Preview: Panarin & Miller out, 1st game for Devils in 2 weeks
The New York Rangers have been off since Friday due to a COVID postponement, but that is nothing compared to the New Jersey Devils who last played on January 31 with over a dozen players out of action due to the NHL’s COVID protocols. How the long layoff will affect the Devils remains to be seen.
The Devils still have some players on the restricted list while the Rangers are not affected with only the injured Filip Chytil on the COVID list. However, the Rangers’ injured list is getting longer. This morning, Coach David Quinn confirmed that Artemi Panarin and K’Andre Miller will not play.
#NYR Panarin and Miller will not play tonight but are “close,” per Coach Quinn.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 16, 2021
Panarin tweaked what looked like a groin in Wedneday’s game against the Bruins and Miller suffered an upper body injury on Friday night. It’s unclear how Miller was hurt or how serious it is. He was at practice on Monday, but was taken off the ice as a precaution.
That means more lineup changes for the Blueshirts as they look to halt a three game losing streak and to try to win for the first time without Panarin.
About the Rangers
The Rangers have lost both of their games without Artemi Panarin in the lineup. He will be missed in this game especially since he has feasted on the Devils in his career, with 21 points in 17 games.
On the forward lines, Quinn has moved Colin Blackwell to the right side of Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider in an effort to jump start that line. The Lafrenière-Strome-Kakko line remains intact and Pavel Buchnevich is moved to the third line. Here are the lines from practice over the weekend:
- Kreider-Zibanejad-Blackwell
- Lafrenière-Strome-Kakko
- Di Giuseppe-Howden-Buchnevich
- Lemieux-Rooney-Gauthier
On defense, Brendan Smith is healthy since getting injured in a collision with Brandon Tanev of the Penguins. That means he will slot in as Jacob Trouba’s partner to replace K’Andre Miller. It also means that the Tony Bitetto-Libor Hajek tandem will remain together.
In practices, the team worked on the power play, but it remains to be seen what the configurations will be. According to Vince Mercogliano of USA Today, here were the two power play units from Saturday’s practice:
PP1: Zibanejad-Strome-Kreider-Kakko-Fox
PP2: Blackwell-Buchnevich-Lafrenière-Lemieux-Trouba
Having gone 2-32 over their last nine games, the Rangers have slipped to 26th overall in the NHL. The good news is that they are offsetting their power play inability with a solid penalty kill, 11th in the NHL at 84.4%. They haven’t allowed a power play goal against in six games.
If the Rangers want to succeed they need to cash in on their opportunities and take advantage of their new penalty killing prowess. Friday night was a good example as the Rangers failed on six power plays while killing four. That’s the difference between getting a point and getting nothing in a one goal game. It has resulted in a 3-7 record in one goal games. They convert just a few of those games and they would be in the thick of the playoff race.
About the Devils
How the Devils will play is a complete mystery. They last played on January 31 and beat the Sabres 5-3. According to the NHL, Nikita Gusev, Nico Hischier, Dmitry Kulikov and Travis Zajac were still on the league’s COVID list as of Monday. But that’s better than the dozen players who were on the list on Saturday.
The Devils have had one full squad practice since January and that could be a good thing for the Blueshirts as there had been some red hot players on the Devils including the line of Michael McLeod, Nathan Bastian and Miles Wood. Rookie defensemen Ty Smith has eight points on the season in only nine games and despite playing far fewer games, he is fourth among all rookies in scoring and the top scoring rookie defenseman.
Jack Hughes was also off to a great start with three goals and eight points on the season. Again, knowing how these players will perform is anyone’s guess especially since Bastian, Jesper Bratt, Connor Carrick, Eric Comrie, Hughes, Andreas Johnsson, Janne Kuokkanen, McLeod, Kyle Palmieri, Damon Severson, Smith, Matt Tennyson, Sami Vatanen and Pavel Zacha were all unable to skate for the last two weeks.
The Devils are in seventh place in the East, one point behind the Rangers, but have four or five games in hand on every team except Buffalo.
This season
The two teams have met only once this season with the Devils winning 4-3 in the Rangers’ third game of the campaign. It was the McKenzie Blackwood show as the Devils’ netminder made 47 saves. Hyped as the first meeting between the last two top draft picks, it was a clear win for Jack Hughes who had two goals and one assist.
Alexandar Georgiev started the game and surrendered three goals on 19 shots and was replaced by Igor Shesterkin in the third period. Shesterkin stopped all eight shots he faced.
Though the game was in the loss column for New York, it was an impressive offensive performance, but foreshadowed the team’s issues with scoring goals. It was the only time this season that the Rangers reached the 50 shot mark in a game.
You may want to sit down for the next sentence. In this game, both Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad scored power play goals. The third Ranger tally was an even strength goal by Filip Chytil.
Keys to winning
- Don’t take the Devils lightly – Even though they haven’t played in two weeks, they always get up for games against the Rangers. Not only that,but teams that have had lengthy layoffs have come out firing on all cylinders, including the Dallas Stars and the Islanders. The Rangers are well rested, but are missing two of their best players.
- Score on the power play – The Devils have the worst penalty kill in the NHL, stopping only 67.7% of the opposition power plays (thank you Lindy Ruff). The Rangers have to score if they are up a man if they want to win this game.
- Revenge for the kids – Jack Hughes embarassed the two Ranger future stars in their first game. He had two goals and one assist in 15:22 of ice time. Lafrenière and Kakko each played about a minute less and were shut out with two shots on goal between them. Nothing would be sweeter than the new Strome line with the two youngsters showing the Devils a thing or two.
East Division
Scores
Islanders 3, Sabres 1
Standings
- Boston 14 GP 10-2-2 22 pts
- Philadelphia 13 GP 8-3-2 18 pts
- Islanders 14 GP 7-4-3 17 pts
- Washington 13 GP 6-4-3 15 pts
- Pittsburgh 13 GP 7-5-1 15 pts
- Rangers 13 GP 4-6-3 11 pts
- New Jersey 9 GP 4-3-2 10 pts
- Buffalo 11 GP 4-5-2 10 pts
About the game
The game is scheduled to start at 7pm with the telecast on the MSG Network. The Devils call will be on MSG2. Radio will be ESPN Radio 98.7 FM.
Don’t forget to join the Blue Line Station live conversation and share your thoughts about the game and team with your fellow Blueshirts faithful. The live thread will be up just be game time.
The night the Rangers missed TWO penalty shots. light. Must Read