Rangers face a decimated Islanders team & live conversation
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers make their first trip to the UBS Arena to face an Islander team that is reeling from a six game losing streak and with seven players on the COVID-19 protocol along with two key injuries. Although some believed that the game would be postponed, so far, it is still on the schedule.
Besides losing six in a row, the Islanders are in last place in the Metropolitan Division though they have played the fewest games (15) of any team in the Division. Starting the season with a 13-game road trip didn’t help and now, unless they can turn it around quickly, they are in danger of falling out of the playoff picture.
The seven Islanders out due to COVID are Zdeno Chara, Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Ross Johnston, Adam Pelech, Andy Greene and Kieffer Bellows. They got more bad news when Brock Nelson suffered a lower body injury that will keep him out 2-4 weeks as he joined defenseman Ryan Pulock, also on injured reserve with a lower body injury.
The Islanders fan base is upset that the NHL didn’t postpone any games due to the COVID outbreak after they did the same for the Ottawa Senators when they lost 10 players. Islanders fans cited the seven COVID cases along with the two injuries, but the injuries shouldn’t be considered as part of a pandemic postponement decision, sorry.
Despite losing nine regulars, the Islanders are desperate for a win and the Rangers cannot afford to take them lightly. Nelson was their top scorer with nine goals and 11 points and the Isles have been hard pressed for scoring. However, Mathew Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier of the Isles’ “Killer B’s” are still playing and Kyle Palmieri is waiting to bust out having scored only one goal this season.
Gerard Gallant echoed the need to be ready. “They’re going to come out hard…they stilll got a lot of veteran guys in their lineup. They’re gonna come out and play their game. They’re gonna work hard, compete hard…we’ll see where it’s gonna go. Barry Trotz is one of the best coaches in the league and they are going to be ready to play.”
The Rangers are completely healthy except for Sammy Blais, lost for the season, and the lineup will resemble the one used on Sunday against the Sabres.
Last season the Islanders won six of the eight games the teams played as the Rangers finished 2-5-1. The Isles have a four-game winning streak against the Rangers, outscoring the Blueshirts 16-3 in those games. The Isles physically intimidated the Rangers in those games with the fourth line running roughshod over the Blueshirts.
Projected starting lineups
The question for the Rangers is who will be the third defense pairing. Jarred Tinordi played his first game in two weeks against the Sabres and it showed as he had a tough outing. One wonders if Gerard Gallant will want the physical defenseman in the lineup as the next three games are against the Islanders and Boston, instead of the smaller Nils Lundkvist.
The one sure thing will be that Igor Shesterkin will be starting in goal. In five games against the Islanders, Shesterkin has never won (0-4-1) while allowing 3.62 goals per game and with a save percentage of .879.
That compares to an outstanding record for Alexandar Georgiev against the Fishsticks. Georgiev is 7-3 lifetime with a .939 Save Percentage and a Goals Against Average of 1.84. Those numbers are his best against any team he has faced at least five times.
When asked, Gallant said it doesn’t matter. “I don’t take account. Bennie (goalie coach Benoit Allaire) does, he looks at records from the past and all that stuff. I’m more worried about this year. It’s what I know about out goaltending and the way they’re playing. Shesty’s been outstanding…two years ago in another goalie played against these guys and had two shutouts, I don’t take a whole lot into that.”
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 29 Hunt
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 24 Kakko
13 Lafrenière– 72 Chytil– 15 Gauthier
17 Rooney – 21 Goodrow– 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 5 Tinordi or 27 Lundkvist
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
38 Anatoli Golyshev – 13 Mathew Barzal -16 Richard Panik
18 Anthony Beauvillier – – 11 Zach Parise44- 26 Oliver Wahlstrom
14 Andy Andreoff – J.G. Pageau – 21 Kyle Palmieri
17 Matt Martin – 53 Casey Cizikas – 15 Cal Clutterbuck
2 Robin Salo – 24 Scott Mayfield
4 Thomas Hickey – 8 Noah Dobson
28 Sebastian Aho – 7 Grant Hutton
30 Ilya Sorokin
40 Semyon Varlamov
Late Wednesday it was announced that forward prospect Otto Koivula had been called up from Bridgeport. He played 12 games for the Isles two years ago. It’s unknown if he will be in the lineup.
How to watch and the live conversation
The game will start at 730pm and the telecast will be on the MSG Network with the radiocast on ESPN Radio 98.7FM. Nationally, the game will be live streamed on ESPN+. If you want to see how the Islanders crew does the game, it will be on MSG2.
As usual Blue Line Station will be hosting its live in-game conversation using the comments feature below. We’ve had some issues with the comments refreshing and are working on that, so please bear with us. One workaround is to change how the comments sort from “newest” to “oldest” and back to “newest” again.
Join the conversation and share your thoughts with your fellow Ranger fans as see if the Blueshirts can take advantage of a desperate Islanders team.