New York Rangers vs. Islanders: Join the live conversation!

After over ten months it’s time to play hockey as the New York Rangers take on the Islanders at the Garden

Welcome back to Blue Line Station’s live in-game thread.  Join your fellow New York Rangers fans as we watch the game and share opinions, memories, frustrations and more throughout the game.

No breaking news to report before the game. The biggest and best news for the Rangers is that Mika ZIbanejad is in the lineup.  Coach David Quinn was asked if Zibanejad would be able to go full bore after missing most of training camp. His answer?  “Mika is a go tonight.  He only goes full bore.  We’ll see full Mika tonight.”

The healthy scratches are Brendan Smith and Kevin Rooney.  Rooney sits in favor of Phil Di Giuseppe who impressed in training camp and gets the start on the fourth line with Brett Howden and Brendan Lemieux.

In one lineup note, we will see a different version of the penalty kill as Quinn said that he will be using Pavel Buchnevich and Chris Kreider as a penalty killing team.  His explanation was that “Buchnevich had killed a lot of penalties when he was in Russia…We’ve been thinking of using Kreider forever…every time we do it when something doesn’t go well in the first shift or two we stop doing it.”  He continued, “We’re committed to let it work with with Chris, from a mistake standpoint, it’s how he’s going to learn.   If I’m a defenseman and I’ve got Chris Kreider coming out at me at the blueline I’m gonna get a little nervous, knowing his speed.”

All signs are that new defensive coach Jacques Martin is instituting a penalty kill that will put more pressure on the opposition.   That was one reason why the Kreider/Buchnevich pairing was needed.  Quinn explained that “We’ve been shorthanded from a penalty kill standpoint,  If you have a penalty kill that can get after people and pressure them, you need more people doing it.”  .

Before the game Artemi Panarin spoke about how Kaapo Kakko, his new right winger, has improved his game.  Panarin said “The attitude and work ethic was always there. He was always the hardest worker and stayed on the ice the longest. He came back mentally stronger…he’s added technical improvement and mental strength.”

Welcome to the NHL to Alexis Lafrenière and K’Andre Miller who are both going to be playing in their first pro games.   Not having even a preseason game will make this the most unusual debut ever.

Philadelphia beat Pittsburgh 6-3 last  night in the debut of the newly reconfigured East Division.  Every other team in the division will be in action tonight.

Projected Lineups

New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 24 Kakko
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 89 Buchnevich
13 Lafrenière – 72 Chytil – 12 Gauthier
16 Lemieux – 14 Howden –  33 Di Giuseppe

79 Miller – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
27 Johnson- 77 DeAngelo

31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev

New York Islanders
27 Anders Lee – 13 Mathew Barzal – 7 Jordan Eberle
18 Anthony Beauvillier – 29 Brock Nelson – 12  Josh Bailey
32 Ross Johnston – 44 J.G. Pageau – 20 Kiefer Bellows
17 Matt Martin – 53 Casey Cizikas – 15 Cal Clutterbuck

3 Adam Pelech – 6 Ryan Pulock
2 Nick Leddy – 24 Scott Mayfield
4 Andy Greene – 8 Noah Dobson

40 Semyon Varlamov
30 llya Sorokin

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The game is televised on the MSG Network and the radio call is on ESPN 98.7 FM.

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