Live conversation as Rangers take another slumping team

The New York Rangers are coming off a very unsatisfying loss in Minnesota to a fired up Wild team.  The Blueshirts couldn’t match Minnesota’s intensity and didn’t play well.  You cannot pin the loss entirely on Alexandar Georgiev, the team was mediocre.

The Rangers had an intense practice on Wednesday and will have Igor Shesterkin in net versus the St. Louis Blues.  It’s been just over a week since the Rangers came back in the third period and beat them at Madison Square Garden and you have to believe that they are looking for revenge. They are also coming off a bad loss to the Ottawa Senators.  The Rangers need to be ready to play.

The loss to the Rangers kicked off a four-game losing streak (one in OT), their longest streak since four game stretch in November.  Three of the four losses came on the road.

Gallant spoke about the Blues, saying “They’re a quick team…very talented team.  They’re going through a rough patch  here like most teams do.  It’s gonna be a battle…they’re trying to get points, they’re in a tight playoff race.”

Ranger fans will be disappointed that Pavel Buchnevich will not be in the lineup after suffering a concussion in the Ottawa game. Winger Oskar Sundqvist will also miss the game after complications in his recovery from knee surgery.   Defenseman Marco Scandella is returning to the lineup after missing a month with a lower body injury.

For all you Morgan Barron fans, Coach Gallant spoke about him after practice on Wednesday. “Morgan’s a good kid. Again, he’s developing. He hasn’t played many pro games, he works hard, he’s in great shape. It’s an NHL game.  When he’s in there, some shifts he has real good, other shifts, he looks like he’s a little in awe of it.  So, he’s growing in the game like all the young players do and it takes time   He’ll get another opportunity sooner or later…we’re not disappointed in him just cause he’s not playing games right now.”

Gallant also said that it’s good for him to be practicing with the Rangers instead of playing in Hartford and that he would get in the lineup soon.

The Blues did a good job staying out of the penalty box in that game with only one foul committed against the Rangers.  The Blueshirts comeback was helped after Colton Parayko inadvertently shot a puck into the stands for only the second Rangers PP and Chris Kreider scored the winning goal on that power play.

Projected starting lineups

Except in goal, the Rangers are going with the exact same lineup that they played in Minnesota. Shesterkin stopped 29 of 32 shots in his last start against the Blues, allowing three late second period goals in just two minutes, 14 seconds.

NEW YORK RANGERS

20 Kreider– 93 Zibanejad –13 Lafrenière
10 Panarin– 16 Strome – 29 Hunt
26 Gettinger  – 72 Chytil – 15 Gauthier
21 Goodrow – 76 Brodzinski- 75 Reaves

55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
12 Nemeth – 45 Schneider

31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev

ST. LOUIS BLUES

10 Brayden Schenn  – 90 Ryan O’Reilly – 57 David Perron
25 Jordan Kyrou– 18 Robert Thomas – 91 Vladimir Tarasenko
20 Brandon Saad – 22 Logan Brown  – 49 Ivan Barbashev
28 Mackenzie MacEachern– 21 Tyler Bozak – 65 Alexei Toropchenko

47 Torey Krug – 72 Justin Faulk
6 Marco Scandella – 55 Colton Parayko
77 Niko Mikkola – 41 Robert Bortuzzo

35 Ville Husso
50 Jordan Binnington

The Blues lineup will be a little different with Buchnevich, Sundqvist, Jake Walman and Dakota Joshua out. The one constant is in net as Ville Husso will get the start. He has been alternating starts with Jordan Binnington.

How to watch and the live conversation

The game is set to start at 8pm EST and the telecast will be on the MSG Network.  The live stream will be on ESPN+ and the radiocast will be on ESPN 98.7 FM.

The Blue Line Station live conversation is hot right now and you can talk about the game, the unfair refereeing or the play of the bottom six.  Unfortunately, no chatter about Pavel Buchnevich for this game.  Join the conversation in the comments section below!