New York Rangers Prepare for a New York Battle Against Islanders With Revamped Lines
Despite a win last time out, the New York Rangers coaching staff has been unhappy with the organization's performances to this point in the season. Peter Laviolette put the lines in a blender, pulled them out, and blended them again to try and get a fresh feeling in the Rangers forward core. In a matinee today, we'll get to see if the Rangers bench boss has been successful as he faces his former hockey club.
New York's new line combinations have split up the usual duo of Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, split up the ever-reliable Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere line, and divided the Cuylle-Chytil-Kakko line. We've now got Zibanejad centering Panarin and Lafreniere, Trocheck with Cuylle and Kakko, and Chytil with Kreider and Smith as the centers shuffled around in the Ranger's top six. Can the Blueshirts get that spark they are looking for from their lineup to return to their best form?
On the flip side, the New York Islanders come into this game injured, battered, and bruised. The Islanders are propping up the Metropolitan Division standings without Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, Anthony Duclair, Alexander Romanov, and Mike Reilly, who are all injured. While Romanov is in contention to play tonight, the rest are out, giving the Rangers a clear manpower advantage against their City Rivals. These two points cannot be dropped against this Isles team.
Jimmy Vesey is set to return to the Rangers lineup tonight after starting the campaign on LTIR. He's been rehabbing from his injury and has seen his workload ramp up in the previous weeks. Given the sending down of Matt Rempe to the Hartford Wolf Pack of the American Hockey League, the former Hobey Baker winner looks set to claim his place in the bottom six for the organization once more.
Projected Lineups
New York Islanders
Anders Lee - Bo Horvat - Jan-Gabriel Pageau
Maxim Tsyplakov - Brock Nelson - Kyle Palmieri
Pierre Engvall - Casey Cizikas - Simon Holmstrom
Hudson Fashing - James Maclean - Oliver Wahlstrom
Alexander Romanov - Noah Dobson
Samuel Bolduc - Ryan Pulock
Dennis Cholowski - Scott Mayfield
Ilya Sorokin
Semyon Varlamov
New York Rangers
Artemi Panarin - Mika Zibanejad - Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle - Vincent Trocheck - Reilly Smith
Chris Kreider - Filip Chytil - Kaapo Kakko
Adam Edstrom - Sam Carrick - Jimmy Vesey
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones - Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Puck Drop
Today's matinee features a 1 p.m. puck drop from Madison Square Garden. Your New York Rangers know they need to take the two points from tonight's game to put themselves back amongst the elite of the hockey world. Dropping points against an Islanders roster as beaten up as it would be unacceptable. The Rangers need to win and win comfortably.