Three New York Rangers to Watch Against the New York Islanders

The New York Rangers escaped the Ottawa Senators on Friday night with a 2-1 victory, and through 10 games the Blueshirts are 7-2-1 with 15 points. On Friday, Igor Shesterkin had 41 saves; this comes after he had 45 on the road against Washington in a 5-3 loss.

Next up is an afternoon matchup against one of New York's biggest rivals, the New York Islanders. Patrick Roy's squad is 4-5-2 so far, and will be without Matthew Barzal, Anthony Duclair, Adam Pelech and other skaters.

This is the first of three matchups between the division rivals this season. Here's three Rangers to watch.

1. Igor Shesterkin

He makes this list a lot, but after totaling 86 saves in two games Shesterkin has to be the first person mentioned. The attitude around the Blueshirts was Shesterkin stole a win against Ottawa on Friday.

While the Rangers cannot rely on him like this throughout the full season, there's no better backstop in the league than Shesterkin right now.

2. Mika Zibanejad

On Saturday, New York switched up lines at practice, and one of the notable changes was splitting up Zibanejad and his long time linemate Chris Kreider.

Zibanejad has been up and down this season. Tomorrow, he'll be centering Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere, who are the teams two top scorers (16 and 10 points, respectively). This is clearly an effort by Peter Laviolette to get his star going.

New York's trajectory this season will drastically change depending on how Zibanejad plays.

3. Kaapo Kakko

Kakko has had the best start to the season of his career, along with linemates Will Cuylle and FIlip Chytil, and now Kakko will be paired with Chytil and Keider tomorrow.

With two goalscorers on the line, Kakko will be relied on to make plays. He'll have a chance to keep proving himself - maybe even as a top six forward - as the season goes on.