The New York Rangers take on the Columbus Blue Jackets in a Sunday afternoon game at Madison Square Garden. Let’s see if they learned a lesson from their abysmal play in the third period against the San Jose Sharks in their last game. After Coach Gerard Gallant called out the team for their embarrassing effort in the overtime loss, look for the Rangers to tighten up their defense. Hopefully, they have realized that nothing comes easy in the NHL, especially two points.
The Rangers are mixing up their bottom six with Vitali Kravtsov getting the start on the right wing with Filip Chytil and Barclay Goodrow. Sammy Blais moves to the fourth line with Ryan Carpenter and Ryan Reaves. Jimmy Vesey is the healthy scratch.
Of course, all eyes will be on Johnny Gaudreau who shocked the hockey world by signing as a free agent with Columbus. He is off to an excellent start with four goals and seven points in six games.
It will be a battle of the backups with Jaroslav Halak getting the start and Daniil Tarasov in the net for the Blue Jackets. It’s the second game of back-to-backs for the Blue Jackets who lost 6-3 to the Pittsburgh Penguins in Columbus. They blew a 3-1 lead they held midway through the second period. The Blue Jackets are 2-4-0 on the season and are winless in their two road games so far. They sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division.
Let’s hope the Rangers don’t make the same mistake they made against the Sharks and assume that it will be an easy game.
Projected starting lineups
New York Rangers
20 Kreider – 93 Zibanejad – 24 Kakko
10 Panarin – 16 Trocheck– 13 Lafreniere
21 Goodrow -72 Chytil – 74 Kravtsov
91 Blais– 22 Carpenter – 75 Reaves
55 Lindgren – 23 Fox
79 Miller – 8 Trouba
6 Jones – 4 Schneider
41 Halak
31 Shesterkin
Columbus Blue Jackets
13 Johnny Gaudreau – 38 Boone Jenner – 14 Gustav Nyquist
91 Kent Johnson – 96 Jack Roslovic – 93 Jakub Voracek
59 Yegor Chinakhov – 34 Cole Sillinger – 19 Liam Foudy
50 Eric Robinson – 7 Sean Kuraly – 24 Mathieu Olivier
8 Zach Werenski – 77 Nick Blankenburg
4 Vladislav Gavrikov – 2 Andrew Peeke
22 Jake Bean – 44 Erik Gudbranson
40 Daniil Tarasov
90 Elvis Merzlikins
How to watch & the live conversation
The game starts at 5 pm and it will be televised on the MSG Network. The live stream will be on ESPN+.
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You may be tempted to watch the resurgent New York Jets game that starts at 4 pm, but the Yankees are not providing a compelling reason to switch to their playoff game before the Ranger game is over. Of course, if the Blueshirts play another third period like the last one, we all may decide to watch the Yankees.