The New York Rangers will try to win their fourth game in a row as they conclude a successful road trip facing a injury-ridden Columbus team.
It’s been almost a year and a half since the New York Rangers won four games in a row and they will try to accomplish that feat tonight in Columbus. There are numerous lineup questions as we near gametime, questions that will not be answered till then.
Anthony DeAngelo was banged up in last night’s win over Minnesota. He only play one 31 second shift in the overtime and may be out tonight. Marc Staal is still recovering from the flu so the Rangers promoted rookie Joey Keane from Hartford. Keane is a righthanded shot and it’s possible that we could see a third pair defense team in Brendan Smith and Keane.
It Staal is able to play, but DeAngelo isn’t , it will be interesting to see if Keane plays the right side of if they move Smith over. Smith has played right defense before and he had a very good game last night after being a healthy scratch for the last four games.
Joey Keane is the leading defenseman for the Wolf Pack and was selected to the AHL All-Star team. He has scored eight goals and has 28 points this season.
The other lineup question is who will be in goal tonight. Igor Shesterkin missed last night’s start with an ankle injury. The question is if he is healthy, will he get the start or will Quinn stay with the hot hand and give the start to Georgiev. Georgiev has started both ends of a back-to-back once this season and won both games. Last season he split the series the two times he started both games of a back-to-back.
Columbus has been ravaged by injuries, losing both Cam Atkinson and Seth Jones for extended periods just this week. Still, they have been incredibly productive this season. Since losing four in a row in early December, they have gone 19-3-7. That means, incredibly, they have gotten at least a point in 26 of their last 29 games. And that is why they are a playoff team today.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
33 Di Giuseppe – 72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux – 14 McKegg – 21 Howden
76 Skjei – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
18 Staal (Smith) – 77 DeAngelo (Keane)
40 Georgiev (Shestorkin)
30 Lundqvist
Columbus Blue Jackets
71 Nick Foligno – 18 Pierre-Luc Dubois – 28 Oliver Bjorkstrand
14 Gus Nyquist – 38 Boone Jenner – TBD
24 Nathan Gerbe – 20 Riley Nash – 50 Eric Robinson
22 Sonny Milano – 11 Kevin Stenlund – 52 Emil Bemstrom
8 Zach Werenski – 65 Markus Nutivaara
44 Vladislav Gavrikov – 58 David Savard
4 Scott Harrington – 2 Andrew Peeke
90 Elvis Merzlikins
80 Matiss Kivlenieks
About the game
Gametime is 7pm. Television will be on the MSG Network with the radio call on ESPN 98.7 FM.
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