Tonight marks game two of this west coast swing that the Rangers have embarked on. After an overtime defeat in Seattle, it’s the Bay Area that the Blueshirts head to next as the San Jose Sharks will provide tonight’s opponent. Despite not being off to the best of starts, the Sharks have already beaten the Rangers at MSG this season and the Original Six franchise will be looking for revenge out in California.
Zac Jones will be in replacing Libor Hajek in the lineup tonight. After sitting in the press box for the last couple of games, Jones will be looking to prove to Gerard Gallant that bringing him back into the fold for this game was the right decision. Jones has had an overall positive start to the season despite not having the best performances consistently. However, when the entire team is inconsistent, it’s hard to blame one person, especially a kid like Jones.
It’s expected to be Igor Shesterkin against James Reimer tonight. With the reigning Vezina trophy winner going against the former Panther, Hurricane, and Maple Leaf, both goaltenders have had good games this season. Solving Reimer will not be an easy task for the Rangers’ offense. He is more or less the only reason the Sharks have a respectable record at this point in the season.
This is a San Jose team that has won its last 3 so it will be coming into this game with a lot of confidence. For that to change, the Rangers are going to need to show that they are capable of playing the New York Rangers team we saw last year. With the powerplay seemingly getting back to what it was in previous seasons, the key to this game is going to be the 5-on-5 play. If New York can dominate that, they will give themselves a chance.
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Jimmy Vesey
Artemi Panarin – Vincent Trocheck – Barclay Goodrow
Alexis Lafreniere – Filip Chytil – Kaapo Kakko
Sammy Blais – Ryan Carpenter – Julien Gauthier
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
Zac Jones – Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jaroslav Halak
San Jose Sharks
Timo Meier – Tomas Hertl – Kevin Labanc
Matt Nieto – Logan Couture – Alexander Barabanov
Nick Bonino – Nico Sturm – Luke Kunin
Evgeny Svechnikov – Steven Lorentz – Oskar Lindblom
Jaycob Megna — Erik Karlsson
Marc-Edouard Vlasic — Matt Benning
Mario Ferraro — Nick Cicek
James Reimer
Kaapo Kahkonen
Puck drop and where to watch!
This game is a 10:30 Eastern start. Awful for those of us that are going to stay up and watch this. NBC California will be covering the game for folks out in The Golden State but if you want Sam and Joe, MSG will be covering the game too. As always, there are streaming options available. ESPN+ in the US, Sportsnet 360 in Canada, and NHL.tv for those who are not in North America.