The Rangers attempt to rebound from their 1-0 shootout loss to Winnipeg on Monday against St. Louis. New York will roll out a shuffled blue line following the losses of Ryan McDonagh (separated left shoulder) and Kevin Klein (foot contusion) during the loss to the Jets on top of the absences of Dan Boyle (broken hand) and John Moore (suspension). In addition, Mats Zuccarello, who also was hurt Saturday, will not play, replaced by Ryan Malone, who passed through waivers at noon today.

I will list the revamped lines below, but for all the good work done by the four remaining blueliners and Henrik Lundqvist on Saturday, the offense was MIA. Zuccarello, Chris Kreider and Martin St. Louis are all off to slow starts, making the solid play of Rick Nash, who has nine goals, even more important. New York needs their big names and supporting players to all step up and produce to take the pressure off Nash and the band-aided defensemen, who also have done little offensively, with just one goal to date. Derek Stepan, on LTIR with a non-displaced fractured fibula, was cleared for contact and could play Wednesday against Detroit.

St. Louis have had their own injury issues with T.J. Oshie (concussion) and Paul Stastny (UBI) out while David Backes just returned from his own absence due to a concussion. On the blueline, local product Kevin Shattenkirk is off to a hot start while Jay Bouwmeester is not. The player to watch on the Blues is Vladimir Tarasenko, who the Rangers passed up to take Dylan McIlrath and we may get to see the two match up tonight as McIlrath along with Conor Allen were called up to replace McDonagh and Klein in the Blueshirts' lneup. McIlrath and Allen did not play that often in Hartford, as I believe Allen was paired with Mat Bodie, but they will be a duo tonight.

Rangers lineup:

Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Martin St. Louis
Chris Kreider-Kevin Hayes-Lee Stempniak
Carl Hagelin-Dominic Moore-Anthony Duclair
Tanner Glass-Chris Mueller-Ryan Malone

Matt Hunwick-Dan Girardi
Marc Staal-Mike Kostka,
Conor Allen-Dylan McIlrath

Cam Talbot (Henrik Lundqvist backup)

The Blues expected lineup:

Jaden Schwartz-David Backes-Magnus Paajarvi
Alexander Steen-Jori Lehtera-Vladimir Tarasenko
Dmitrij Jaskin-Patrik Berglund-Joakim Lindstrom
Steve Ott-Maxim Lapierre-Ryan Reaves

Jay Bouwmeester-Alex Pietrangelo
Carl Gunnarsson-Kevin Shattenkirk
Barret Jackman-Ian Cole

Brian Elliott

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