New York Rangers take on the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh
By Conor Power
A strong performance against the New Jersey Devils leads the New York Rangers into a vital game. It's a clash of the top two in the Metropolitan Division. Your Blueshirts travel down south to PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina as the Carolina Hurricanes will host the New York Rangers. This is a game where the division can either be put out of reach, or the Rangers will get pulled back into a dogfight with the Hurricanes.
Still without Jacob Trouba, it is likely that Matt Rempe is going to miss this game tonight after he had a high hit on Jonas Siegenthaler in last nights win over the Devils. While it is possible that it might not be the case, the NHL has shown it has no interest in letting hits like that go unpunished. If the Rangers are going to win this game tonight, they will have to do it while undermanned in all likelihood.
That's bad news because this Hurricanes team just went all in at the deadline with the additions of Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jake Guentzel. Kuznetsov who has been completely rejuvenated by his time in Raleigh, and Guentzel looks set to make his Hurricanes debut tonight after the Rangers missed out on the addition of the Omaha, Nebraska native. With the Hurricanes now having Frederik Andersen back too to solve the goaltending problems, this is a very difficult task for the Rangers.
Projected Lineups
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Jack Roslovic
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle - Alexander Wennberg - Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey - Barclay Goodrow - Jonny Brodzinski
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Braden Schneider
Chad Ruhwedel - Erik Gustafsson
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick
Carolina Hurricanes
Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Teuvo Teravainen
Jake Guentzel - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Martin Necas
Jordan Martinook - Jordan Staal - Seth Jarvis
Stefan Noesen - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Jesper Fast
Jaccob Slavin - Brent Burns
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Dmitry Orlov - Jalen Chatfield
Pyotr Kochetkov
Spencer Martin
Puck Drop
This is a 7 p.m. puck drop from the Tar Heel state as the two best teams in the Metropolitan Division will look to take the next step towards the title. Both are extremely good teams and perhaps the difference tonight will be the deadline additions. We know that these two teams both bolstered, so we'll see what could be a preview of the second round in the playoffs.