New York Rangers prepare to host the Seattle Kraken at Madison Square Garden
It's always fun when the NHL's newest team comes to town. Tonight, the Rangers will get to host their newest adversary. Seattle will be coming into this game on the second half of a back-to-back after playing last night and getting shutout in Pittsburgh. Although the Kraken were unable to get onto the right side of the result last night, they are still a very difficult team to beat and the Rangers are going to need to be attentive if they want the result in this one.
With Kaapo Kakko making his return to the lineup against the Washington Capitals, the Rangers are starting to get over itsinjury issues. Filip Chytil was recently seen on the ice in New York to accompany the Finnish winger, and the Rangers could use the reinforcements to its roster. With the struggles endured by the Blueshirts recently, improvements would be a much welcome sight.
This is a very injured Kraken roster. Star forward Matty Berniers is out with an injury, joining Andre Burakovsky, Vince Dunn, Philip Grubauer, and Pierre-Edouard Bellmare on the long list of hurting Kraken forwards. New York will need to exploit the lack of these high-end players for their opponent if they are going to take the two points from a very difficult opponent tonight.
Projected Lineups
Seattle Kraken
Tomas Tatar - Jared McCann - Jordan Eberle
Jaden Schwartz - Alexander Wennberg - Brandon Tanev
Eeli Tolvanen - Yanni Gourde - Oliver Bjorkstrand
Tye Kartye - Devin Shore - Kailer Yamamoto
Ryker Evans - Adam Larsson
Jamie Oleksiak - William Borgen
Brian Doumolin - Justin Schultz
Chris Dreiger
Joey Daccord
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Kaapo Kakko
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle - Jonny Brodzinski - Blake Wheeler
Jimmy Vesey - Nick Bonino - Barclay Goodrow
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Jacob Trouba
Erik Gustafsson - Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Puck Drop
This will be a 7 p.m puck drop from the Garden as the Rangers look to try and build upon the momentum they achieved when they defeated the Washington Capitals. Stringing together winning streaks now is going to be very important for keeping the lead in the Metropolitan Division. With the Carolina Hurricanes suffering a setback yesterday, the Rangers can look to extend the gap once again and get comfortable.