Tonight, the New York Rangers face another “almost must win” game. Okay, let’s call it a “must win” since an expectation that the Blueshirts could overcome another 3-1 deficit and do it by winning two games in Raleigh might be too much to ask.
All three games have gone to the home team in this series and the Hurricanes have not won on the road in the playoffs so let’s hope that this is a trend that will continue tonight.
There are apparently no changes in the lineup though Coach Gerard Gallant said that they are looking at the line combinations are it’s likely that there will some different configurations
The Zibanejad line did well with Filip Chytil on the right wing, but the second line didn’t do much with Lafrenière again moved to the right wing. Andrew Copp was back at center with Frank Vatrano and Kaapo Kakko and they had an outstanding first shift and Copp was excellent on the faceoff dots, but didn’t generate much offense. By late in the second period, Gallant had moved everyone back to the old lines and it worked as they protected the lead and played a more even third period.
Bad blood
One of the storylines going into this game is the Max Domi “cheap shot” and the subsequent war of words between the two teams, with Gerard Gallant basically saying that Ryan Reaves can matters into his own hands, though Gallant did not actually mention Reaves by name.
If they are smart, the Rangers will come out hitting, but will keep the hits legal and hopefully throw the Hurricanes off their game. The power play finally got off the ground in the last game and if the Blueshirts can get some PP time, they could take advantage.
One interesting element was the Rangers made some subtle changes in their power play strategy after going 0-4 in Game Two and it paid off. With only one abbreviated power play in Game One, they didn’t have a chance to see the Hurricanes penalty kill until Game Two.
The bottom line is Tony DeAngelo has gone ice cold. He had eight points in the first five games against Boston, but has not had a point in the last five games and he has been minus three in this series. It must be eating at him as he has a tendency to chirp when things go bad and you can be sure that the Blueshirts will do their best to keep him off his game. The fans are certainly doing his part.
You can be sure that the very fact that Ryan Reaves said that he will be taking some runs at people will keep the Hurricanes looking over their shoulders. This is where Rod Brind’Amour will earn his coach’s salary.
Shesterkin is back
The best news is that Igor Shesterkin appears to have shaken off his early playoffs blues and despite the awful goal he allowed to Niederreiter, was the primary reason they won Game Three.
The facts are that despite a 1-2 record, he has allowed four goals in this series for a 1.33 Goals Against Average and a .956 Save Percentage in facing 91 shots.
Shesterkin will need to outplay Antti Raanta for the rest of the series.
Projected lineups
There may be some changes in the starting lines, but we’ll go with what they usually use as that is what Gallant indicated was likely.
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 77 Vatrano
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 18 Copp
13 Lafreniere -72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
64 Motte – 17 Rooney – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
61 Braun – 54 Schneider
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
CAROLINA HURRICANES
37 Andrei Svechnikov – 20 Sebastian Aho – 24 Seth Jarvis
13 Max Domi – 16 Vincent Trocheck – 86 Teuvo Teravainen
21 Nino Niederreiter – 11 Jordan Staal – 71 Jesper Fast
78 Steven Lorentz – 82 Jesperi Kotkaniemi – 88 Martin Necas
74 Jaccob Slavin – 77 Tony DeAngelo
76 Brady Skjei – 22 Brett Pesce
7 Brendan Smith – 28 Ian Cole
32 Antti Raanta
52 Pyotr Kochetkov
Jordan Martinook has missed the last seven games with a lower body injury and is ready to return, but it looks like he is still out of the lineup.
How to watch and the live conversation
Game start time is 7pm EST and it will be televised on ESPN with the livestream on ESPN+. Incidentally, the schedule for Game Five came out and again, it starts at 7pm EST and will be on ESPN.
MSG Network will be providing pre-game coverage beginning at 630pm EST and will have live postgame coverage. ESPN will be televising the Calgary Edmonton with an 930pm EST start time so they will dump out of Rangers coverage pretty quickly.
Blue Line Station’s live conversation is active now and you can join in and talk about the game with your fellow Ranger fans. It’s time for the Rangers to come up with a big night scoring so let’s root them on.