After a huge win last night against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the New York Rangers return to Madison Square Garden to face the Edmonton Oilers. With the win last night, the Rangers jumped the Blue Jackets for playoff positioning and now hold the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. To defend it, they must take the two points from the reigning Western Conference Champions as the Oilers look to contend for the Stanley Cup once more.
Igor Shesterkin shut the door on the Jackets last night, which leaves the former Los Angeles King and Vegas Golden Knight to face his former division rivals. Jonathan Quick is set to get the nod as the winningest American goaltender in NHL history and try again to tie Grant Fuhr on the all-time wins list. He needs a few more to cement himself in the true annuls of greats, but with his new one-year extension, he'll be looking to prove he's still got it.
Adam Fox returned to the lineup last night and was good as the Rangers won with the Jericho, New York native partnering Urho Vaakanainen. They'll be looking for more out of their star defenseman tonight against the dangerous Oilers. If the defensive unit is going to shut down talents like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they'll need to be far better than they were against the Blue Jackets last night.
Projected Lineups
Edmonton Oilers
Adam Henrique - Connor McDavid - Zach Hyman
Corey Perry - Leon Draisaitl - Connor Brown
Vasily Podkolzin - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Viktor Arvidsson
Jeff Skinner - Kasperi Kapanen - Mattias Janmark
Jake Walman - Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse - Troy Stetcher
Brett Kulak - Ty Emberson
Stuart Skinner
Calvin Pickard
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Will Cuylle
Alexis Lafreniere - J.T. Miller - Mika Zibanejad
Chris Kreider - Sam Carrick - Brett Berard
Brennan Othmann - Jonny Brodzinski - Matt Rempe
K'Andre Miller - Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen - Adam Fox
Zac Jones - Braden Schneider
Jonathan Quick
Igor Shesterkin
Puck Drop
New York's return to Madison Square Garden will start with a 7 p.m. puck drop. New York has to keep the points flowing, and winning the last two games is a good start, but they need to keep collecting points. They need to string together a few wins to cement that final postseason place as their own and get their hopes of the Stanley Cup back to the levels they were early in the year.