Rangers vs. Penguins: Join the live conversation!
The New York Rangers have played the Penguins only once in the last 21 months. Tonight an old rivalry is renewed and if past history is any indication, it should be a barn burner. Both lineups will have different look with the Rangers making changes to get the team going and the Penguins battling injuries.
There will be several storylines worth following tonight.
Storyline #1: Sid the Kid vs. Lafrenière
This will be the first meeting between the greatest player to come out of Rimouski Oceanic in Sidney Crosby and the youngster in Alexis Lafrenière who wants to take that title away from him. The parallels between the two re numerous. Both starred at the same QMJHL team. Both were selected as Canadian Hockey League two consecutive years, the only Canadian junior players to receive that honor.
While Ranger fans can only hope that Lafreniere attains the heights achieved by Crosby, it is a match to look forward to.
Storyline #2: The return of Jack Johnson
The Pittsburgh fan base hated Jack Johnson more than any other player and greeted his buyout with euphoria. Now he is a New York Ranger and will be making his return to the Steel City for the first time.
Was the hatred deserved? It was mostly due to the fact that he was overpaid as a free agent. His possession stats were uniformly bad and his lack of speed was noticeable, but he played over 19 minutes a game and was a key penalty killer for the Pens in his two years there.
He will have something to prove,though with no fans in the building it won’t mean as much.
Storyline #3: The return of Tony DeAngelo
Tony DeAngelo returns to the lineup after sitting out two games. The first was a disciplinary action after his ill advised misconduct penalty on opening night. The second was simply a matter of numbers. Now, the Rangers’ top defensive scorer is back and all eyes will be on him .
DeAngelo’s return means the Trouba-Lindgren pairing is over as the defense pairs are back to what they were on opening night. It will be Trouba with Miller, Johnson with DeAngelo and Lindgren with Fox.
Let’s not even mntion that he’s been supplanted on the first power play unit by Adam Fox and that cannot sit well with him. The DeAngelo watch will be in full force tonight.
Storyline #4: The new forward lines
Alexis Lafrenière get his third set of linemates in four games as he is now on the left side of Mika Zibanejad while Chris Kreider moves to the right side. Pavel Buchnevich moves to the right side of Artemi Panarin and Ryan Strome.
David Quinn is hoping to inspire both of his top lines, but risks breaking up the one line (Zibanejad-Kreider-Buchnevich) that has been intact from last year. Chris Kreider hasn’t shown much at even strength and Ryan Strome has been dragging down Panarin, so the hope has to be that this will work.
Storyline #5: The decimated Pittsburgh defense
Decimation may be hyperbole, but the Penguins lost two blueliners to injury on Tuesday. To replace Marcus Pettersson and Juuso Riikola as well as the previously injured Mike Matheson, Chad Ruhwedel and John Marino are in the lineup and Pierre-Oliver Joseph will be making his NHL debut.
Joseph was the key piece coming to Pittsburgh in the trade that sent Phil Kessel to Arizona last year. He was an Arizona first round draft pick in 2017.
Also in the lineup will be goalie Tristan Jarry who got shelled in the first two games against the Flyers.
Projected starting lineups
New York Rangers
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 89 Buchnevich
13 Lafrenière– 93 Zibanejad – 20 Kreider
33 Di Giuseppe – 72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
16 Lemieux – 14 Howden – 12 Gauthier or 17 Rooney
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
27 Johnson-77 DeAngelo
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
Pittsburgh Penguins
59 Jake Guentzel – 87 Sidney Crosby – 42 Kasperi Kapanen
16 Jason Zucker -71 Evgeni Malkin – 17 Bryan Rust
19 Jared McCann – 14 Mark Jankowski – 13 Brandon Tanev
7 Colton Sceviour – 53 Teddy Blueger – 9 Evan Rodrigues
8 Brian Dumoulin – 58 Kris Letang
6 John Marino – 4 Cody Ceci
73 Pierre-Oliver Joseph – 2 Chad Ruhwedel
35 Tristan Jarry
1 Casey DeSmith
Join the live conversation!
Blue Line Station’s live thread is open now. Please stick around and provide some running commentary on the game with your fellow Rangers fans. The live thread is in the comments section below and we’ve had some interesting chatter in the firs three games this season.
You can watch the game on the MSG Network and the radio call will be on WEPN 1050 AM.
Puck drop is 7pm.