is that GM Chris Drury is not going to deal Strome to recoup an asset for a player who might walk, preferring to let the situation play out and hopefully reach an accord. Dollars, not years, are the key, so if the team could go one more year at less dollars to lower the AAV, that might be an option, presuming the cap rises down the road as expected. In the short term, minimal $1 mil rises are projected in each of the next two seasons. Beyond is probably COVID dependent.
The Blueshirts are engaged in ongoing talks with the representatives for pending unrestricted free agent center Ryan Strome, with preliminary numbers having been exchanged between the parties, The Post has learned.
While it seems as if there is a fair amount of work to do in order to reach an agreement on an extension, there will be no sign-or-be-traded ultimatum coming from general manager Chris Drury in the manner that then-GM Glen Sather put the hammer to Mats Zuccarello ahead of the 2015 deadline or to Ryan Callahan and Dan Girardi a year earlier.Remember, the cap that is projected to increase by $1 million to $82.5 million next year is not likely to grow by more than another million to $83.5 million for 2023-24. And that’s the year the Rangers will owe second contracts to Lafreniere and Miller.
So it is difficult to imagine the Rangers being able to go much past $5.75 million per on Strome without compromising the rest of the roster for years to come. It is folly to expect that the team will be able to fill in up front next season with Will Cuylle and/or Brennan OthmannThere is another consideration for Drury and that is potential free-agent candidates to replace Strome such as Tomas Hertl or Vincent Trocheck will likely cost even more to sign. So if not Strome, who
Henrik Lundqvist was on Jimmy Fallon last night, as he makes the rounds prior to his jersey retirement. In addition, AJ Castiglia posted two more tribute videos and I am expecting a boatload of them tomorrow from a variety of sources. These get better and better.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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