It will be Igor Shesterkin’s job to get the New York Rangers back on a winning track as they travel to Dallas to start a key three game road trip.
Can a road trip fix what’s wrong with the New York Rangers? Maybe the news that Chris Kreider was back on the ice again, skating on his own a the Rye practice facility was what they really need.
It’s too much to hope that he will return in time to help the Rangers playoff drive, but as a morale boost, it could be significant. David Quinn said that Kreider maybe a little ahead of schedule, but it was precautionary move.
It will be the same lineup that started the debacle against the Devils going tonight in Dallas. Quinn had swapped Kakko and Gauthier by the end of the game and there was no word if that was going to be how the lines are configured.
Mika Zibanejad goes for his 40th goal of the season tonight after being named the NHL Player of the Week yesterday. When he accomplishes that, he will be the 20th player in franchise history to do so.
The last was Rick Nash who scored 42 goals in 2014-15. Before Nash, Marian Gaborik did it twice.
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
31 Shesterkin
30 Lundqvist
Dallas Stars
14 Jamie Benn – 91 Tyler Seguin – 10 Corey Perry
34 Denis Gurianov – 24 Roope Hintz – 16 Joe Pavelski
18 Jason Dickinson – 12 Radek Faksa – 15 Blake Comeau
11 Andrew Cogliano – 37 Justin Dowling – 13 Mattias Janmark
23 Esa Lindell – 3 John Klingberg
4 Miro Heiskanen – 28 Stephen Johns
2 Jamie Oleksiak – 5 Andrej Sekera
30 Ben Bishop
35 Anton Khudobin
About the game
Starting time is 8:30pm EST. Television will be on MSG2 with the radiocast on ESPN Radio 1050 AM.
The live thread is open now.
Join your fellow Ranger fans during this game and talk about it. It’s been a roller coaster of a season and there’s a lot to discuss with your fellow Blueshirts faithful.