Rangers-Oilers preview and live conversation

The New York Rangers face their toughest challenge of the season tonight as they take on the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.  Although the Rangers have met some tough opponents and have played seven of their first 10 games on the road, they haven’t faced anyone playing as well as the Oilers.

How good is Edmonton?  The are perched in first place in the Pacific Division with a 8-1-0 record.  They are averaging 4.22 goals per game, best in the league. Their +16 goal differential is the third best in the NHL.  Their 39 goals are second best in the NHL. They’ve won five of six at Rogers Place and only unbeaten Florida has more home wins.

They have won three in a row, allowing only five goals in those three games.  Their only defeat was a 5-3 loss to the Flyers nine days ago, though that did come at home.

Their special teams play is unworldly.  They have a power play that scores 46.4% of the time.  How good is that?  The all-time record belongs to the 1977-78 Montreal Canadiens with 31.88%.   Their penalty kill ain’t too shabby either, with an 88.9% efficiency rating that is sixth best in the NHL.

Individually,  Leon Draisaitl is second with nine goals and Connor McDavid is third with seven. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins leads the league with 13 assists while McDavid is second with 12 and Draisaitl is third with 11.  Draisaitl leads with 20 points, McDavid is next with 19 and Nugent-Hopkins is fifth with 13.

The only weakness for the Oilers is in goal with Mike Smith out with a lower body injury.  However, Mikko Koskinen has been better than good filling in for him.

Let’s say this…the Rangers will have their hands full.

Projected lineups

Alexandar Georgiev will get the start in goal, his first appearance since a 3-2 win over Ottawa 13 days ago. It’s his third start of the season as he started the season opener, a 5-1 loss to the Capitals.  Before the game, Coach Gerard Gallant said that difference for the Oilers this season is their depth.

Ryan Reaves remains on Injured Reserve so the lineup will be identical to the starters the last two games.  Gallant had Alexis Lafrenière on the fourth line in practice and it’s a question of where he will play tonight, but the odds are he will still be with Filip Chytil and Sammy Blais, especially considering how well the fourth line is playing.

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

40 Georgiev
31 Shesterkin

EDMONTON OILERS

18 Zach Hyman – 97 Connor McDavid – 13 Jesse Puljujarvi
93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 29 Leon Draisaitl – 56 Kailer Yamamoto
37 warren Foegele – 10 Derek Ryan – 44 Zack Kassian
42 Brendan Perlini – 14 Devin Shore – 8 Kyle Turris

25 Darnell Nurse – 75 Evan Bouchard
2 Duncan Keith – 5 Cody Ceci
6 Kris Russell – 22 Tyson Barrie

19 Mikko Koskinen
74 Stuart Skinner

The last time the Oilers played the Rangers was on New Year’s Eve in 2019.  That was a wild game that saw the Rangers fall behind 6-0 only to charge back with five straight goals, but fall short and lose 7-5.  11 Rangers who played in that game are still with the team. Only seven Oilers are still with the team.

The days of that kind of pond hockey offensive explosion are over for Edmonton.  The Oilers have allowed five goals twice, three goals once and two or less in the remaining six games.

In that game, Alexandar Georgiev was pulled after giving up six goals and was relieved by Henrik Lundqvist.  Georgiev is 1-1 lifetime against the Oilers with a 4.24 GAA and .883 Sv%.   Mikko Koskinen is 2-0 lifetime against the Rangers with a 3.48 GAA and .889 SV%.

About the game and the live conversation

Before the game, the Oilers will be retiring the number of former Oilers and Rangers defenseman Kevin Lowe.  Lowe will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame next weekend.  Lowe played 15 of his 19 seasons with Edmonton, with four years in New York where he helped the Rangers win the Stanley Cup.

Game time is 9:30pm EST and it will be televised on the MSG Plus Network with the radio call on WEPN 1050 AM.   Nationally, the telecast will be on the ESPN+.

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.  It’s been sort of working recently so we shall see.

The live thread is up now!