New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils: Join the live conversation!
By Steve Paulus
It’s a Metropolitan Division grudge match as the New York Rangers take on their cross-Hudson rivals in their second meeting of the season. Let the trash talking begin!
Igor Shesterkin gets his second straight start with Henrik Lundqvist watching from the bench and Alexandar Georgiev watching from the stands. This game could go a long way towards determining if the New York Rangers will be returning their young star to Hartford or keeping him with the varsity.
Who will be in goal for the Devils remains to be answered. It could be Louis Domingue after MacKenzie Blackwood ate a Ryan Pulock slapshot. He spent yesterday at the dentist and will be available tonight, but they may decide to give him a day off. Domingue is riding a three game winning streak against the Blueshirts, all with Tampa.
Unfortunately, we won’t be seeing a rematch of the rookie battle between Kaapo Kakko and Jack Hughes. Hughes is out with an upper body injury so he will miss the game. They have only faced each other once this season as Kakko missed the second Rangers-Devils game when he was ill.
It’s worth looking at how the two kids are doing this season statistically (better number in bold):
Games played: Kakko 38 games, Hughes 36
Average Time on Ice: Kakko 15:02, Hughes 15:58
Shot Attempts: Kakko 111, Hughes 129
Shooting percentage: Kakko 11.3%, Hughes 7.8%
Goals: Kakko 7, Hughes 6
Assists: Kakko 9, Hughes 10
Points: Kakko 16, Hughes 16
Points per game: Kakko 0.42, Hughes 0.44
Game Winning Goals: Kakko 1, Hughes 2
Plus/Minus: Kakko -16, Hughes -10
PIM: Kakko 12, Hughes 6
Power Play Goals: Kakko 2, Hughes 3
Power Play Assists: Kakko 8, Hughes 3
Power Play Points: Kakko 10, Hughes 6
Corsi %: Kakko 41.5%, Hughes 49.4%
Shootouts: Kakko 1 of 2, Hughes 1 of 5
Kakko is averaging the sixth most minutes of ice time among rookie forwards. He is second among rookie forwards with 10 power play points. His six primary power play assists is the best among rookie forward.
They will have one more crack at each other in March. In their one head-to-head match up, the Devils won and Hughes had an assist while Kakko was scoreless.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
21 Howden -72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
42 Smith – 14 McKegg – 29 Fogarty
76 Skjei – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
18 Staal -77 DeAngelo
31 Shesterkin
30 Lundqvist
New Jersey Devils
17 Wayne Simmonds – 13 Nico Hischier – 21 Kyle Palmieri
20 Blake Coleman – 19 Travis Zajac – 97 Nikia Gusev
90 Jesper Boqvist – 37 Pavel Zacha – 44 Miles Wood
36 Ben Street – 16 Kevin Rooney – 15 John Hayden
6 Andy Greene – 76 P.K. Subban
28 Damon Severson – 45 Sami Vatanen
8 Will Butcher – 25 Mirco Mueller
70 Louis Domingue
29 MacKenzie Blackwood
Join the live conversation!
We had a record number of comments during Tuesday’s game against Colorado. Igor Shesterkin’s debut certainly helped that along, but anytime the Rangers take on the Devils or the Islanders it is worth a lot of discussion.
The live thread is open now!
The game will be televised on the MSG Network. If you want to watch the Devils’ telecast, that will be on MSG Plus (but as the guy in the Fanduel commercial says…”why?”) . Radio will be on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.