The Rangers return to action Thursday against old friend Cam Talbot and the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers lead the Pacific Division with a 7-2-1 record, though they have hit an mild slump the past two games. That strong start has been keyed by Talbot and of course, Connor McDavid, who leads the league in scoring. New York is in the midst of five games in eight nights, having won the first two with a back-to-back looming this weekend.

The lineup tonight for New York will be the same as it was Tuesday night. That means Oscar Lindberg will be a healthy scratch again up front while Adam Clendening sits for the sixth straight contest. Look for Clendening to probably play one of the two games this weekend. As I mentioned yesterday, I would sit one of G, Staal or quote likely Klein to get Clendening in the lineup.

Larry Brooks today brought up several good points, a few of which are noted below and we discussed the past few days:

Super Trouba:

J.T. Miller (23 years old), Kevin Hayes (24) and Brady Skjei (22) are playing at a high enough level that the Jets would be foolish not to seriously consider accepting either Miller or Hayes and Skjei in exchange for recalcitrant, unsigned right-side defenseman Jacob Trouba.

But you know what? That has become too high of a price for the Rangers to pay. The Blueshirts come with speed and skill three lines deep (with talent abundant on the fourth line as well). Trading either Hayes or Miller would imperil the Blueshirts’ depth.

And before trading Skjei, who has recovered from a disappointing camp to assert himself at both ends of the rink and on the point on the second power-play unit, it would be wise for Alain Vigneault to get a long look at the left-handed rookie on his off side. Maybe the Rangers already own the solution (short- and long-term) to their problem on the right.

How familiar does the above look? We discussed just this aspect the other day and seemingly came to a similar concussion. There is no reason to rush. Granted, the Trouba situation must be resolved by December 1, but the Kevin Shattenkirk option will be there longer. Plus, given the asking price for Trouba right now, meeting that would take away a key piece of the Rangers' attack, altering their identity.

McDonagh-Girardi

The past two games since being restored to the top unit with McDonagh, first-pass machine Dan Girardi was matched against the Lightning’s Steven Stamkos-Nikita Kucherov combination for approximately 9:10 of five-on-five on Sunday and against the Blues’ Jori Lehtera-Vladimir Tarasenko connection for 10:00 of even-strength play on Tuesday. No goals against.

And now here comes Connor McDavid, who missed both games against the Rangers last year, into MSG with the Oilers on Thursday.

What kind of odds could we have gotten before the year that Girardi would end up back on the top pairing and be effective in that role? But that's what has happened. Maybe the injuries and insufficient time to heal played a bigger role in his decline than we believed. The resurgence has been more than two games but there is still a ton of the season left and the level of confidence by many that he keeps this up is slim. If he can or at least play at some reasonable facsimile of what we have seen to date, then the questionable blue line sure would have the answers we didn't expect but hoped for before the season started.

Expansion Draft forecast

Goalie: Protect Henrik Lundqvist, expose Antti Raanta.

Defense: Protect McDonagh, Girardi (no-move clause) and Staal (no move). Expose Klein, Holden and Clendening. Skjei is exempt.

Forward: Protect Zibanejad, Stepan, Kreider, Zuccarello, Miller, Hayes, Fast. Expose Lindberg, Nash, Grabner, Pirri and Jooris. Vesey and Buchnevich are exempt.

No major surprises in net or on defense. Skjei being ineligible for selection is huge, since it allows another forward to be protected. Up front, none of the exposed names come as a shock. Nash has a lot of money due in the one year he will have remaining. Grabner was given two years partially so he could be exposed. I thought Pirri was to be an RFA with arb rights and wouldn't have to be protected, but based on the above, I was incorrect in that assumption. Having Vesey and Buch exempt, like Skjei, helps made the decision process on who to protect a lot easier.

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