It's gameday for the New York Rangers, and the Blueshirts are reaching the dire straits of the season. With the Buffalo Sabres being the opponents tonight, the Blueshirts will play one of the other coldest teams in the NHL. If New York fails to win this battle of the strugglers, conversations will need to be had about where this franchise is headed. This season has been painful, even by Ranger standards, and a loss tonight could mark the end of this group together.
Brett Berard returned from his upper-body injury against the Chicago Blackhawks and made his impact known. New York will continue to hope that the young blood will make the difference. Jimmy Vesey made way as the healthy scratch, and we'll see if the Blueshirts reintroduce the veteran winger to the lineup, but the Rangers need to find the right mix if they're going to figure it out before they hit rock bottom.
The Rangers have been outscored 40-25 in the last ten games. They're less than 20% on the powerplay, barely over 80% on the penalty kill, and their stars are getting blasted. Mika Zibanejad is a -10, Lafreniere a -6, and Panarin a -5 in that timeframe. It's not their fault; Shesterkin has a .908, while Quick has a .831 over the same period. It's not good enough, highlighting the defensive disconnect across the roster.
Projected Lineups
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Adam Edstrom - Sam Carrick - Brett Berard
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Braden Schneider
Zac Jones - Victor Mancini
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Buffalo Sabres
JJ Peterka - Tage Thompson - Alex Tuch
Zach Benson - Peyton Krebs - Dylan Cozens
Jordan Greenway - Ryan McLeod - Jason Zucker
Beck Malenstyn - Tyson Kozak - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Ryan Johnson - Bowen Byram
Owen Power - Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson - Connor Clifton
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
James Reimer
Puck Drop
It's a 7 p.m. puck drop from upstate New York as the Rangers look to start to string together some wins again. It's been challenging for the Rangers, but the Sabres struggle to string wins together. If the Blueshirts are going to begin to turn the tide, the Blueshirts must solve the disconnect between the defense and the attack. We'll see if Peter Laviolette and his team can fix it, but now the expectations are not high.