The New York Rangers can go a long way towards grabbing momentum back in this series by beating Tampa tonight but Game Three proved that it was too early to write off the defending champs. What the Rangers need to do is to get ahead early and not let up, unlike their performance on Sunday.
A lot will depend on the availability of Ryan Strome and Barclay Goodrow, both suffering lower body injuries that may keep them out of the game. We’ll know just before puck drop if they are in the lineup.
On the injury front, Brayden Point is getting closer to returning and that is a problem for the Rangers. While Jon Cooper wasn’t confident he could get him back in the next two games, if the series goes longer, we may see he gifted Lightning forward.
Projected lineups
NEW YORK RANGERS
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 77 Vatrano
10 Panarin – 16 Strome – 18 Copp
13 Lafreniere -72 Chytil – 24 Kakko
64 Motte – 21 Goodrow – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
61 Braun – 54 Schneider
31 Shesterkin
40 Georgiev
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
18 Ondrej Palat -91 Steven Stamkos – – 86 Nikita Kucherov
38 Brandon Hagel -71 Anthony Cirelli – 17 Alex Killorn
79 Ross Colton – 20 Nicholas Paul – 10 Corey Perry
14 Pat Maroon – 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – 16 Riley Nash
77 Victor Hedman -44 Jan Rutta
27 Ryan McDonagh – 81 Erik Cernak
98 Mikhail Sergachev -24 Zach Bogosian
88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
1 Brian Elliott
How to watch and the live conversation
The game starts at 8pm and it will be televised on ESPN. The live stream will be on ESPN+. As usual, MSG Network will have a full pregame show at 7:30pm and an hourlong postgame show as soon as the game ends.
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