The New York Rangers return to action tonight against the New Jersey Devils. It's another matinee from the Garden State as the Blueshirts look to rebound from the defeat by the Carolina Hurricanes last night. It was a difficult game that saw the Canes netminder contribute to more goals than the Rangers. However, that can be forgotten if the Rangers can edge out their Hudson River Rivals tonight and take two points off the Metropolitan Division leaders.
Matt Rempe's eight-game suspension will see game two served tonight after elbowing and boarding Dallas Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen. When the Rangers are without their 6'9 forward, they'll have to find a different way to get the energy flowing. Last night, it came with a quick goal from Jimmy Vesey, who returned to the lineup for the aforementioned Rempe, but that is unlikely to be the same source tonight. New York needs to find another way to start quickly.
Jonathan Quick is expected to be given the nod tonight after Shesterkin was displayed at Madison Square Garden yesterday. New York has started to do some parts better, but much remains to be desired. New York can get back in the win column if they can put the Devils under pressure and give Quick some respite between Devils pushes, but that hasn't been the case recently for the Blueshirts.
Projected Lineups
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider - Filip Chytil - Will Cuylle
Brett Berard - Mika Zibanejad - Reilly Smith
Adam Edstrom - Sam Carrick - Jimmy Vesey
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
Braden Schneider - Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen - Chad Ruhwedel
Jonathan Quick
Igor Shesterkin
New Jersey Devils
Timo Meier - Nico Hischier - Stefan Noesen
Paul Cotter - Jack Hughes - Dawson Mercer
Ondrej Palat - Erik Haula - Jesper Bratt
Tomas Tatar - Justin Dowling - Nathan Bastian
Brendan Dilon - Dougie Hamilton
Luke Hughes - Brett Pesce
Jonas Siegenthaler - Johnathan Kovacevic
Jacob Markstrom
Jake Allen
Puck Drop
A 1 p.m. puck drop will see another matinee for the Rangers, who look to get back in the win column. It's only the one defeat to Carolina since the Rangers stole two points from Dallas, with Shesterkin being the deciding factor. Can Jonathan Quick match the energy of his tandem partner and channel the netminder that won the Conn Smythe many years ago to help the Blueshirts claim another two points tonight?