New York Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens: Join the live conversation
The New York Rangers hope history repeats itself, but not in such a dramatic fashion. The last time in Montreal, the Blueshirts came back from a 4-0 deficit to win. They’d like a much easier victory in a big game this time.
The Rangers go for nine road wins in a row, trying to build on the franchise record they set on Tuesday. They also have won five in a row for the first time this season. It’s the perfect time to get hot and a win tonight with both Columbus and Carolina off, could get the Blueshirts closest to a playoff position they’ve been all season.
It will be Alexandar Georgeiv vs. Carey Price with Pavel Buchnevich and Jonathan Drouin scratched due to injury. For the Blueshirts, that means Filip Chytil will be playing right wing on the Zibanejad line and Charlie Hudon is up from Laval in the AHL to replace Drouin on the second line.
So, the starting lineup for the Rangers is exactly the same as it was against the Islanders on Tuesday. Hopefully, Kreider is over his bout with illness that resulted in a less than 100% effort against the Islanders.
For Julien Gauthier, it is his first game in the NHL in front of a hometown crowd so look for him to try to do something special.
The two teams have split their season series. The comeback 6-5 win in November was the Ranger win. In December, Montreal beat the Rangers 2-1 at the Garden on a goal by Nate Thompson with only 1:07 left in the third period. Losing a point like that may come back to haunt the Rangers at the end of the season.
Projected starting lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 72 Chytil
33 Di Giuseppe – 21 Howden – 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux -14 McKegg – 12 Gauthier
42 Smith – 8 Trouba
18 Staal – 77 DeAngelo
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
40 Georgiev
30 Lundqvist
Montreal Canadiens
90 Tomas Tatar – 24 Phillip Danault – 11 Brendan Gallagher
54 Charles Hudon – 14 Nick Suzuki – 40 Joel Armia
41 Paul Byron – 13 Max Domi – 43 Jordan Weal
62 Artturi Lehkonen – 71 Jake Evans – 22 Dale Wiese
8 Ben Chiarot – 6 Shea Weber
77 Brett Kulak – 26 Jeff Petry
27 Karl Alzner – 32 Christian Folin
31 Carey Price
39 Charlie Lindgren
About the game
Puck drop is scheduled for 7pm. The telecast will be on MSG2 and the radio call will be on ESPN Radio 1050AM.
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