A depleted Rangers team takes on the Bruins

The last thing the New York Rangers needed after their tough two game series with the Capitals was to travel to Boston to play their second game in two night.  It’s a bruised and battered squad minus a number of regulars. Missing for this game will be Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Jacob Trouba, Ryan Lindgren, Julien Gauthier, Brett Howden and now, Pavel Buchnevich who was suspended for one game for his cross check into Anthony Mantha’s face last night.

That’s seven missing players and the Rangers called up three reinforcements from Hartford, Jonny Brodzinski, Tim Gettinger and Justin Richards.   Will all three play?  They need to replace Buchnevich and Gauthier who played last night so one will probably sit unless someone else is ailing.

The hope has to be that Justin Richards will get a chance to show what he can do.  He was signed as an undrafted free agent last year and played this season in Hartford.  He had four goals and 11 points in 20 games for the Wolf Pack. The 23-year-old won two national championships for Minnesota Duluth and in his last two seasons he was named best defensive forward in his conference.  The word is that he can win faceoffs.   It would be good to see if the center is an option as a defensive forward in the future.

Tim Gettinger has had several opportunities with the Rangers and he is a Restricted Free Agent after this season and it’s a question of whether he will be offered another contract.

Drury speaks

Chris Drury spoke to reporters along with Glen Sather.  Drury didn’t have much to say other than that it has been a “whirlwind 24 hours” and that he felt that the rebuild was going according to plan.  He was complimentary about Jeff Gorton and John Davidson, but wisely gave no hints of what he will be doing with any personnel other than to say that he will be needing to find someone to run the Wolf Pack and an Assistant General Manager.

Sather didn’t say much except that in his role as an advisor, he has offered his opinions when asked to all Rangers management including Jim Dolan.   He said that he was proud of the way the players reacted to the Capitals last game.

One thing that Drury definitively stated was that this was not a promotion that was in the works  and that there had been no promises made. He basically admitted that he was as surprised as everyone by yesterday’s bloodbath.

Drury concluded his remarks by thanking Jim Dolan for the opportunity. “I grew up as a Ranger fan in Connecticut. It was a lifelong dream to be able to play for the Rangers and to be back in player development and assistant general manager and now to have these roles. It’s a huge honor, a huge thrill.  To all the Ranger fans out there, Obviously I take this very, very, very seriously. My goal is to bring the Cup to MSG. Period. ”

Nice to hear.  Now, he has a job to do.

The projected lineups

It will be Igor Shesterkin versus Jeremy Swayman in a battle of rookie netminders.  Though the Bruins are four points out of first place they till have four games left, most of any East team and hoping to get home ice advantage so they have something to play for.

New York Rangers

16 Strome– 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
13 Lafrenière  72 Chytil   – 43 Blackwell
47 Barron –17 Rooney– 74 Kravtsov
33 Di Giuseppe – Richards – Brodzinski

79 Miller – 23 Fox
51 Reunanen– 42 Smith
25 Hajek – 6 Jones

31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev

Boston Bruins

63 Brad Marchand – 37 Patrice Bergeron – 88 David Pastrnak
71 Taylor Hall  – 46 David Krejci – 12 Craig Smith
21 Nick Ritchie  – 52 Sean Kuraly- 74 Jake DeBrusk
11 Trent Frederic -20 Curtis Lazar – 83 Karson Kuhlman

55 Jeremy Lauzon – 73 Charlie McAvoy
48 Matt Grzelxyk- 25 Brandon Carlo
6 Mike Reilly – 75 Connor Clifton

1 Jeremy Swayman
40 Tukka Rask

About the game and join the live conversation

The game starts at 7pm EST and it will be It will be televised on the MSG Network with the radio call on ESPN 98.7 FM.

Be sure and join the live conversation here on Blue Line Station.  The live thread can be found in the conversations section (below).    Let’s talk about the kids and what we can look forward to in the future.