The New York Rangers final preseason game will pit their NHL lineup against the Islanders varsity. It will be a great test for the Blueshirts and the first “real” game of the preseason. While the Rangers iced a lineup on Wednesday against the Devils that was close to what we will see on opening night, New Jersey’s lineup was filled with many prospects and wannabes. The final 6-2 score reflected the competition. Tonight will be different.
One more. pic.twitter.com/huetS987WH
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) October 9, 2021
While any Rangers-Islanders meeting is a grudge match, the teams will be careful to avoid injury, something Gerard Gallant alluded to in his post-practice comments on Friday. The Rangers will be without Ryan Reaves for a while, though he has been ruled day-to-day, and the last thing the Blueshirts need is to lose another regular to injury.
The Islanders have to be even more careful about that, considering that their lineup includes 15 players aged 30 or older including 44-year-old Zdeno Chara, the oldest player in the NHL. To compare, only Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider could play tonight as the only players aged 30 on the Rangers.
Projected lineups
The lineups for tonight’s game were not released prior to game time.
The Ranger have 25 players left on the roster and need to make a minimum of two cuts before opening night. Greg McKegg was called up from Hartford. Vitali Kravtsov will be back in the lineup on a line with Barclay Goodrow and Filip Chytil. Here’s who is left:
Forwards:
10 Artemi Panarin
13 Alexis Lafreniere
15 Julien Gauthier
16 Ryan Strome
17 Kevin Rooney
20 Chris Kreider
21 Barclay Goodrow
24 Kaapo Kakko
29 Dryden Hunt
47 Morgan Barron
72 Filip Chytil
74 Vitali Kravtsov
75 Ryan Reaves (injured)
91 Sammy Blais
93 Mika Zibanejad
Defense:
5 Jarred Tinordi
8 Jacob Trouba
12 Patrik Nemeth
23 Adam Fox
25 Libor Hajek
55 Ryan Lindgren
64 Nils Lundkvist
79 K’Andre Miller
Goalies:
31 Igor Shesterkin
40 Alexandar Georgiev
Alexandar Georgiev will definitely be in the game as the starting goalie and is expected to play the entire match.
This was the Islanders lineup for their game that was cancelled against the Devils on Thursday. It doesn’t include Zach Parise or Matt Martin among the team’s regulars.
Forwards:
13 – Mathew Barzal
15 – Cal Clutterbuck
16 – Richard Panik
18 – Anthony Beauvillier
21 – Kyle Palmieri
26 – Oliver Wahlstrom
27 – Anders Lee
29 – Brock Nelson
32 – Ross Johnston
43 – Anatolii Golyshev
44 – Jean-Gabriel Pageau
53 – Casey Cizikas
Defense:
2 – Thomas Hickey
4 – Andy Greene
6 – Ryan Pulock
8 – Noah Dobson
24 – Scott Mayfield
33 – Zdeno Chara
64 – Erik Gustafsson
Goalies:
30 – Ilya Sorokin
35 – Cory Schneider
The game
Gametime is 7pm and it will be played at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the home of the Islanders AHL farm team, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. The telecast will be on MSG Plus (the Knicks are hogging MSG) and will be available nationally on the NHL Network.
Since it is an Islanders home game the broadcast crew will be Brendan Burke and Butch Goring. Be forewarned.
It’s part of a hockey preseason double header as the Hartford Wolf Pack played the Sound Tigers earlier today. Hartford lost 6-3 with the Wolf Pack goals coming from Jonny Brodzinski, Anthony Greco and Tim Gettinger.
Join the live conversation
As always during games, Blue Line Station will be hosting a live in-game conversation using the comments feature below. Feel free to watch the game and talk about it with your fellow Ranger fans. We’ve had some issues with the comments refreshing and are working on that, so please bear with us. One workaround is to change how the comments sort from “newest” to “oldest” and back to “newest” again.
Bugs aside, it’s always fun to interact with other Rangers fans during the games and always when the Blueshirts take on their rivals.
The live thread is open now!