After getting back in the win column in Sunrise, the Rangers will be faced with an absolutely daunting opponent. It’s the Carolina Hurricanes who come to town, having won their last 11 straight and having taken points from their last 17 consecutive games, this has all the markings of a strong test for the Rangers. How far has the organization and team regressed from the playoffs last year will be shown in full effect tonight.
One thing that will go in favor of the Rangers is that the Hurricanes have only won at Madison Square Garden three times since 2011. However, two of those came last season as the Hurricanes would even wrap up the division title at the Garden. In the end, the Rangers did get the last laugh against the class of the Metropolitan Division as the Rangers would win game seven in the playoffs at PNC Arena.
There will be a lot of former Rangers returning to the Garden tonight. Brady Skjei, Derek Stepan, Jesper Fast, and Antti Raanta are just some of the former Blueshirts on this Hurricanes team. Julien Gauthier and Vincent Trocheck will face off against their former club too so these two teams have seen a lot of roster movement between them. But it will be a tough matchup for both teams in this one. We’ll see if the Rangers can get the better of the Canes.
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Kaapo Kakko
Artemi Panarin – Vincent Trocheck – Vitali Kravtsov
Alexis Lafreniere – Filip Chytil – Jimmy Vesey
Sammy Blais – Barclay Goodrow – Julien Gauthier
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Ben Harpur – Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jaroslav Halak
Carolina Hurricanes
Andrei Svechnikov – Paul Stastny – Martin Necas
Teuvo Teravainen – Sebastian Aho – Seth Jarvis
Jordan Martinook – Jordan Staal – Jesper Fast
Stefan Noesen – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Derek Stepan
Jaccob Slavin – Brent Burns
Brady Skjei – Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan – Jalen Chatfield
Pyotr Kochetkov
Antti Raanta
Where to watch and puck drop time
New York’s litmus test at the top of the Metropolitan Division will start at 7 PM Eastern from Madison Square Garden. Bally Sports South will have the Hurricanes coverage and MSG will have the New York Rangers feed. In a game where the Rangers are very much not expected to take the two points, we will see if the Blueshirts can pull off an upset against one of the best teams in the National Hockey League.