It’ll be the battle of human professions tonight. After a win against the San Jose Sharks that was far closer than it should have been, the Rangers will cross the border and go to the Canadian Capital in Ottawa as they will take on the Ottawa Senators, who are under new ownership. Currently without a GM, this Senators team can be tricky, but it has some issues that the Rangers can look to exploit.
New York will come into tonight trying to extend its winning streak to four games. If the Rangers play the way that the Sharks game ended, they will be destroyed against a team with the offensive firepower the Senators have. Peter Laviolette will need to have his team in the game for the entire 60 minutes, or this will get out of hand quickly for the NHL league leaders.
This is a Senators team that can let their collective calmness escape them if the score is run up and they feel like they have been wronged during the game. Keeping discipline will be important for the Rangers tonight as they will be looking to try and goat the Senators into a parade to the penalty box for the night, making it easier on the goaltender behind them to give the roster a shot at winning the game.
Projected Lineups
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Jonny Brodzinski
Artemi Panarin – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle – Nick Bonino – Blake Wheeler
Jimmy Vesey – Barclay Goodrow – Tyler Pitlick
K’Andre Miller – Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
Erik Gustafsson – Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Ottawa Senators
Brady Tkachuk – Josh Norris – Claude Giroux
Vladimir Tarasenko – Tim Stutzle – Drake Batherson
Mathieu Joseph – Ridly Greig – Dominik Kubalik
Parker Kelly – Rourke Chartier – Zack MacEwen
Jake Sanderson – Jacob Bernard-Docker
Jakob Chychrun – Travis Hamonic
Erik Brannstrom – Artem Zub
Anton Forsberg
Joonas Korpisalo
Puck Drop
This will be a 7 p.m. Eastern puck drop from Canada. A win tonight will move the Rangers two points clear of the Boston Bruins at the top of the NHL with the same number of games played. If they are unable to win tonight, they will stay at the top of the league regardless as they have a superior tiebreaker to both Boston and the Vegas Golden Knights, but it would always be better not to need the tiebreaker.