Apologies for the lack of a blog yesterday following Saturday night's debacle and lateness of one today; real life interceded. The loss to Montreal showed a plethora of areas needing remediation, both short-term and long-term, which I will get into during the week given the stretch of time between the game against Minnesota tonight and contest Saturday versus Winnipeg. The one thing I will say is the compete level better upped substantially or the Wild with their speed will make New York look like a turnstile.

It would have been more shocking if there weren't changes following the Saturday debacle, so the ones that look to have been made are not that surprising on the whole. In addition, if you watched the game, the adjustments to the power play combinations also were expected. Plus, when you go 2-for-22 on the year, regardless of the number of quality chances, using that argument as reason to keep a group together loses a bit of weight, requiring some reconfigurations.

Chris Kreider, who has one of the two Rangers goals on the man-advantage, both of which came versus New Jersey, struggled against the Canadiens. I didn't see the four giveaways coach Alain Vigneault quoted today, but there was no question he has a rough go of it Saturday. In his stead on the man advantage will be Ryan Malone, who was scratched Saturday. To me, this has another aspect to it. I have discussed how beyond the PP, I don't see Malone sticking here because he isn’t well suited to playing the fourth line or skating up to the level AV's system demands. If Malone is unable to make the most of this chance, which could be just for tonight, but I could see him play Saturday, his time here may be up. Derek Stepan skated again today and is eligible to return on Nov. 3. We have mainly speculated Stepan will replace Anthony Duclair, who is in the lineup again tonight. However, it could be for Malone or maybe Kevin Hayes that Stepan replaces.

The new PP combinations are: Unit 1; Zuccarello-Brassard-Malone, McDonagh-J.Moore, Unit 2: Nash-Mueller-St. Louis, Girardi-Stempniak. Interesting that Moore gets a real chance on the first unit while the second has three righties, including two in Girardi and Stempniak on the points, which is not usually how AV sets up the units. Though to be fair, the top unit has five lefties, so who the heck knows what's right and wrong anymore. Of course, these changes come against Wild team that has surrendered only one power play goal in 19 times shorthanded so far in 2014-15. That 94.7 percent success rate ranks Minnesota second in the league on the penalty kill; a number aided by the play of Darcy Kuemper, who is a huge presence in the nets at 6-5 and is 4-1 with a 0.81 GAA this year.

Kevin Hayes looks like he will be a healthy scratch after two straight games during which he was shifted from the first line to the fourth line. With Hayes out and even though Mueller is in, the Rangers have a hole at center that may be filled by Martin St. Louis. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, as the experiment of St. Louis as a pivot looked to be dead and buried last week. The Rangers did not skate in lines this AM, so below is a guess how they may be grouped tonight:

Duclair — St. Louis — Nash
Kreider — Brassard — Zuccarello
Hagelin — Moore — Stempniak
Glass — Mueller — Malone

Join the Discussion: » 309 Comments » Post New Comment

» Game 1: Rangers hold serve at home 4-1 over Caps behind the fourth line

» 2024 Series Overview and Preview - Round 1 - Rangers-Capitals

» Rangers-Capitals: Reading the Numbers, Looking for an Advantage

» Rangers-Capitals meet again, though for first time since 2015, in playoffs

» Rangers check all the boxes in 4-0 win over the Senators