The New York Rangers start a stretch of three games in four days as their February breaks draws closer. They take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena before returning Friday for an emotional evening when Henrik Lundqvist has his number 30 retired.
Coach Gerard Gallant said that the team is taking it one game at a time as the face a Blue Jackets team, fresh off an embarrassing 6-0 home ice loss to the Calgary Flames. Gallant said “We gotta keep it one day at a time. We worry about tonight’s game, prepare for that. Tomorrow will take care of itself. We’re going to face a hungry team tonight that go beat last night in their building. They’ll be a different team tonight.”
How bad was the loss? Calgary has 62 shots on goal, the most in an NHL game since 1991. There has been only one game with more shots by a team in the last 40 years. Of course, it was the most ever allowed by a Blue Jackets team. Elvis Merzlikins was in net for the barrage so we will see Joonas Korpisalo against the Blueshirts.
Columbus has had a bizarre season. This month they have lost 7-2 to Tampa, 7-4 to Carolina, 9-2 to Florida and last night’s 6-0 shellacking. Yet, two weeks ago they beat the Hurricanes 6-0. The Jackets are 18-21-1 and sitting in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division, 14 points out of a wild card spot. They allow the third most goals per game in the NHL (3.60) and allow the most shots per game in the league (35.3). The one thing the Rangers don’t want to do is to go to overtime. Columbus has a 7-1 record in OT with three of those wins in a shootout.
The two teams have met twice this season. On October 29, Igor Shesterkin got his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 win at the Garden. In mid-November, the Rangers won 5-3 in Columbus. Igor Shesterkin was in net for that game, though he was replaced by Alexandar Georgiev in the third period after a collision with Alexandre Texier.
Gallant kept stressing that the Blue Jackets will be looking to rebound from that bad loss so you can see what he is worried about, the bad start. The Rangers have been tempting fate and they can only expect to come back so many times before it catches up to them.
There will be no excuse for the Blueshirts if they get off to a bad start again. This a team that they should dominate, yet they fell behind 2-1 in their last meeting, not taking the lead midway through the second period. It’s worth noting is that the Rangers registered two of their top shot totals this season in their two games with Columbus.
One this is certain. Artemi Panarin loves playing against Columbus. In nine games he has scored seven goals and 14 points. He has two goals and five points in the two games this season.
Projected lineups
Alexandar Georgiev will be the starting goalie so that means Igor Shesterkin will go at home against the Minnesota Wild on the big Lundqvist night.
Filip Chytil and Patrik Nemeth did not make the trip. Chytil still out with the lower body injury and Nemeth has a personal issue. It hasn’t been confirmed whether it will be Libor Hajek or Zac Jones in for Nemeth.
The Rangers made some roster moves before the game. They added Jonny Brodzinski and Jones to the active roster and added Nils Lundkvist, Tim Gettinger, Lauri Pajuniemi and Tarmo Reunanen to the Taxi Squad.
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 15 Gauthier
10 Panarin– 16 Strome – 21 Goodrow
13 Lafrenière – 47 Barron – 29 Hunt
14 McKegg – 17 Rooney – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
25 Hajek or 6 Jones – 45 Schneider
40 Georgiev
31 Shesterkin
COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS
29 Patrik Laine – 38 Boone Jenner – 14 Gustav Nyquist
16 Max Domi – 34 Cole Sillinger – 28 Oliver Bjorkstrand
93 Jakub Voracek – 96 Jack Roslovic – 52 Emil Bemstrom
50 Eric Robinson – 7 Sean Kuraly – 59 Yegor Chinakhov
8 Zach Werenski – 2 Andrew Peeke
44 Vladislav Gavrikov –5 Gavin Bayreuther
22 Jake Bean – 27 Adam Boqvist
70 Joonas Korpisalo
90 Elvis Merzlikins
Joonas Korpisalo gets the start for the Blue Jackets and he hasn’t exactly been great against the Rangers. In six games he has 2-3-1 record with a .872 save percentage and 3.15 goals against average. Alexandre Texier is out with a hand injury suffered against Calgary.
How to watch and the live conversation
The game tonight is set to start at 7pm and will be televised on the MSG Network with the game available nationally on ESPN+. The radiocast will be on ESPN 98.7 FM.
As usual, our live conversation is up now and you have a chance to talk about the game with your fellow Rangers faithful. Make sure to join us on Friday and share your memories of Henrik Lundqvist as they retired his #30! Feel free to weigh in in the comments section below.