Live conversation for Rangers vs Kings: Fill-in coach, same result?
By Steve Paulus
The New York Rangers take on the Los Angeles Kings at the newly re-named Crypto.com Arena in game three of their longest road trip of the year. With Coach Gerard Gallant in the COVID protocol, the team flew Hartford Coach Kris Knoblauch to L.A. to take over behind the bench.
It’s not the first time that Knoblauch had done this. Last season he took over when David Quinn and his assistants were ravaged by the pandemic. He coached the team for six games with a 4-2 record including two blowouts of the Flyers by the scores of 9-0 and 8-3. Note that the Rangers conclude this road trip Saturday in Philadelphia and Knoblauch may be get another shot at working his magic against the Flyers.
While Knoblauch will run the team during the game, lineup decisions will be made by Gallant, just as Quinn made the personnel decisions when he was out.
The big news for the Rangers is the return of Artemi Panarin from COVID protocol. He was cleared and flew out to join the team, making it to their practice on Sunday. It means a re-jiggering of the forward lines and it won’t be until game time that we know what the lineup will be. One thing is likely, based on practice it looks like the fourth line of Morgan Barron, Tim Gettinger and Jonny Brodzinski will be get another chance. Knoblauch knows them well as they have spent the entire season in Hartford.
The Kings are relatively healthy and have been winning, jumping into the last wild card spot. A win tonight will help them pad their hold on that position as they are only tied in points but hold the tiebreaker with the Sharks. They are one point ahead of Edmonton and two in front of Winnipeg.
They are four games over NHL .500 with a 17-13-5 record and their offense is in the middle of the NHL pack, 24th in goals per game (2.71). They are solid defensively, allowing 2.63 goals per game, eighth lowest in the league. They are not great on special teams with the 25th best power play (16.8%) and the 26th best penalty kill (74.8%).
Their leading scorer is, as usual, Anze Kopitar who has nine goals and 29 points. Drew Doughty is having a fine season with four goals and 18 points, but he has been limited to only 16 games, missing 16 games with a knee injury and then three more with a stint on the COVID list.
Projected lineups
In a roster move, the Rangers added goalie Tyler Wall to the Taxi Squad, a necessity since Igor Shesterkin is out on the COVID protocol. The had returned Adam Huska to Hartford so they needed a spare goalie.
It appears that Alexis Lafreniere will be back on the third line, but with Kevin Rooney at center and Filip Chytil on the right wing. It also looks like Jarred Tinordi will get another start on the third defense pairing, though he will be with Patrik Nemeth. That should be interesting.
Georgiev is slated to get his third straight start after Saturday’s 4-1 win in which he faced only 14 shots. Igor Shesterkin entered he protocol on January 6 so he could be activated in time to play Thursday against San Jose, emphasis on “could.””
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 21 Goodrow
13 Lafrenière – 17 Rooney – 72 Chytil
26 Gettinger – 47 Barron – 76 Brodzinski
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
5 Tinordi – 15 Nemeth
40 Georgiev
72 Kinkaid
LOS ANGELES KINGS
9 Adrian Kempe – 11 Anze Kopitar – 19 Alex Iafallo
12 Trevor Moore – 24 Phillip Danault – 33 Viktor Arvidsson
89 Rasmus Kupari – 39 Alex Turcotte – 23 Dustin Brown
48 Brendan Lemieux – 46 Blake Lizotte – 34 Arthur Kaliyev
44 Mikey Anderson – 8 Drew Doughty
6 Olli Maatta – 3 Matt Roy
7 Tobias Bjornfot – 50 Sean Durzi
40 Cal Petersen
32 Jonathan Quick
It looks like Cal Petersen will be in net for Los Angeles, coming off a 4-0 shutout Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings. Petersen has been a fill-in for the Kings for four seasons, but has never played against the Rangers. He has a record of 6-5-1 this season with a .900 save percentage and a goals against average of 2.84.
Lias Andersson hurt himself in practice and is on injured reserve so the only ex-Ranger in the lineup will be Brendan Lemieux who is having a good season with seven goals and only one assist in 24 games. He leads the Kings with 50 PIM. He was suspended for five games in November for biting Brady Tkachuk on the hand during a fight. It’s too bad Ryan Reaves is out of the lineup.
How to watch and the live conversation
Game time is 1030pm EST so it will be a really late night for those on the East Coast. The telecast will be on MSG+ with the radio call on WEPN 1050AM. The national telecast will be on ESPN+.
Blue Line Station’s live thread will be active from now through the game as the Rangers look to make this two of three on their west coast trip.
Fell free to weigh in below in the comments section during the game.
Tonight is significant for the Rangers as the Capitals lost to the Bruins 7-3. The Blueshirts could open a three point margin over Washington if they can beat the Kings. A win would also give the Rangers the most points of any team in the NHL and give them first place in the Metropolitan Division, two points ahead of Carolina though the Hurricanes would have four games in hand.