The New York Rangers have lost three games in a row for only the second time this season and will look to get back on the winning track against the Anaheim Ducks in a matinee at Madison Square Garden.
Henrik Lundqvist will be in net as the New York Rangers seek to end their three game losing streak as they take on the Anaheim Ducks for the second time in nine days. In their first meeting, the Rangers blew two leads and lost in a shootout. The Blueshirts allowed the tying power play goal with only 1:46 left in the game and the loss made for a bitter end to what could have been a very successful road trip.
The Duck are fresh off a shootout win over the Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. They will be hammered by injuries as Rickard Rakell will miss with an upper body injury and Ryan Getzlaf and Jakob Silfverberg have the flu. They recalled Daniel Sprong from the AHL, but will have only 11 forwards in the starting lineup including Sprong.
With John Gibson in goal yesterday, the Rangers will probably face Ryan Miller. Miller has had a lot of success against the Blueshirts with a career 15-8-6 record, a 2.46 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. He’s not having a great season this year with a 4-3-2 record to go with a 3.02 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
The five goals scored by Anaheim was the most in one game since late October and only the fourth time this season they have scored that many. The Rangers have scored five or more goals seven times this season.
Friday’s loss to Toronto was the first game the Rangers haven’t gotten a goal from Artemi Panarin or Mika Zibanejad since the team was shut out by Montreal on December 6. When both Panarin and Zibanejad are in the lineup and either of them score, the Rangers are 11-2. There have been eight games when neither has scored and they have lost them all.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 89 Buchnevich
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 17 Fast
48 Lemieux – 72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
14 McKegg – 21 Howden – 42 Smith
76 Skjei – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
18 Staal – 77 DeAngelo
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev
Anaheim Ducks
29 Devin Shore – 14 Adam Henrique – 11 Daniel Sprong
– 48 Isac Lundestrom – 53 Max Comtois
49 Max Jones – 34 Sam Steel – 25 Ondrej Kase
20 Nicolas Deslauriers – 39 Sam Carrick – 24 Carter Rowney
47 Hampus Lindholm – 42 Josh Manson
4 Cam Fowler – 6 Erik Gudbranson
44 Michael Del Zotto – 5 Korbinian Holzer
30 Ryan Miller
36 John Gibson
Join the live conversation!
It’s nice to have a game start at a normal time after the craziness of west coast starting times. There shoudl be a lot to talk about as they try to avoid a home letdown.
This will be the eighth day game for the Blueshirts and they have only won three going 3-2-3. Be glad you don’t live on the west coast where this game will be starting at 9:30am on a Sunday morning.
The live thread is open….now.
Gametime is 1230pm and the telecast is on the MSG Network with the radio call is on ESPN Radio 1050AM.