The New York Rangers kick off their second long road trip of this young season by taking on the Seattle Kraken in their first visit to the state of Washington. Coming off an impressive win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Rangers will be hoping to build on that game and continue their success on the road. Almost three weeks into the season and that Rangers are one of two teams with four road wins (Calgary is the other with five).
If the Rangers beat Seattle, they will have five road wins in nine games for the first time in their history and they have also never won five road games in the month of October.
The Rangers haven’t lost in their first meeting with an expansion team since 1993 (Anaheim) and they haven’t lost on the road in an inaugural game with a new team since 1967 (Philadelphia).
While there are many familiar names on the Seattle roster, there are no former Rangers. Colin Blackwell was picked from the Blueshirts in the expansion draft, but he will miss the first month of the season with a lower body injury.
Left winger Brandon Tanev leads the team with six goals in eight games and may be moved up to the top line for good, a shift that was made in the last game. Center Yanni Gourde was the other member of the vaunted Tampa third line last season with Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. Coleman won out over Goodrow in the Calgary game and the Ranger forward hopes to have a better showing against his other former linemate in this game.
Projected lineups
Igor Shesterkin is definitely getting the start as Gerard Gallant is riding the hot hand. Alexandar Georgiev will most likely play next against either Edmonton or Calgary since they are back-to-back games and Gallant has said he will not start his goalies on two straight days.
It appears that Jarred Tinordi will be back in the lineup for the first time since opening night with Nils Lundkvist sitting out. We suppose that that’s what you get for notching your first NHL point. Actually, with Ryan Reaves on IR, Tinordi gives the Rangers some muscle on the blue line against a very physical Kraken team. They are a team that likes to hit and it brings to mind the big hit by Jeremy Lauzon that injured Jack Hughes. Their heavyweight is defenseman Jamie Oleksiak who is 6’7″, 255 pounds.
Last season Brandon Tanev was with Pittsburgh when he laid a savage hit on Tinordi who was then with the Bruins. It was controversial and some felt a suspension was warranted, but it punishment was limited to a five minute major for boarding and a game misconduct.
Brandon Tanev given a major penalty and kicked out of the game for this hit on Jarred Tinordi 👀#LetsGoPens #NHLBruins #Pens #NHL pic.twitter.com/ivYFzD3oa1
— NHL Trade Rumors (@nhltraderumours) March 17, 2021
Tanev plays the body and he led the Penguins in hits over the last two seasons and is second on the Kraken. While some may think that Tinordi is looking for a rematch, they did meet once last season after the hit and there were no fireworks.
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 21 Goodrow
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 24 Kakko
13 Lafrenière – 72 Chytil – 91 Blais
29 Hunt – 17 Rooney – 14 McKegg
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 5 Tinordi
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
SEATTLE KRAKEN
17 Jaden Schwartz – 37 Yanni Gourde – 19 Calle Jarnkrok
72 Joonas Donskoi – 21 Alexander Wennberg – 7 Jordan Eberle
13 Brandon Tanev – 16 Jared McCann – Max McCormick or 14 Nathan Bastian
9 Ryan Donato – 15 Riley Sheahan – 67 Morgan Geekie
5 Mark Giordano – 24 Jamie Oleksiak
6 Adam Larsson – 55 Jeremy Lauzon
4 Haydn Fleury – 29 Vince Dunn
31 Philipp Grubauer
35 Joey Daccord or 60 Chris Driedger
There are some questions about the Kraken lineup. They put winger Mason Appleton on Injured Reserve and called up Max McCormick to replace him on the roster. Also, goalie Chris Dreidger has been on injured reserve and appears ready to come off.
The Kraken have back-to-back games against the Rangers and Oilers, but coach Dave Hakstol is going with the hot hand in Philipp Grubauer.
About the game
Game time is 9pm and it will be televised on the MSG Network with the radio call on ESPN 98.7FM. Nationally, the telecast will be on the NHL Network.
Blue Line Station will be hosting a live in-game conversation using the comments feature below. The comments have not been refreshing and one workaround is to change how the comments sort from “newest” to “oldest” and back to “newest” again. Sorry about that, we’re working on the problem.
The live thread is up now!