For the New York Rangers tonight, they will be fighting against a team that is just as desperate for a win as they are as they visit the Honda Center in Orange County to take on the Anaheim Ducks. They will complete the second half of this back-to-back after winning 5-3 over the Los Angeles Kings last night. This will be a game that the Rangers will be looking to win in order to secure their safety in a playoff spot heading into Thanksgiving.
For the Rangers, this is going to be an interesting game. They are playing a Ducks team that they are better than but the Rangers are in the second half of a back-to-back and they are without one of the spare forwards they had when they started the road trip. That is because Ryan Reaves was traded earlier today to the Minnesota Wild for a 2025 5th-round pick. There will be some decisions to be made in the absence of the Grim Reaver.
Jaroslav Halak will go tonight as he continues to look for his first win as a member of the Blueshirts. Igor Shesterkin has all 10 wins for the Rangers this year leaving the Slovakian shot-stopper in the doldrums in terms of his record for the Rangers. Halak has been getting better as the season has gone on but he hasn’t been able to make the big stops Shesterkin has to keep the Rangers in contention.
New York is 2-0-1 on this road trip and it has been a great trip for helping the Rangers reestablish faith in their fanbase. As they visit former Rangers in Ryan Strome and Frank Vatrano, there will be a chance for the Rangers to continue to win and gather the points that they need if they’re going to be a playoff team.
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
Jaroslav Halak
Igor Shesterkin
Anaheim Ducks
Adam Henrique – Trevor Zegras – Troy Terry
Frank Vatrano – Ryan Strome – Jakob Silfverberg
Max Jones – Mason McTavish – Brett Leason
Pavol Regenda – Isac Lundestrom – Sam Carrick
Cam Fowler – Dmitry Kulikov
Simon Benoit – John Klingberg
Colton White – Kevin Shattenkirk
John Gibson
Anthony Stolarz
Puck Drop and where to watch
MSG will have this game as well as MSG 2 for those that want to be fancy. Bally Sports Southern California will have the Anaheim Ducks feed. The puck drop is at 10 PM Eastern for the Blueshirts. This could be a difficult game and if the team doesn’t start on time, this result could go the way others have this year. They cannot take the first period off like they did last night.