It’s Game Three of the New York Rangers’ first playoff series in five years and they head to Pittsburgh with the series all knotted up. With the win in Game Two, it’s not a must win scenario, but a victory will restore the home ice advantage for New Yor.
The lineups could remain the same for both teams with Ryan Lindgren for the Rangers and Jason Zucker for Pittsburgh a game time decision. Good news for the Penguins was that number one goalie Tristan Jarry was on the ice on Saturday after being sidelined with a foot injury. Backup goalie Casey DeSmith will be out for a while after core surgery. It should be Louis Domingue in net for the Penguins again.
The word is Barclay Goodrow broke his ankle blocking a shot in Game One and the unbelievable fact is that he play over three periods of hockey after sustaining the injury. Tyler Motte has resumed skating and if the Rangers can get him back, that will help them weather the loss of Goodrow.
Projected starting lineups
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 77 Vatrano
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 18 Copp
13 Lafreniere -72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
29 Hunt – 17 Rooney – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren or 61 Justin Braun -23 Fox
79 Miller -8 Trouba
12 Nemeth -54 Schneider
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
59 Jake Guentzel – 87 Sidney Crosby – 17 Bryan Rust
43 Danton Heinen – 71- Evgeni Malkin – 42 Kasperi Kapanen
23 Brock McGinn – 77 Jeff Carter – 9 Evan Rodrigues
11 Brian Boyle – 53 Teddy Blueger – 10 Drew O’Connor
5 Mike Matheson – 58 Kris Letang
28 Marcus Pettersson – 6 John Marino
52 Mark Friedman – 2 Chad Ruhwedel
70 Louis Domingue
33 Alex D’Orio
How to watch and the live conversation
The game is scheduled to start at 7pm, but that means probably about 7:15pm. There are two options if you are in the New York area. The MSG Network will be providing full pregame and postgame coverage and will also televise all of the First Round games.
If Paul Bissonette and Rick Tocchet float your boat, the national telecast will be on TNT. The good news is that Kenny Albert did the play-by-play of the last game on TNT. TNT is carrying the Avalanche-Predators game right before the Rangers game and we don’t know what the plan is if that games goes long. The fallback channels for Turner Sports are TruTV and HLN so if you are out of the New York Metropolitan area you may have to go hunting for the game. Beware, many cable systems do not carry TruTV.
As for live streaming, any games on TNT or TBS are available on their own apps and websites if you have a cable or satellite subscription and can authenticate your access. If you don’t have cable or satellite your are out of luck. The MSG GO app should work as well for the local telecast, but you need a cable subscription for that as well.
Blue Line Station’s live conversation is active now and we will be live for every playoff game. Please join in as we watch our favorite hockey team go for two in a row in what we hope will be a long postseason journey.
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