Rangers season opener live conversation

Here we go again.  The New York Rangers start the campaign with high hopes after exceeding all expectations last season.  We’ve all heard the arguments that they didn’t deserve to get to the Eastern Conference Finals.  Let’s just call that sour grape.

How different is this Rangers team? Of the 20 players who suited up for Game Six against Tampa, those not in tonight’s game are Frank Vatrano, Ryan Strome, Andrew Copp, Tyler Motte, Justin Braun, Dryden Hunt, Kevin Rooney, and Alexandar Georgiev.

They will be replaced tonight by Kaapo Kakko, Vincent Trocheck, Jimmy Vesey, Vitali Kravtsov, Ryan Carpenter, Zac Jones, Ryan Reaves, and Jaroslav Halak.

Eight different faces in the lineup is a pretty hefty turnover.  The core is the same, but it’s the new additions that will go a long way in making the difference this season.

One other change, Braden Schneider has taken uniform number four.  So much for any chance that they will be retiring Ron Greschner’s number anytime soon.

About Tampa

Like the Rangers, the Tampa Bay Lightning have made some changes,  while retaining much of their core.  Gone from the players from Game Six are Ryan McDonagh, Riley Nash, Ondrej Palat, and Jan Rutta with Anthony Cirelli, and Zac Bogosian out with injuries.

They will be replaced up front by Brayden Point, Cole Koepke, and Vlad Namestnikov, and on defense by Cal Foote, Haydn Fleury, and Philippe Myers.

Tampa suspended defenseman Ian Cole, who signed as a free agent over the summer when he was accused of allegedly sexually abusing and grooming a minor.

As a result, along with an injury to Bogosian, the Tampa defense has a new look with half of the blueliners new to starting roles.

Projected starting lineups

The late word is that Sammy Blais is unavailable due to an upper-body injury suffered against the Islanders on Saturday.  Igor Shesterkin gets a rematch in his battle with Andrei Vasilevskiy for the title of best netminder in the NHL.  He’s never lost to the Tampa goalie in the regular season and has a lifetime record of 4-4 in head-to-head matchups.

New York Rangers

20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
10 Panarin – 16 Trocheck– 74 Kravtsov
13 Lafreniere -72 Chytil  – 21 Goodrow
26 Vesey – 22 Carpenter – 75 Reaves

55 Lindgren  – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8  Trouba
6 Jones – 4 Schneider

31 Shesterkin
41 Halak

Tampa Bay Lightning

91 Steven Stamkos –  21 Brayden Point – 86 Nikita Kucherov
38 Brandon Hagel -20 Nick Paul – 17 Alex Killorn
45 Cole Koepke – 90 Vlad Namestnikov – 79 Ross Colton
14 Pat Maroon – 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – 10 Corey Perry

77 Victor Hedman -52 Cal Foote
98 Mikhail Sergachev – 81 Erik Cernak
7 Haydn Fleury – 5 Philippe Myers

88 Andrei Vasilevskiy
1 Brian Elliott

How to watch & the live conversation

The game starts at 730pm and it will be televised on ESPN.  The live stream will be on ESPN+. We haven’t seen the home telecast team for a few games and thankfully, the MSG Network will have a full pregame show at 7 pm and a postgame show as soon as the game ends.  We’ll see if ESPN airs the player introductions scheduled for 7:30 pm.  Doubtful.

Blue Line Station’s live conversation is active now.  You can join the chat in the comments section below.  We have had some issues with the auto-refresh feature and the workaround is to sort the messages by oldest, then back to newest in order to see the latest comments.

With the Yankees opening their playoffs against the Guardians at the same time, it will be tough to avoid spoilers (especially since the game is on ESPN), but true Ranger fans will be watching the Blueshirts and recording the Yankees game.  At any rate, the baseball game will probably be in the third inning when the Rangers finish beating the Lightning.