Editor’s note: Late news is Panarin out on the COVID protocol…Nemeth out with another illness. Zac Jones and Tim Gettinger going to play.
The New York Rangers get another crack at the Tampa Bay Lightning in a matinee at Madison Square Garden. Looking for a sweep, it won’t be easy as Tampa’s top goalie, Andrei Vasilevskiy, came off the COVID protocol list late Saturday. The Rangers won Friday primarily because Lightning netminder Brian Elliott who handed them the puck twice, resulting in Blueshirts goals.
Of course, the question on everyone’s mind is what Barclay Goodrow will do for an encore after scoring twice against his old team.
The Rangers still have Ryan Lindgren, Kevin Rooney and Jarred Tinordi out of action while the Bolts are missing Anthony Cirelli, Taylor Raddysh and Cal Foote. They are getting defenseman Eric Cernak back from an injury while Nikita Kucherov is still on injured reserve.
So, while the Tampa lineup will see some changes, there are no indications that there will be changes for the Rangers. Coach Gerard Gallant tends to stay with a winning lineup so it won’t be a surprise if it’s the same, though he made changes during the game on Friday, moving Barclay Goodrow up to the Strome line and moving Dryden Hunt to the fourth line. Coach Gerard Gallant hinted that Goodrow may be moved up again. Igor Shesterkin will definitely be in goal.
Gallant had this to say about a possible return for Andrei Vasilevskiy and about the issue of not beating playoff-bound teams. “I don’t care who they got. I care about our team and we play hockey. We got 20 wins this season in 32 games. I’m pretty happy….we’re not perfect, we’re a good team. I don’t care who we beat. The NHL is a good league.”
Third line issues
There is definitely an issue with the third line. The trio spent under two minutes on the ice together 5v5. Overall at even strength, Filip Chytil played 7:22, Alexis Lafrenière played 6:21 and Julien Gauthier only 6:04. Playing two or three shifts in a period cannot be good for any player and if this is going to be the norm, something has to give when it comes to these three young Rangers.
Lafrenière’s total ice time of 8:47 was his lowest of the season and the fourth fewest minutes of his career. He did score one of the Ranger goals and though naysayers will say that it was into an empty net, you have to appreciate that he actually put the puck into the net. How many times have we seen Ranger players miss a wide open net? Lafrenière’s shooting percentage is 17.9% and that trails only Chris Kreider. For all of his faults, when the kid gets a shot, he is pretty accurate. At even strength he has taken 29 shots and scored seven goals, a 24.1% shooting percentage, best on the team.
Projected lineups
It’s the same team that faced Tampa on Friday, except for back up goalie Alexandar Georgiev who came off the COVID list on Saturday. Gallant said that he would be ready to play if needed after missing a few games.
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 29 Hunt
13 Lafrenière– 72 Chytil – 15 Gauthier
21 Goodrow -14 McKegg– 75 Reaves
25 Hajek – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 27 Lundkvist
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
17 Alex Killorn – 21 Brayden Point – 7 Mathieu Joseph
18 Ondrej Palat – 91 Steven Stamkos – 79 Ross Colton
14 Pat Maroon – 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – 10 Corey Perry
13 Boris Katchouk – 20 Riley Nash – 82 Gabriel Fortier
77 Victor Hedman – 44 Jan Rutta
27 Ryan McDonagh – 81 Erik Cernak
98 Mikhail Sergachev – 29 Andre Sustr
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
1 Brian Elliott
If Vasilevskiy gets the start, it will be his eighth against the Rangers. In seven prior games he has a 3-2-2 record with a .921 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average. It’s hard to believe, but he has only played one playoff game against the Blueshirts allowing one goal on seven shots in relief of Ben Bishop in 2015.
How to watch and the live conversation
Game time is 1230pm and it will be televised on MSG with the national telecast on ESPN+. The radiocast will be on WEPN 1050AM.
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.
Feel free to skip football and join in as we watch at least one New York team that is having a winning season.