The New York Rangers take on the Philadelphia Flyers at Madison Square Garden in the second to last preseason game. Roster decisions need to be made and the team cut five more players from the training camp roster.
The New York Ranger have two more preseason games before the their home opener next Thursday. They take on the Philadelphia Flyers in a game that will be crucial for some players who are fighting for jobs.
In his post practice comments Wednesday, Coach David Quinn was asked how he ranked his young players. “It depends what day you ask me. When you’re dealing with youth there’s a lot of inconsistency…it changes day to day.”
He made it clear that there are jobs to be won by his young players, including the center job on the second line. “I’d love for one of them to raise their hand and separate themselves and say this is my job. We’ve got a bunch of guys in that situation.” He continued, “We’re trying to see how the whole thing shakes out.”
He wouldn’t commit to Ryan Strome at center, saying “He’s smart, he’s responsible, he’s been in the league for a while…it was his best game in a while, not just because he played center. He had a better night last night.”
He was also noncommittal when it came to Lias Andersson. He said “He’s had some good moments, some bad moments…not unlike all of these other guys.”
Anthony DeAngelo will make his preseason debut and Quinn said that his goalies will probably play the entire game in the last two preseason games with Lundqvist getting the start against the Flyers.
Igor Shesterkin is still with the team and be the backup, but he probably won’t see any more preseason action. Keeping him around is a smart move. Don’t forget that Shesterkin has a European Assignment Clause in his contract that allows him to return to the KHL if he is not playing for the Rangers. He hasn’t given any indication that he would do that if assigned to Hartford, but it doesn’t hurt to show him some love.
This will be the Flyers’ last NHL preseason game as they open the season in Europe. They will play a Swiss team from Lausanne on Monday and then play the Blackhawks on October 4 in the Czech Republic.
The Rangers tweeted out their line combinations from practice this morning. We are still waiting on the starting lineup for the Flyers game, but there were some interesting pairings today.
We're down to one group.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) September 26, 2019
Here are the lines at today's #NYR morning skate: pic.twitter.com/73Vh6Rysgo
Brett Howden was centering Artemi Panarin and Pavel Buchnevich. Meanwhile, Mika Zibanejad was on a line with Vitali Kravtsov (again on the left wing) and Filip Chytil. Also, Ryan Strome was also at center between Chris Kreider and Kaapo Kakko. We’ll see what lines play against the Flyers.
Roster cuts
The Rangers cut five more players from their training camp roster. The returned Matthew Robertson to his WHL team, the Edmonton Oil Kings. They sent Phillip Di Giuseppe, Adam Huska, and Tarmo Reunanen to Hartford. Danny O’Regan cleared waivers and is also Hartford bound.
That leave the team with 31 players fighting for 23 jobs.
Game time is 7pm and it will be televised on the MSG Network.