Rangers vs. Penguins: Join the live conversation

We are going to have to get used to these back to back game as the New York Rangers have a shot at redemption against the Pittsburgh Penguins, just two days after blowing a two goal lead and losing in a shootout.  That was a game the Rangers should have won.

The Rangers will have to get used to David Quinn’s lineup philosophy in this abbreviated season.   In this game there will be more lineup changes as Colin Blackwell was moved off the taxi squad and will be in the lineup in place of Brendan Lemieux and Brendan Smith is back in to replace Jack Johnson.

Lemieux’s crime was taking a bad penalty. We didn’t have the benefit of a replay of the penalty during the telecast, but it appeared that Pierre-Oliver Joseph either high sticked or hooked Lemieux in the offensive zone and Lemieux tripped him.  If so, it was an undisciplined retaliatory penalty and Lemieux deserves to sit.   He played only three shifts in the third period and didn’t see the ice in the last eight minutes or overtime.

You may ask why Kevin Rooney is not getting the same treatment for his slewfoot takedown of Evgeni Malkin that led to the Pens second goal, but it was just a dumb penalty, not retaliation.  It’s clear that Quinn will have no patience for stupid plays.

As for the defensive change, Jack Johnson had a bad night and was exploited several times by the Penguins who know their old teammate too well.

The Penguins are making some lineup changes, shuffling three of their four forward lines. Tristan Jarry will get the start for the second straight game.

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
17 Rooney– 14 Howden –  43 Blackwell

55 Lindgren  – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
42 Smith-77 DeAngelo

31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev

Pittsburgh Penguins

59 Jake Guentzel – 87 Sidney Crosby – 9 Evan Rodrigues
19 Jared McCann  -71 Evgeni Malkin – 17 Bryan Rust
16 Jason Zucker – 53 Teddy Blueger  – 42 Kasperi Kapanen
13 Brandon Tanev – 14 Mark Jankowski   –  7 Colton Sceviour

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.