It’s Lundqvist – Game 1 live thread – join the live conversation!

After 143 days, we have a New York Rangers game to watch and talk about!

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  We’ve been trying to stay on top of all things New York Rangers since the league suspended play back in March, but it hasn’t been easy.  We’ve seen draft picks signed, free agent collegians snatched up,  award nominations and more Zoom calls with quarantined players than we want to think about.  All of that goes by the wayside with the return of hockey.

The question everyone was asking has finally been answered with Henrik Lundqvist in net for the Rangers.  Alexandar Georgiev will be the backup.  In a dramatic announcement just before gametime, Igor Shesterkin was ruled “unfit to play” and there is absolutely no way of knowing wat the issue is.

Tony DeAngelo sustained an injury earlier this week and didn’t practice on Friday and was a gametime decision.

As for Carolina, Dougie Hamilton is definitely out of this game, but not the series.  Brett Pesce is out for the series.  Martin Necas was on the ice for practice.

In another late announcement, Petr Mrazek will start in goal for Carolina.

Projected lineups

New York Rangers

20 Chris Kreider – 93 Mika Zibanejad – 89 Pavel Buchnevich
19 Artemi Panarin – 20 Ryan Strome – 17 Jesper Fast
33 Phil Di Guiseppe – 72 Filip Chytil – 24 Kaapo Kakko
21Brett Howden – 14 Greg McKegg – 12 Julien Gauthier

45 Brendan Smith – 8 Jacob Trouba
55 Ryan Lindgren – 23 Adam Fox
8 Marc Staal – 77 Anthony DeAngelo (gametime decision)

30 Henrik Lundqvist
40 Alexandar Georgiev

Carolina Hurricanes

37 Andrei Svechnikov – 20 Sebastian Aho – 86 Teuvo Teravainen
18 Ryan Dzingel -11 Jordan Staal – 14 Justin Williams
21 Nino Niederreiter – 16 Vincent Trochek – 88 Martin Necas (gametime decision)
13 Warren Foegele – 48 Jordan Martinook – 23 Brock McGinn –

74 Jaccob Slavin – 45 Sami Vatanen
76 Brady Skjei – 6 Joel Edmundson
51 Jake Gardiner – 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk

34 Petr Mrazek
47 James Reimer

The live conversation

Blue Line Station launched a new feature during regular season games, a live thread where fans could comment on the games and engage with other readers.  It’s been fun and there have been hundreds of comments per game.   We are resuming that with today’s match, but here’s some information you need to know.

About using the live conversation

During the pause, our parent company switched our coments feature to a new format.  You have noticed the emojis that allow you to vote on the stories.  That’s been great, but we learned that the live chat component is a bit unwieldy in games.

Unlike the old system, you are not notified when there are new posts (in the comments area itself).  You will get an email if you get a response to one of  your posts.   Without an auto refresh feature, we figured out one way to keep track of new posts.

Under the “Search” box there is a “Sort by Latest” tab with a down arrow.   Click on the down arrow and click on “Latest” and it will refresh the list.  On a PC you can go through all of the comments, but there is some issue with that functionality on mobile devices.

You can also click on “Most Replied” if you want to get to threads that have a lot of chatter.

Sorry about the issues, but we are working with FanSided to resolve them so that live in-game threads will be more user-friendly.

At any rate, we have had some lively conversations so please join in.

Game information

The game starts at noon EST and will be televised on MSG Network locally and on NBCSN nationally.  The radiocast will be on ESPN 98.7 FM.

Carolina Hurricanes vs.  New York Rangers full schedule

Saturday, Aug. 1: Rangers at . Hurricanes, 12 p.m. ET
Monday, Aug. 3: Rangers at. Hurricanes, 12 p.m. ET
Tuesday, Aug. 4: Hurricanes at Rangers, 8 p.m. ET
Thursday, Aug. 6: Hurricanes at Rangers*
Saturday, Aug. 8: Rangers at Hurricanes*