Rangers vs Columbus: Back to work, lessons learned & live conversation

The New York Rangers are back in action after four full days off to recover from their early road schedule and hopefully, four full days to work out the kinks.  Despite their 7-3-3 record, there are numerous kinks to work out despite the Rangers escaping with points in six of their last seven games with only one loss in regulation.

The players had Tuesday off and then had three days of practice.  Coach Gerard Gallant was asked if they made some progress.  His answer? “I hope so.  We had three good days of hard work. We did some good things. Just to go over our systems again…I hope it shows on the weekend, time will tell.”

He was asked about the defensive woes the team has endured.   He said “We’re making some mistakes…you got to commit more to defensive hockey.  We’re scoring enough goals to win some hockey games, but I think some of those mistakes, those turnovers on the offensive blueline, those d-zone coverages, it was a combination of a lot of things.”

Gallant did say that Filip Chytil did not make the trip to Columbus and it looks like it will be same lineup that played against Florida though late Saturday, the Rangers recalled Greg McKegg from Hartford and placed Chytil on injured reserve.

It sure looks like Chytil was concussed on the play and that is bad news for the Rangers.  The question is when his stint on IR began as they can say it started as early as a week ago.  In that case, he could be back in a few days if he recovers.

He wouldn’t commit to a goalie and also said that he wasn’t sure if they would split the back-to-back games.  That’s an indication that Igor Shesterkin will get the start tonight.

It’s going to get busy as this is the first of six games in nine days and this is the first of two back-to backs in that stretch.

About the Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets are hurting with Patrik Laine out for 4-6 weeks with an oblique injury along with Emil Bemstrom, Adam Boqvist, and Dean Kukan.   Max Domi is also out on the COVID-19 protocol.

The Blue Jackets are tied for the fewest games played this season with 11. They have a 7-4-0 record and are coming off a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals on Friday night. After falling behind 3-1, they tied the score late in the second period, but lost when Conor Sheary scored for the Caps with just 1:22 left in the game.

Elvis Merzlikins will get the start after Joonas Korpisalo played last night.  He has yet to lose at Nationwide Arena (5-0)

Columbus won four of their first six games, but have been able to win only one of their five games in regulation though they did take two in a shootout or overtime. They are tenth best in the NHL, averaging 3.09 goals per game (the Rangers are ninth worst at 2.54) and they are 17th in goals against average, allowing 2.91 goals per game slightly worse than the Rangers who have a 2.85 GAA average.

Both the Rangers and Blue Jackets have comparable special teams stats and are in the middle of the NHL pack.

The Rangers did deal the Blue Jackets their worst loss of the season,  4-0 loss on October 29. behind Igor Shesterkin and goals from Ryan Strome, Alexis Lafrenière and two power play goals from Chris Kreider.

Projected starting lineups

NEW YORK RANGERS

20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 91 Blais
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 24 Kakko
13 Lafrenière– 21 Goodrow – 15 Gauthier
29 Hunt – 17 Rooney – 75 Reaves

55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 27 Lundkvist

31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev

COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

14 Gustav Nyquist – 38 Boone Jenner – 28 Oliver Bjorkstrand
59 Yegor Chinakhov – 34 Cole Sillinger – 93 Jakub Voracek
15 Gregory Hofmann – 96 Jack Roslovic – 11 Kevin Stenlund
50 Eric Robinson – 7 Sean Kuraly – 42 Alexandre Texier

8 Zach Werenski – 22 Jake Bean
44 Vladislav Gavrikov –  5Gavin Bayreuther
53 Gabriel Carlsson – 2 Andrew Peeke

90 Elvis Merzlikins
70 Joonas Korpisalo

 A minor rant

The Blue Jackets announced that they are retiring Rick Nash’s number 61 on Saturday, March 5 in a game versus the Boston Bruins.  The Rangers make their last trip to Columbus on January 27.  Would it have been too much to ask for the Blue Jackets to schedule Nash’s salute to a date when they played the Blueshirts?  Nash played over a third of his career on Broadway and actually played 73 playoffs games as a Ranger as opposed to four as a Blue Jacket.

The Blue Jackets did honor him after he retired before a game with the Rangers in January 2019 and he was honored by the Rangers two months later before a Devils game at Madison Square Garden.

Nash will be the first Columbus player to be so honored and he is currently the team’s Director of Player Development.

The choice of dates is a little curious and you have to wonder if John Davidson had any input in the decision or if Nash bears an ill will towards the Blueshirts.  We would hope not.

The only Rangers left who were teammates with Nash in New York are Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, Filip Chytil and Alexandar Georgiev.

About the game and live conversation

The game is scheduled for 7pm and will be televised on the MSG Network.  The radio call will be on ESPN Radio 98.7.   The national live stream will be on ESPN+.

As usual, 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 us up now!