Preview: Panarin & Miller out, 1st game for Devils in 2 weeks
By Steve Paulus
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.