Titans clash in the Metropolitan as the Rangers are in Jersey
By Conor Power
In sports, fans love clashes between the best teams because it puts prime skill sets on display. Tonight, we will get that and more. Your New York Rangers will be marching into the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey as the red-hot team in the NHL as the awaiting Devils will look to fight to keep their spot in the standings ahead of the Metropolitan Area rivals. There is so much on the line in this one.
New York will have the chance to pull level in the standings with the New Jersey Devils. This game could be major for who takes home ice in the first round. While the Rangers would still trail the Devils on regulation wins, they would be right there to capitalize on any mistakes the Devils made down the stretch heading into the playoffs in hope of stealing home-ice advantage away from their rivals from across the river.
As for the personnel news ahead of this one, Ryan Lindgren was yet again a full participant in practice in the warm-up to this game and could play tonight. Gallant replied “We’ll see” when asked about whether or not the defenseman would be in the lineup tonight, but edged towards having him enjoy the game from the press box. It’s a shame because New York needs their best players, but they need him for game 1 of round 1 more than this.
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin – Mika Zibanejad – Vladimir Tarasenko
Chris Kreider – Vincent Trocheck – Patrick Kane
Alexis Lafreniere – Filip Chytil – Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey – Barclay Goodrow – Tyler Motte
Niko Mikkola – Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Ben Harpur – Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jaroslav Halak
New Jersey Devils
Timo Meier – Nico Hischier – Dawson Mercer
Ondrej Palat — Jack Hughes – Jesper Bratt
Tomas Tatar – Erik Haula – Jesper Boqvist
Miles Wood – Michael McLeod – Yegor Sharangovich
Jonas Siegenthaler – Dougie Hamilton
Ryan Graves – John Marino
Kevin Bahl – Damon Severson
Vitek Vanecek
Mackenzie Blackwood
Puck drop time and where to watch
This is a 7 PM Eastern puck drop between two of the titans of the NHL. This very well could be a preview of round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the winner tonight very much in a position to take home ice in round one. Either the Rangers will have momentum and be heating up at the right time, or the Devils will pull 4 points clear with very few games remaining, a lead that may be insurmountable moving forward.