Rangers vs Flames preview & live conversation
The New York Rangers’ long road adventure ends tonight as they finish a stretch when they played nine of 12 games on the road. It has to be considered a success no matter what as the Blueshirts have already come away with a 5-1-2 record and the second highest point total in the Metropolitan Division. The last two blown leads and overtime losses were disheartening, but shouldn’t take away from what the team has accomplished. If they can end this run with a win, it will be quite a success.
It won’t be easy. They take on a Calgary team that spanked the Blueshirts 5-1 less than two weeks ago and that game was at Madison Square Garden. Calgary is in second place in the Pacific Division and they have lost just once in regulation in 10 games. The good news is, like the Rangers, the Flames have dropped their last two games in overtime. The difference is the Flames mounted third period comebacks to get to overtime, while we all know what the Rangers did.
Igor Shesterkin will get the start in goal as he looks to get revenge for his last start against the Flames. He has been lights out on the road, allowing only seven goals in five starts. He has stopped 163 of 170 shots for a Save Percentage of .958.
In his last start against the Flames it was a tight 2-1 game until midway through the third period when the Flames scored three goals in the last 12 minutes.
Projected lineups
Late Saturday, the word came down that Greg McKegg had been assigned to the Hartford Wolf Pack. That means Ryan Reaves will be back in the lineup. The only question is what that will mean for the newly configured third line with Kevin Rooney swapping with Alexis Lafrenière. McKegg had bee the center on the fourth line and if Reaves plays with Hunt and Lafrenière the question is who will be at center.
As usual, no word on any lineup changes except for Shesterkin in goal. The newly configured third line with Kevin Rooney swapping with Alexis Lafrenière played well in Edmonton and should be together again.
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 – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 27 Lundkvist
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
CALGARY FLAMES
13 Johnny Gaudreau – 28 Elias Lindholm – 19 Matthew Tkachuk
20 Blake Coleman -11 Mikael Backlund – 18 Tyler Pitlick
17 Milan Lucic – 29 Dillon Dube – 88 Andrew Mangiapane
15 Brad Richardson – 23 Sean Monahan – 22Trevor Lewis
58 Oliver Kylington -8 Christopher Tanev
55 Noah Hanifin – 4 Rasmus Andersson
6 Juuso Valimaki – 44 Erik Gudbranson
25 Jacob Markstrom
80 – Dan Vladar
It’s the same lineup for Calgary as at the Garden except for Brett Ritchie who was placed on injured reserve with a lower body injury. He should be replaced by Brad Richardson though Walker Duehr could make his NHL debut.
About the game and the live conversation
Game time is10pm EST and it will be televised on the MSG Network with the radio call on ESPN 98.7FM. 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!