No word on who is in net against the Islanders

New York Rangers hockey is back tonight with an exhibition game against the Islanders

Hockey is back and it starts for real tonight in Toronto when the New York Rangers play their only exhibition game before the Stanley Cup Qualifiers begin on Saturday.  While the lineup appears to be set, there are still some questions about who will play.

The three headed goalie monster will remain with the team until they go on vacation this summer and David Quinn had to address it yet again after practice on Tuesday.  He wouldn’t say which two goalies will dress for the Islanders game. The decision has been made, but Quinn wasn’t ready to talk about it. His explanation was “I haven’t had the discussion with the goalies yet so I’ll wait until we talk about that and we’ll let you know tomorrow.”

When asked if play against the Islanders will matter when it comes to a starting goalie for the Carolina series, Quinn said  “You always make a note of what you see, so it’s tough to forget something you’ve already seen….as I have said, earlier, before this whole thing started,  there’s going to be a lot of factors going into who’s going to play. It’s not going just about one day, it’s about this long stretch over the last two and a half weeks and tomorrow night will be part of the evaluation process.”

All team are allowed to dress an extra forward and defenseman for the game and he did say that those players will be Brendan Lemieux and Libor Hajek.

Besides Quinn, Rangers Jesper Fast and Adam Fox were Tuesday’s Zoom press call victims and if one thing is getting obvious, it’s that the coach as well of the players are tired of talking about coming back to hockey and just want to get started.  Every player interviewed over the last few weeks has given the same stock answer about how excited they are to be playing again and Fox and Fast were no different.

The question that Fast wasn’t asked was for him to reflect on the fact that as a free agent after this season, he could be getting close to playing his last game as a Ranger after six full seasons.

The game is set to start at 8pm EST.  The  MSG Network will carry the game and will feature hockey related programming beginning at 6pm with a preview of the Carolina series at 7pm and a pregame show at 730pm.

Don’t forget that you can join a live conversation during the game here at Blue Line Station.  The live thread will be up about a half hour before gametime.