Rangers-Devils: Bragging rights & live conversation
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers take on the New Jersey Devils for the first time this season and this one is for local bragging rights. The Rangers came into the season with high expectations and their record reflects that though there play has been inconsistent. The Devils made some major roster changes and no one knew what to expect and they have exceeded expectations for the most part. This game is going to be important to both teams.
Alexandar Georgiev will be in goal for the Blueshirts as Gerard Gallant continues with his preseason pledge to not play his goalies in back-to-back games. It will be his fourth start of the season and his record is 1-1-1. He started the season opener in Washington and was lit up for five goals. In his second start he made 26 saves in 3-2 win over Ottawa. He was shaky in his last start in Edmonton when the Rangers blew a third period lead and lost in overtime.
This will be Georgiev’s first appearance at Madison Square Garden as his prior four games have all been on the road. His goal against average is 4.11 and his save percentage is .865, both much worse than his statistics in other seasons. The team and Georgiev need a good showing tonight.
The Devils had won three in a row before their loss to Boston yesterday. They beat Florida 7-3 on Tuesday and shut out the Islanders 4-0 on Thursday, two impressive wins.
The Devils are scoring 2.92 goals per game, compared to 2.71 for the Rangers. Their 2.85 goals against average is almost identical to the Rangers 2.86. The Devils have one of the worst power plays in the NHL, scoring only 15% of the time. Similarly, their penalty kill isn’t great, sitting 26th overall in the NHL at 75%.
The Rangers still have a negative goal differential at -2 while the Devils are +1. The Devils have played nine of 13 games at home and have a 2-1-1 road record. The Rangers have played only four of 14 games at home and are 2-1-1.
Projected lineups
The Rangers will be going with the same lineup that played in Columbus except for goal. It’s good to see Julien Gauthier back in the lineup after he played one of his best games as a Ranger. Georgiev has a career record of 4-2-0 with a 2.82 GAA and .905 Sv% against the Devils.
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
40 Georgiev
31 Shesterkin
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
37 Pavel Zacha – 13 Nico Hischier – 10 Alexander Holtz
11 Andreas Johnsson – 18 Dawson Mercer – 63 Jesper Bratt
59 Janne Kuokkanen – 70 Jesper Boqvist – 90 Tomas Tatar
16 Jimmy Vesey – 20 Michael McLeod – 17 Yegor Sharangovich
24 Ty Smith – 7 Dougie Hamilton
2 Colton White – 28 Damon Severson
71 Jonas Siegenthaler – 76 P.K. Subban
29 Mackenzie Blackwood
45 Jonathan Bernier
Ryan Graves had to leave the Boston game early with an injury and will be a gametime decision. Andreas Johnsson leads the team in scoring with six goals and 11 points. Mackenzie Blackwood will be in goal and he didn’t have a lot of success against the Rangers last season. In seven games he had a 2-5 record with a 3.60 GAA and .885 Sv%.
About the game and the 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 is up now!