Everyone in the Rangers fan base is feeling good about themselves after that 8-2 massacre of the Detroit Red Wings. There’s a lot to like about how the team is going to respond. It’s been far too long since we’ve seen back-to-back good performances from this Rangers roster. They’ve had some difficult opponents but there can be no excuses tonight as the Rangers play a struggling Nashville squad.
Nashville has the same feeling about them that was painted onto the Rangers last season. They have flaws as a roster that their superstar goalie hides. Flawless logic, but Juusse Saros has not been the spectacular shot-stopper he was last year. His .892 save percentage and 3.45 goals-against average is a major red flag for the struggles of this Nashville roster. They’re looking to get back in the win column as the Rangers were a few days ago.
New York’s superstar goalie also had a mediocre start by his reigning-Vezina winner standards. I get his .909 save percentage would be craved by a lot of other teams, but that has gone up recently and he too will be looking to return to the height of his powers. At the time of writing this, it is unclear if the Rangers are going to go with Igor or Halak, but either way, the goalie matchup should be interesting.
Vitali Kravtsov will not be in the lineup tonight due to an illness. His replacement is scheduled to be Ryan Carpenter. It’s very possible that Ryan Reaves is the one that comes into the lineup to fill the shoes of the Russian winger, but nothing is a given. All that has been said by Gallant is that Kravtsov has a stomach bug and will not be featuring tonight in Nashville. He’s not going to be missing for long hopefully.
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Jimmy Vesey
Artemi Panarin – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreniere
Barclay Goodrow – Filip Chytil – Kaapo Kakko
Sammy Blais – Ryan Carpenter – Julien Gauthier
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
Libor Hajek – Braden Schneider
Jaroslav Halak
Igor Shesterkin
Nashville Predators
Filip Forsberg – Mikael Granlund – Juuso Parssinen
Nino Niederreiter – Ryan Johansen – Matt Duchene
Yakov Trenin – Mark Jankowski – Tanner Jeannot
Cole Smith – Colton Sissons – Eeli Tolvanen
Roman Josi – Dante Fabbro
Mattias Ekholm – Alexandre Carrier
Ryan McDonagh – Jeremy Lauzon
Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen
Puck drop time & where to watch?
Puck drop for this one is at 8 PM Eastern or 7 PM Central. As always this game will be on MSG for fans of the Blueshirts in the City that Never Sleeps. Bally Sports South will be covering the game for the Nashville feed if you would prefer that. ESPN and Sportsnet have streams on their platforms for this game too depending on whether you are north of the border or not.