New York Rangers: A homecoming for Jacob Trouba and Brendan Lemieux
By Steve Paulus
About the Rangers
This is a very important two weeks in development of this young Rangers team. They have seven games before the trade deadline on February 24 with five of those games on the road. While there is probably no doubt in the minds of John Davidson and Jeff Gorton on whatever deadline strategy they will employ, but we will learn a lot about this team over the next two weeks.
The Rangers are closer than you think to being a real contender. If they were in the Western Conference they would be much more competitive and if only they had been able to get more games to overtime. Their seven overtime games are the fewest in the NHL and 11 teams in the East have double the number of extra point games. Add seven points to the Blueshirts’ season total and they would be in the thick of the playoff fight.
Artemi Panarin is in the first real slump (sort of) in his spectacular season. He has six points in his last eight games and has had a multi-point game only once in his last eight games. As a result, Ryan Strome‘s production has dried up with only three points in his last 11 games. The Rangers are 3-10 when Panarin doesn’t get on the scoreboard.
This will be the final meeting of the season between the two team. The Rangers won 6-4 on opening night at the Garden, scoring three third periods in a come from behind victory. If they can win it will be their first series win against Winnipeg since 2016-17.
The Rangers need to get better on the road. They are 11-11-2 so far this season and they play 17 of their last 28 games away from Madison Square Garden. As David Quinn said, “We’ve had some success on the road. Obviously, we have to have a lot more moving forward, especially over the next 10 games when we have eight of them on the road.”
Winnipeg would be a good place to start a road winning streak as the Jets are below .500 at Bell MTS Place this season at 14-12-3.