It’s another big game in a month of big games. Win today and the New York Rangers could be a playoff team. They will do it with Henrik Lundqvist in goal.
After losing their first two games against the Flyers this season, the New York Rangers return to Madison Square Garden with a chance to end the day as a playoff team. A win over Philadelphia combined with a Blue Jackets loss to Vancouver and the Blueshirts will occupy the last wild card spot.
Just before gametime, Caoch David Quinn announced that Henrik Lundqvist will get the start. It’s his first start since losing to Dallas on February 3. He did make on appearance in relief of Igor Shesterkin on February 11. He played six minutes, four seconds while Shesterkin went through the concussion protocol and he made one huge save.
Quinn explained his reason to reporters this morning.
DQ on Hank:
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) March 1, 2020
"The way the schedule went, we played the Islanders the first game, so we played Georgie. He played well, won again, so we played him again. Now it’s Hank’s time... There might be a little rust, but there’s nothing we can do about that. We want him in there."#NYR
In a career full of big games, this one has to be one of the most challenging in Lundqvist’s 15 year Hall of Fame career. If he plays well, he is back in the goalie rotation and if Quinn rides the hot hand, will see more action. If he is doesn’t play well, it could be one of the last times we see him in action in a Ranger uniform.
In his last start, Lundqvist allowed four goals to Dallas on 15 shots and was replaced by Alexandar Georgiev. It’s been 26 days between starts, the longest such stretch of his career, by far.
Playoff probabilities
On hockeyreference.com’s Playoff Probabilities Report the Rangers have a 40.4% chance of making the playoffs with a 1.8% shot at winning the Stanley Cup. That’s pretty good odds for a team that no one had in the postseason hunt in mid-December.
Going back to our prediction that it will take 96 points to make the playoffs this season in the East, the Rangers would need to get 22 points in their last 18 games. That means a record of 11-7 would do it. With the next three games against Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington and all at home, can we assume that they will get a minimum of three points?
In that case, they would need to get 19 points in 15 games. That would be a record of 9-5-1. That would mean winning all the games that they should win and beating some pretty good teams down the stretch. It’s do-able. Sure, it will be tougher without Chris Kreider, but it is do-able.
The initial word is that Phillip Di Giuseppe will replace Kreider on the Zibanejad line. There’s no doubt that Coach David Quinn will be experimenting with various combinations over the next few games to see if he can find a line with some chemistry.
We are also waiting on definitive word about Kreider’s injury and an estimate on how long his recovery will take. If it’s a severe fracture, his season could be over, but if it is a hairline fracture, we could see him back in the lineup later this month.
Projected starting lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 17 Fast
33 Di Giuseppe – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
21 Howden – 72 Chytil– 24 Kakko
48 Lemieux -14 McKegg – 12 Gauthier
42 Smith – 8 Trouba
18 Staal – 77 DeAngelo
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev
Philadelphia Flyers
28 Claude Giroux – 14 Sean Couturier – 93 Jakub Voracek
21 Scott Laughton – 13 Kevin Hayes – 11 Travis Konecny
25 James Van Riemsdyk – 38 Derek Grant – 18 Tyler Pitlick
12 Michael Raffl – 44 Nate Thompson – 62 Nicolas Aube-Kubel
9 Ivan Provorov – 15 Matt Niskanen
6 Travis Sanheim – 5 Philippe Myers
8 Robert Hagg – 61 Justin Braun
79 Carter Hart
37 Brian Elliott
About the game
The Rangers are 4-3-3 in day games this season and they are 6-4-1 in games televised nationally.
There is always a lot to talk about when it comes to the New York Rangers so join in with your fellow fans to comment about the game below.
The Blue Line Station live thread is open now!
This is a nationally televised game on NBC. It’s scheduled to start at noon EST, but look for puck drop to be a little later. Radio will be on ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.