A second scrimmage lineup and K’Andre Miller is winning a job

Hockey is getting much closer for the New York Rangers

A second scrimmage is set for Saturday as the New York Rangers enter the last week of training camp.  Originally, the second scrimmage was scheduled for Monday, but they have moved it up.

Mika Zibanejad, Justin Richards and Keith Kinkaid are still out of action though Zibanejad and Kinkaid skated before practice.

K’Andre Miller is also out of the lineup today, but it reported to be procedural (whatever that means).

From the lineups for the scrimmage and David Quinn’s post scrimmage remarks, there are a few assumptions:

• Adam Fox and Ryan Lindgren are a lock as a defense pair.
• Kaapo Kakko will start the season on the right side Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.
• Although Zibanejad has been out so far, he will play with Kreider and Buchnevich.
• The kid line of Lafrenière, Chytil and Gauthier looks like it set as well.
• In his post scrimmage remarks, David Quinn said that the power play rotation will be the same as last season.
• Brett Howden is getting to play in place of Zibanejad and is winning a job on the team.

Before anyone gets overexcited about seeing the pairing of Jack Johnson and Tony DeAngelo, see this tweet from nhl.com’s Dan Rosen.

Here are the two lineups for the Saturday “game.”:

Team A:

Kreider-Howden-Buchnevich
Di Giuseppe-Rooney-Blackwell
Lemieux-Fontaine-Greco
Gettinger

Johnson-DeAngelo
Reunanen-Bitetto
Robertson-Trouba

Georgiev-Huska

Team B

Panarin-Strome Kakko
Lafrenière-Chytil-Gauthier
Barron-Khodorenko-Brodzinski
Reuschhoff

Lindgren-Fox
Hajek-Smith
Crawley-Raddysh

Shesterkin-Wall

Notes from the last scrimmage

Quinn wasn’t very happy about the play of the defense on the Blue team in the first scrimmage, giving up six goals.  The defense pairings in that game were DeAngelo-Trouba, Bitetto-Johnson and Hajek-Reunanen.   When asked about the DeAngelo-Trouba pairing, Quinn didn’t single them out, saying “A lot of blue guys had off nights.”

One player who is impressing everyone on the coaching staff is K’Andre Miller who Quinn singled out for his scrimmage play. Miller was teamed with Brendan Smith on the winning squad.

When asked if Miller was playing his way onto the team, Quinn said “Yes he is…he just moves so well, he takes up so much space, he has such a long reach, he closes on people quickly.  His puck decisions have to me have really been the biggest surprise, to all of us.” Quinn continued. “We know hie makes good decisions, but to adapt as quickly as he has so far,….he’s certainly shown a lot of things you look for in a defenseman.”

Miller is out of the Saturday scrimmage, but is expected back soon.

Here are all of the goals from the scrimmage on Thursday:

Crawford retirement an issue for the Rangers?

Goaltender Corey Crawford, signed as a free agent by the New Jersey Devils, has decided to retire.  With MacKenzie Blackwood as their number one goalie, it leaves a big hole in the Devils’ lineup. They could go with Scott Wedgewood who is under contract, or they could look at free agents like  Craig Anderson, Jimmy Howard or Scott Darling.

They are probably already scouring the waiver wires and this could be an issue for the Rangers.  Keith Kinkaid will have to clear waivers when the Blueshirts  send Keith Kinkaid to the taxi squad or Hartford.    He’s a known commodity to the Devils, having played five years in New Jersey and if they want to stick it to the Blueshirts, they could put in a claim.

Other news

There were a couple other hockey headlines on Saturday.

• Matthew Barzal agreed to a three year, $21 million contract with the Islanders.  He was a Restricted Free Agent without arbitration rights who had held out when camp started.
• While the Dallas Stars have been shut down, both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins cancelled their practices due to possible COVID-19 exposure.
• Teams are starting to make cuts to their rosters.  The Panthers claimed Gustav Forsling from Carolina and the Red Wings took Christian Djoos from Anaheim.  There are a number of Rangers who will have to clear waivers if they are demoted including Phil Di Giuseppe, Tony Bitetto, Colin Blackwell, Tony Greco, Jonny Brodzinski, Brandon Crawley and as mentioned above, Keith Kinkaid.