The New York Rangers need to avoid the post-road trip letdown as they take on the San Jose Sharks in another must-win contest.
The New York Rangers have been road heroes in the month of February with a 6-0 record. They have fared less well at home, winning two of five games. They need to win at home if they are to have any hopes for the postseason and the perfect time to start would be tonight against the fading San Jose Sharks.
The last time the two teams met at Madison Square Garden was in October 2018 and both teams were very different. 11 players are missing from that night’s San Jose lineup including Joe Pavelski, Jonas Donaskoi, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Erik Karlsson and Brenden Dillon. As for the Rangers, eight players are gone from that team including Kevin Hayes, Mats Zuccarello, Jimmy Vesey, Ryan Spooner and Vlad Namestnikov.
Last year’s Sharks made it to the Conference Finals while the Rangers missed the playoffs. This season, San Jose is in the bottom third of NHL teams and the Blueshirts are flirting with a wild card spot.
Questions
The big question was who will be in net for the Rangers and Coach David Quinn answered that by deciding to go with the hot hand and give Igor Shesterkin yet another start. After winning eight of his first nine games he will play both ends of a back-to-back for the first time. While in Hartford, Shesterkin mostly split those games with his backup, Adam Huska, but he also started and won two games in two nights while with the Wolf Pack during the All-Star break.
Against a lesser opponent, it might be considered an opportunity to get Henrik Lundqvist or Alexandar Georgiev some work, but considering the importance of the game there was little doubt who Quinn would pick to start.
As for Filip Chytil, he will be a gametime decision. He sustained an upper body injury in the third period of the Carolina game. If Chytil cannot play, he will be replaced by Greg McKegg.
The Sharks are supposed to start Aaron Dell in goal. He has made two career appearances against the Rangers had has not fared well with an 0-1 record, a 4.54 goals against average while allowing nine goals on 56 shots.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
33 Di Giuseppe – 72 Chytil (gametime decision)- 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux – 21 Howden – 12 Gauthier
76 Skjei – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
18 Staal – 77 DeAngelo
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
San Jose Sharks
28 Timo Meier – 19 Joe Thornton – 62 Kevin Labanc
9 Evander Kane – 23 Barclay Goodrow – 12 Patrick Marleau
11 Marcus Noesen – 46 Joel Kellman – 20 Stefan Sorensen
7 Dylan Gambrell – 70 Alexander True – 73 Noah Gregor
51 Radim Simek – 88 Brent Burns
44Marc-Edouard Vlasic – 38 Mario Ferraro
67 Jacob Middleton – 72 Tim Heed
30 Aaron Dell
31 Martin Jones
About the game
Gametime is set for 7pm. It will televised on the MSG Network and the radiocast will be on ESPN Radio 987.7FM.
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