The New York Rangers conclude their four game west coast road trip with a matinee against the Anaheim Ducks. Join the live conversation during the game, a rare late afternoon west coast start instead of a late night game.
Henrik Lundqvist will start in goal for the New York Rangers while the Ducks’ projected starter is John Gibson. The Blueshirts are not entirely healthy with Marc Staal a gametime decision after taking a shot to the ankle he recently had surgery on. Brendan Lemieux is expected back from his one game hiatus. The Rangers only carried 19 players on this road trip and Brendan Smith will have to play defense if Staal is unable to go.
The Ducks are one of the NHL underachievers this season. They haven’t won two games in a row since mid October and are coming off a 2-1 loss at home to the Los Angeles Kings. They haven’t been very good lately and the last time they beat a team above NHL .500 was November 25 when they shut out the Islanders.
Henrik Lundqvist has had fair success against the Ducks, with a lifetime record of 7-5-1. Interestingly, against all NHL teams, Artemi Panarin has fared the worst against Anaheim. He has only one goal and four points in ten lifetime games against the Ducks and has a career minus seven rating.
Speaking of Panarin, he has cracked the top ten in the NHL in goals, assists, points, plus/minus, points per game and power play goals. It’s been a long time since the Blueshirts had an offensive player like Panarin.
The Rangers have moved into eighth place in the NHL is goals per game with an average of 3.23. They also now have the ninth best save percentage in the league at .912.
John Gibson is expected to be in goal for today’s game. Though Gibson is having a solid season, he hasn’t fared well against the Rangers compared to veteran backup Ryan Miller. Gibson lifetime is 1-3-2 against New York with a 3.05 goals against average and .887 save percentage while Miller has a lifetime mark of 15-8-6 against the Blueshirts with a 2.46 goals against average and .921 save percentage.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 24 Kakko
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
48 Lemieux – 72 Chytil – 17 Fast
14 McKegg – 21 Howden – 42 Smith
76 Skjei – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
18 Staal* — 77 DeAngelo
*Gametime decision
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev
Anaheim Ducks
34 Sam Steel – 15 Ryan Getzlaf – 61 Troy Terry
67 Rickard Rakell – 39 Sam Carrick – 33 Jacob Silfverberg
53 Maxim Comtois – 14 Adam Henrique – 25 Ondrej Kase
20 Nicolas Deslauriers – 38 Derek Grant – 24 Carter Rowney
47 Hampus Lindholm – 42 Josh Manson
4 Cam Fowler – 6 Erik Gudbranson
76 Josh Mahura – 5 Korbinian Holzer
36 John Gibson
30 Ryan Miller
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Gametime is 4pm (1pm in Anaheim ). The game will be televised on the MSG Network and the radio call is on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.