Artemi Panarin didn’t participate in the morning skate with his New York Rangers teammates so the team may be without their best player as they take on the Vegas Golden Knights. While that is not good news for a team that has been struggling to score, Vegas is coming off a win last night against the Devils and this will be their fifth game in eight days. For once, the Rangers are the rested team.
The Golden Knights have been hot lately, winners of six of their last seven including three in a row. They are in the third leg of a four game road trip and won the first two games in Boston and Newark.
Of course, this game will have significance for Gerard Gallant as it is his first opportunity to face the team that fired him 49 games into the 2019-20 season. His record as Vegas coach was 118-75-20 for a .601 points percentage. Peter DeBoer has been better, with a points percentage of .701 and a 73-30-4 record. While Gallant got the team to the Stanley Cup Final in their first year, DeBoer has steered the team to the Conference Finals the last two seasons. This season, they are tied for second in the Pacific Division with 36 points and a record 0f 18-11-0.
Gallant downplayed the impact of playing his old team, saying it’s different for players calling it, “just another game.” He explained, “Coaches, it’s part of our business, we get fired and we move on, we coach somebody else. As players, I played 10 years in Detroit , my first game back in Detroit was real tough. ” Ryan Reaves and Brett Howden will also have something to play for tonight.
Reaves said “Yeah, it’d be nice to beat my old team, never like losing to them….most important thing is getting two points.”
With Panarin probably out of the lineup, it looks like Filip Chytil’s benching will be short lived. It may be an opportunity for Gallant to try him on the wing, where many observers feel he belongs. He hinted that he might see some time on left wing if Panarin doesn’t play. saying “He might play on the left wing tonight, he’s a big rangy guy, can make plays so…”
Alexandar Georgiev will be back in goal and it looks like he will be opposed by Lauren Brossoit since Robin Lehner played in New Jersey. Brossoit has a 5-2-0 record this season with a .911 Sv% and 2.62 GAA. He has never played against the Rangers though he has played in eight NHL seasons.
There was a bit of an update on Igor Shesterkin, who has now missed eight games and two weeks with a “day-to-day” minor injury. Coach Gallant said he fully played in the practice, taking shots, but also said that with only one game in the next nine days, they may be more cautious and keep him out until after Christmas. It would make sense for his first start to be at home against Detroit on the 27th, before the team goes on a two day road trip to Florida.
The player to watch for Vegas is Max Pacioretty. After missing almost six weeks with a broken foot, he has been on fire with 12 goals in 12 games including a seven-game goal scoring streak that was stopped last night in New Jersey.
Pacioretty has seven even strength goals in the last eight games. The entire Rangers team has scored 12 even strength goals in the same eight game span including only six in their last five games.
This game could be won on special teams. The Rangers power play is sixth in the NHL at 25% efficiency with Vegas 22nd overall at 17.6%. On the penalty kill, the Rangers are sixth best at 84.1% while Vegas is 23rd overall at 78.6%.
At even strength, the Golden Knights have scored 84 goals compared to 61 for New York. It’s the opposite on the power play as the Rangers have 21 PP goals versus only 13 for Vegas.
Projected lineups
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
72 Chytil – 16 Strome – 29 Hunt
13 Lafrenière– 21 Goodrow – 15 Gauthier
17 Rooney – 14 McKegg – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
25 Hajek – 12 Nemeth
40 Georgiev
71 Kinkaid
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
67 Max Pacioretty – 20 Chandler Stephenson – 61 Mark Stone
81 Jonathan Marchessault – 71 William Karlsson – 19 Reilly Smith
26 Mattias Janmark – 10 Nicolas Roy – 63 Evgenii Dadonov
28 Will Carrier – 21 Brett Howden – 55 Keegan Kolesar
14 Nicolas Hague – 7 Alex Pietrangelo
3 Brayden McNabb – 2 Zach Whitecloud
17 Ben Hutton – 52 Dylan Coughlan
39 Lauren Brossoit
90 Robin Lehner
It’s the return of Brett Howden as he is centering the fourth line for Vegas. He has two goals and six points in 20 games and if he keeps playing, he could have his best year as a pro. He has won 49.5% of his faceoffs, the best percentage on the team. Of course, when Jack Eichel and Nolan Patrick get back into the lineup, it remains to be seen if Howden will even stick with the team.
How to watch and the live conversation
The game will start at 7pm and the telecast will be on the MSG Network with the radio call on ESPN 98.7FM. The national telecast will be on ESPN+.
We’ll have our live thread open for comments during the game. Be sure to join in a share your thoughts about the game. Last game was an emotional roller coaster with the late comeback leaving us all very happy.
Let’s see how the Blueshirts can do, especially if Panarin is out of the lineup.