After five days off, the New York Rangers return to action this weekend with two games in Florida. What are the expectations for this important road trip?
It’s tough to call a two game trip to Florida in early December crucial, but this season it is. The Rangers are going through their toughest stretch since the beginning of the season. With only one win in their last six games, it will be important for the team to come home with two points.
Even more important is that the team has to reverse its fortunes on the road. It’s 28 games into the season and the Rangers have yet to win a road game in regulation. All three of their road victories have come via the shootout.
Their first game is Saturday night versus the Florida Panthers and it is the game they have the best chance of winning. There are lot of factors to consider:
- The Rangers have had a week to practice and to get the bad habits that they have picked up over the last few weeks out of their system.
- The walking wounded are starting to come back. Pavel Buchnevich, Mats Zuccarello and Vlad Namestnikov all participated in full contact practice on Tuesday. For all of the gnashing of teeth over the Rangers record recently, you have to consider that they lost three of their top six forwards. On a team as thin as the Rangers, that was devastating.
- We’ll have to see what the line combinations will look like as it will be a challenge to make all the pieces fit. One key question is whether Filip Chytil will continue to get top line minutes. He’s been held to only one assist since his five game goal scoring streak ended six games ago. Does Quinn move him back down in the lineup? Here are the lines (courtesy Bret Cyrgalis of the NY Post) from practice Thursday (yes, they are very weird and there’s no Buchnevich who practiced):
- ZIbanejad-Kreider-Fast
- Hayes-Andersson-Howden
- Vesey-Strome-Chytil
- Namestnikov-Zuccarello-Fogarty
- Henrik Lundqvist will get both starts. With a week off, he will be well rested and no player will want to end the road losing streak more than Lundqvist.
The competition
The Florida Panthers have been playing .500 hockey lately. going 4-4-2 in their last ten games. They are in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with 27 points and they are four points out of the last wild card slot. Vincent Troechek is out with a broken ankle, but they just got Robert Luongo back from a knee injury. Their last four games were against top teams and they held their own, going 2-1-1 against Anaheim, Buffalo, Tampa and Boston.
The Rangers have beaten the Panthers twice already this season with both games at Madison Square Garden. If there is any team that the Rangers would want to play to break their road schneid, it’s the Panthers.
Monday night in Tampa will be a completely different story. The Lightning sit atop the NHL with 43 points and a 21-7-1 record. When goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy went down with a broken foot on November 15th, there were dire predictions for Tampa. They were forced to use Louis Domingue as their number one netminder. How has he done? He’s won eight out of ten starts, but his stats are mediocre with a save percentage of .874 and an average of three goals allowed per game.
So, how does Tampa keep winning? They just bludgeon the opposition. They are averaging a league high 3.86 goals per game. In the 11 games since Vasilevskiy’s injury, they have scored 50 goals. In their last four games they have scored 21 goals. Nikita Kucherov has 42 points, third best in the NHL. Brayden Point is second in the league with 20 goals and fifth in total points with 37.
On defense, both Viktor Hedman and Anton Stralman have been out with injuries. The result? Ex-Ranger Ryan McDonagh has elevated his play to the point that ESPN declared that he is the lead candidate to win the Norris Trophy.
Winning in Tampa will be tough. Besides being an offensive powerhouse, the Lightning have the best home record in the NHL.
What’s next?
After Florida, the Rangers return to the friendly confines of Madison Square Garden for a three game home stand against Arizona, Vegas and Anaheim. If they can come back from the Sunshine State with two or three points, it could be the start of another hot streak. If they lose both games, the pressure to win at home will be enormous.