Fresh off a 7-2 spanking by the Penguins, the New York Rangers embark on a three game road trip. With David Quinn taking responsibility for overworking Henrik Lundqvist, Alexandar Georgiev gets the start.
The New York Rangers take their show on the road for three games in the next five days. The trip begins in Denver with the next two games in Arizona and Vegas. It’s an opportune time to be playing the Avalanche who are riding a six game losing streak and have slipped into a wild card slot in the west.
The Avalanche were supposed to be one of the top teams in the Central Division after making the playoffs one year after finishing with the worst record in the NHL. Until the recent slide they were living up to expectations, but their game has recently gone south.
Since December 6, the Avs are 2-7-3 in their last 12 games. This includes a home-stand when they played eight of 11 games at the Pepsi Center. That didn’t go to well as they only won two of those games.
In the last 12 games, they have allowed 3.7 goals per game, while scoring an average of 2.6 goals per game. While the Avalanche have one of the best lines in the NHL, their goaltending has been a problem and now, top netminder Semyon Varlamov is sidelined. On Wednesday, backup goalie Philip Grubauer allowed four goals on 14 shots and was pulled.
The top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog is the highest scoring trio in the NHL with all three among the league leaders in goals, assists and points.
In his postgame press conference Wednesday night, Ranger coach David Quinn took all of the blame for starting a fatigued Henrik Lundqvist after two tough road games.
"We can't make those kind of mistakes against a team like that." - #NYR Coach Quinn reacts to tonight's game pic.twitter.com/GQR7G1g1my
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) January 3, 2019
As a result, Alexander Georgiev will be starting in goal tonight. Quinn also said he felt that the Rangers played well in the second period and that the Penguins were “opportunistic.” He has a point. The Rangers made four bad mistakes and the Pens scored four goals. As for playing well….
Georgiev has never faced the Avalanche and he hasn’t started a game in almost two weeks. His last start was in Toronto, a game the Rangers lost 5-3.
With the Rangers getting all of their even strength scoring from the third and fourth lines in the last two games, if the top lines can get on the scoresheet, it could bode well for New York.