The New York Rangers will be looking to replicate their total team effort in dismantling the division leading Boston Bruins on Friday night. In that game they put together he perfect combination of physical play, excellent special teams work and they were helped by just a little puck luck. It was a long time coming.
For the first time this season the power play is clicking and the team is getting balanced scoring from all four lines. WIth the overall improvement in team defense, if the Rangers can get the offense going, they could make some hay in the race for the playoffs.
Alexandar Georgiev gets his second start in a row for the second time this season. The last time he got the start after shutting out the Islanders and he lost to the New Jersey Devils and was pulled in favor of Igor Shesterkin after allowing four goals on 20 shots.
The rest of the lineup will be identical to Friday’s as the Rangers are giving Filip Chytil more time to recover and Kaapo Kakko is still on the COVID protocol list. There’s been no word about Artemi Panarin and when he will be ready to return to the team.
The Bruins are in their worst stretch of the season, dropping four out of their last five games. They have slipped into second place in the East behind he Washington Capitals.
Projected lineups
New York Rangers
20 Kreider– 93 Zibanejad – 43 Blackwell
13 Lafrenière – 16 Strome – 89 Buchnevich
33 Di Giuseppe–21 Howden – 12 Gauthier
48 Lemieux – 17 Rooney – 76 Brodzinski
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 42 Smith
27 Johnson – 25 Hajek
40 Georgiev
31 Shesterkin
Boston Bruins
63 Brad Marchand – 37 Patrice Bergeron – 88 David Pastrnak
21 Nick Ritchie – 13 Charlie Coyle – 12 Craig Smith
10 Anders Bjork -23 Jack Studnicka – 74 Jake DeBrusk
11 Trent Frederic – 52 Sean Kuraly – 14 Chris Wagner
58 Urho Vaakanainen – 73 Charlie McAvoy
67 Jackub Zboril – 25 Brandon Carlo
27 John Moore – 75 Connor Clifton
41 Jaroslav Halak
40 Tukka Rask
About the game
The game is on national TV on NBC and the radio call will be on ESPN 98.7FM. Join the live conversation and talk about the game with your fellow Ranger fans. The chat client has been a little “buggy” lately and you may have to refresh by hitting the “Sort by oldest” and then back to “Sort by Newest.” We are working on the problem.
The live thread is open now.