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New York Rangers looking for wild night in Minnesota

By Andrew Steele-Davis

NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 25: New York Rangers Center Ryan Strome (16) and Minnesota Wild Center Joel Eriksson Ek (14) take a face-off during the National Hockey League game between the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers on November 25, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - NOVEMBER 25: New York Rangers Center Ryan Strome (16) and Minnesota Wild Center Joel Eriksson Ek (14) take a face-off during the National Hockey League game between the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers on November 25, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 25: Minnesota Wild Defenceman Jared Spurgeon (46) and New York Rangers Left Wing Artemi Panarin (10) face off in overtime during the National Hockey League game between the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers on November 25, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – NOVEMBER 25: Minnesota Wild Defenceman Jared Spurgeon (46) and New York Rangers Left Wing Artemi Panarin (10) face off in overtime during the National Hockey League game between the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers on November 25, 2019 at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by Joshua Sarner/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

The road trip continues tonight for the New York Rangers who will pit their wits against the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center.

After pulling off a statement win in Winnipeg against the Jets on Tuesday, the New York Rangers will be looking to do what they haven’t done all year and that is to go on a long run.

If they are to make the postseason then they will need to put together more than two or three wins in a row, a feat that has so far proved elusive this year.

The Blueshirts are certainly playing smart hockey right now, especially in their own zone, and they are also riding the momentum generated by rookie goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who looks right at home in the NHL.

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Chris Kreider is playing arguably some of the best hockey of his career right now, while the Rangers will always have a chance to win with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad in the lineup.

They won’t have it easy in the Twin Cities, however, against a Minnesota Wild team that is in a strange place right now.

They traded one of their best players in Jason Zucker on Monday to the Pittsburgh Penguins for Alex Galchenyuk, prospect Calen Addison and a conditional first round pick in the 2020 NHL Entry Draft.

And Wild General Manager Bill Guerin has also made it clear that he will sell off further pieces if the team quits down the stretch.

So, it appears as though Minnesota will finally pull the trigger on a mass rebuild, although they still have talent on that roster as seen on Tuesday when they smoked the Vegas Golden Knights in a shutout.

The Wild of course boast former Ranger Mats Zuccarello who has 14 goals and 16 assists for 30 points in 52 games this year.

With added motivation not to pull the plug on the season, the Minnesota Wild won’t be a straightforward task for the New York Rangers to navigate, and this will be another game that will tell us a lot about exactly where the Blueshirts are.

This Season

Tonight’s game is the second meeting of the year between these two franchises, and also the season series finale.

The New York Rangers won 3-2 in overtime in the first showdown of the year against the Wild on Nov. 25, with Tony DeAngelo scoring the game-winner after Chris Kreider had made it a tied game late in the third period with a power play goal.

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