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Staal to the IR and Canes Catching Struggling Rangers |
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The Canes head to Madison Square Garden tonight for their second of four match-ups this season. This will be the first game of a three game road-trip in which the Canes will see the Rangers two times. Most people will always tell you that timing is everything and tonight that looks to be true for the Canes as they catch a recently slumping and banged up Rangers team. Hopefully, the Canes will be able to exploit the Rangers recent woes and build on their 6-2-0 record over the last eight games.
The injury bug has recently caught both the Rangers and Canes—The Canes lost Jordan Staal in Sunday’s game against the Panthers in the first period. It has now been released that he has a concussion and is out indefinitely. He was placed on the IR and will now miss a minimum of four games and would be eligible to return if he is healthy for the Canes 3-game West-coast trip next week.
This is a rather tough loss for the Canes, as Staal is essential for puck possession, the PK and also is one of the better offensive threats on the team. Staal is fourth in the NHL for faceoff percentages (those over 100+ draws) and is first on the team with a Corsi just shy of 60%. While he is only sixth on the team for points with nine, his value goes way beyond the offensive score-sheet.
The team brought 23-year old Philip Di Giuseppe back up who played 11 games with the Canes earlier in the season. He was sent down because in those 11 games, he didn’t register a point and was a minus six. In eight games down in the AHL, he produced seven points (2g, 5a) and hopefully gained some confidence.
Brock McGinn also continues to be day-to-day with his lower body injury. While he wasn’t creating much of an offensive threat, he had established himself in six games as a reliable option for the PK. As a result of his injury, Nestrasil is back in the Canes line-up. Given the loss of Staal, the PK unit that is first in the NHL may have some struggles. The PK gave up their first PP goal on Sunday against the Panthers and it was the first one since October 30th.
The Rangers lost Mika Zibanejad about a week and a half ago to injury and it appears to have hurt the offensive chemistry for the Rangers. For the Rangers, losing him was a hard hit and he was one of their top performing forwards this season. He is currently tied for fourth in points for the Rangers with 15, however, has missed the last four games and is expected to miss many more with a broken left fibula.
A week prior to losing Zibanejab, the Rangers saw Pavel Buchnevich go down with a back injury. In ten games, he registered eight points (4g, 4a) and looked to be fitting in well with the Rangers. His points per games played ratio is third on the Rangers averaging .80 points per game, trailing only Kevin Hayes and J.T. Miller—Zibanejab was fourth on the team producing .79 points per game.
Both of these players were highly utilized for the Rangers, so it was easy to see why the lines are struggling for them. Zibanejad was third for Rangers forwards in terms of his time on the ice per game averaging almost 17 minutes and 23 shifts. Buchnevich was also utilized a lot as he averaged nearly 20 shifts a game for just over 15 minutes.
These injuries appear to have cooled off a Rangers team that started the season scoring three or more goals in 14 of their first 17 games and amassed a whopping 72 goals over that span. However, they are 2-3-1 over their last six games and have been held to less than three goals in four of those contests. In fact, the Rangers are so deadly offensively they have a +28 goals differential margin which leads the NHL—the Canadiens are second with a +19 differential and only five NHL teams including the Rangers are above +10.
The Rangers are also struggling at home, as they are 0-3-1 in their last four. This could be good for a Canes team that has struggled on the road and is 3-5-4—only three other teams have won less games on the road this season. The Canes see the Rangers two times in the next three games—so the Canes are catching an elite team at an optimal time.
The story-line of the previous game was Jeff Skinner vs. Mats Zuccarello—in the end Skinner edged Zuccarello out with two goals and an assist, while Zuccarello tallied both of the Rangers goals. Skinner nearly had a hit-trick, as the third Canes goal barely ricocheted off Bickell and found the twine with 0.7 seconds remaining in the second period. I imagine that both players will be involved heavily offensively given the recent injuries. Zuccarrello has been an absolute “Canes Killer” throughout his young career and in 20 games has found the score-sheet 20 times (5g, 15a).
I imagine there will be a lot of even strength play tonight, both teams are some of the most disciplined in the NHL. The Canes are first in the league with only 140 PIM and the Rangers are second with 147 PIM. In the event of some special teams, both the Rangers and Canes are tied at 9th for PP efficiency converting on 20.3% of their opportunities. While the Canes statistically have the better PK unit, I believe the Rangers have the edge in special teams play due to the losses of McGinn and Staal.
Teravainen will be taking Staal’s spot as the Center on the second line tonight it appears. Beyond losing Staal as a face-off specialist, I think Teravainen will be fine—he has spent time playing center before. The bigger question is in regards to Stempniak who has been ice-cold after a hot start. After putting up four goals and two assists in his first five games, he has only had four assists in the past 16 games. The Canes desperately need the veteran winger to find some offense while Staal is down.
Cam Ward will need to continue to play well. His great play has significantly boosted his statistics and he comes into the evening with better statistics than Lundqvist. Ward holds a 7-6-3 record with a 2.24 G.A.A and a .918 save percentage as compared to Lundqvist who is 10-6-1 with a 2.43 G.A.A. and .915 save percentage. The fact that Lundqvist has three more wins than Ward, yet Ward has better statistics should help illustrate just precisely how phenomenally Ward has played as of late.
In October, Ward was 1-3-1 with a .869 save percentage and a 3.64 G.A.A. He has rebounded in an amazing way and is 6-3-2 in November, with a 1.62 G.A.A. and .941 save percentage—these November statistics would put him third in the league in save percentage of goalies who have 10+ starts and first in G.A.A. He is also first in the NHL for his save percentage against PP shots (10+ starts criteria again)—allowing only three goals on 51 shots for a .944 PP shot save percentage.
Canes Anticipated Lines:
Skinner—Rask—Lindholm
Aho—Teravainen—Stempniak
Di Giuseppe—Ryan—Nestrasil
Nordstrom—McClement—Stalberg
Hainsey—Faulk
Slavin—Pesce
Hanifin—Tennyson
Ward (confirmed)
Canes Extra:
Canes helping the kids out:
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