New York Rangers Hockey Returns to the Garden as the Utah Hockey Club Visit
New York Rangers hockey returns to Madison Square Garden tonight as the Blueshirts return home for their season opener. It's a great time to be a Rangers fan, with all the sport going on today in the city. We'll see the newest team in the NHL take on one of the oldest. It's the Utah Hockey Club who will visit Madison Square Garden for the first time in their franchise's history. It'll be history in the making.
If you only follow the Rangers and are thinking, "When did Utah get a team?" You'll recognize this roster as the Arizona Coyotes. Due to the Coyotes' arena situation in the desert, the Coyotes transferred their assets to a new organization based out of the Delta Center, home of the Utah Jazz. It's officially a new organization, but the core comes from what once inhabited Mullet Arena. They've improved a lot during the summer, and it will be a challenging game for the Rangers.
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For the Rangers, the solid start for the season with the destruction of the Penguins will look to be carried over into this game by Peter Laviolette's team, but this is a noteworthy game for a different reason. Sam Rosen, the ironic voice of New York Ranger hockey, will call his first game of the season for the Rangers. He'll be hanging up the mic at the end of the year.
On the ice, New York got goals from all four lines, solid defensive performances from the top four, and a stone wall performance from Igor Shesterkin to kick the season off with a bang. They'll be trying to repeat that tonight against another team with a lot of attacking talent. They don't have the high-end skills of guys like Crosby, but this is a dangerous team out of Salt Lake City.
As for the Hockey Club (yes, that's actually what they are going by this season due to indecision on name selection), they've had a strong start to the season. A 5-2 win in their first game at the Delta Center was followed up by an overtime win at UBS Arena against the Islanders. They're perfect, with four points from two games coming into this game, so it's a team with a lot of confidence.
Projected Lineups
Utah Hockey Club
Clayton Keller - Barrett Hayton - Nick Schmaltz
Jack McBain - Logan Cooley - Dylan Guenther
Michael Carcone - Kevin Stenlund - Matias Maccelli
Lawson Crouse - Alex Kerfoot - Josh Doan
Mikhail Sergachev - Sean Durzi
Juuso Valimaki - Michael Kesselring
Ian Cole - Vladislav Kolyachonok
Connor Ingram
Karel Vejmelka
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Jonny Brodzinski - Sam Carrick - Adam Edstrom
K'Andre Miller - Adam Fox
Braden Schneider - Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones - Victor Mancini
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Puck Drop
Tonight's puck drop from Madison Square Garden will be at 7 p.m. Eastern. Can the Rangers build upon their strong performance against the Penguins, or will it be an early break to the aspirations of a perfect record? We'll find out tonight. Sam Rosen's first game of his final season will see him call the first meeting between the Rangers and Utah.