Coming off their impressive 4-0 win over Tampa, the New York Rangers will take on the Edmonton Oilers at Madison Square Garden. Where the Rangers have turned it around after losing four of five games, the Oilers are reeling winning only two of their last 11 games. They are coming off consecutive losses to the Devils and Islanders, both in overtime. They haven’t won a game since December 18.
The Rangers need to remember the game these teams played on November 5 in Edmonton. The Blueshirts jumped out to an early lead and were up 4-1 late in the second period. Edmonton tied the game just 3:35 into the third period, but a Zibanejad goal put the Rangers ahead once again. That’s when Connor McDavid scored that highlight goal with three minutes left to tie the score to send it to overtime. Leon Draisaitl sealed the comeback with the overtime winner.
It was a dreadful outcome and if the Rangers take a lead again, they must not sit on it. It worked against Tampa on Sunday, but if they try it against the Oilers, it could be an issue. No matter what, the Oilers are a frustrated team and they will be desperate to salvage a win from this road trip. After sitting in first place in the Pacific Division most of the season, they are now in the last wild card spot, just one point ahead of the Los Angeles Kings.
The Blueshirts will be without Artemi Panarin and will need all of their players to step up like Mika Zibanejad did on Sunday. Depth scoring is still an issue for the Blueshirts and despite goals on Friday from Goodrow and Lafrenière, they could use even more.
Considering that these two teams have combined for 23 goals in their last two games, scoring may not be an issue.
Projected lineups
Coach Gallant confirmed that it will be Alexandar Georgiev in net and there is a possibility that Patrik Nemeth is going to be out again with a non-COVID related issue. Georgiev is 1-1-2 lifetime against the Oilers. Both Rooney and Lindgren have not played in a game since mid-December so they will be a little rusty.
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
13 Lafrenière – 16 Strome – 21 Goodrow
29 Hunt– 72 Chytil – 15 Gauthier
14 McKegg–17 Rooney – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
25 Hajek– 27 Lundkvist
40 Georgiev
31 Shesterkin
EDMONTON OILERS
18 Zach Hyman – 97 Connor McDavid – 13 Jesse Puljujarvi
37 warren Foegele – 29 Leon Draisaitl – 56 Kailer Yamamoto
14 Devin Shore– 71 Ryan McLeod -8 Kyle Turris
16 Tyler Benson – 10 Derek Ryan – 70 Colton Sceviour
25 Darnell Nurse – 75 Evan Bouchard
2 Duncan Keith – 5 Cody Ceci
20 Slater Koekkoek – 22 Tyson Barrie
19 Mikko Koskinen
34 Ilya Konovalov
Zack Kassian is out on the COVID protocoal, but the Oilers have some other injuries to key players. Kris Russell (upper body), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (undisclosed) and Mike Smith (upper body) are all out out action.
Mikko Koskinen will probably be in goal for Edmonton. He is 3-0 in his career against the Rangers with a less than stellar 3.91 goals against average and .864 save percentage.
How to watch and the live conversation
Game time is 7pm and it will be televised on MSG with the national telecast on ESPN+. The radiocast will be on ESPN 98.7 FM.
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.
Let’s see who steps up this game.