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Game 39: NYR-BUF, Winter Classic, Citi Field, no more needs to be said
January 1, 2018, 12:08 AM ET [155 Comments]
Jan Levine
New York Rangers Blogger • RSS • Archive • CONTACT
The NHL and hockey spotlight as a whole will be on Citi Field on Monday, as the Rangers and Sabres face off. For New York, it's their second Winter Classic and fourth outdoor game. For Buffalo, it's the second, as they fell in a shootout to Pittsburgh in the first iteration of the contests back in 2008.

The Rangers defeated the Flyers 3-2 at Citizens Bank Park with Henrik Lundqvist securing the win by stoning Daniel Briere on a penalty shot with 19.6 seconds remaining in the third period. In 2014, the Rangers notched victories in a pair of contests at Yankee Stadium. On Sunday, January 26, New York took down New Jersey 7-3, scoring six unanswered goals. Wednesday evening, January 29 saw the Rangers defeat the Islanders 2-1 on a marker by Dan Carcillo.

Rangers-Flyers:


Rangers-Devils:


Rangers-Islanders:


It will be cold, the elements will be a factor but we are New Yorkers, so we just brush them off, though obviously, dress warm in layers. The good news is that no snow is predicted and hopefully the sun glare won't cause a delay in the start time, which now is 1pm. For New York, the lineup are expected to be the same as Friday's contests vs. Detroit. Jesper Fast took part in the Sunday skate at Citi Field but is not expected to play today, though he should return to game action before too long, possibly the game against Chicago on Wednesday.

Rick Nash-Mika Zibanejad-Mats Zuccarello
Michael Grabner-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller
Pavel Buchnevich-David Desharnais-Jimmy Vesey
Paul Carey-Boo Nieves-Vinni Lettieri

Ryan McDonagh-Nick Holden
Brady Skjei-Brendan Smith
Kevin Shattenkirk-Marc Staal

Henrik Lundqvist

Here are some of the various tweets from Citi Field today:

Day time view:



Night time view:



Lundqvist's mask:



Ondrej Pavelec's mask:



Sunday, coach Alain Vigneault referred to Shattenkirk as a "work-in-progress." Not the kind of comment you might want to hear from your coach or one the fanbase likes as well. But one that the New Rochelle did not disagree.

“We’re still working through how he wants me to play and how he just wants his defensemen to play,” Shattenkirk said. “I’ve watched guys who’ve been here for a while like [Ryan McDonagh] and Marc [Staal], Nick Holden’s another guy. I think that there’s elements in their game that I’m trying to incorporate and add to my game. We play slightly different defensively than I’m used to. It’s something that I like. It’s aggressive. It’s something that intrinsically I haven’t gotten it to become a natural instinct yet and I think I need to get those little things into my game.”


The pressure of coming home to play for your hometown team may have contributed to Shattenkirk's slow start and his placing pressure on himself to try and fix his game all at once. The hope has to be that Shattenkirk is able to push those distractions and weighty burdens over the next several months, but especially for the playoff push and hopefully playoff run. Vigneault and Shattenkirk both remarked on the pressure of playing at home impacting Shattenkirk.

“There’s no doubt that our expectations and his expectations are a little bit higher than what we’ve seen so far,” said Vigneault. “I think Shatty’s probably putting a little bit of pressure on himself to do real well in front of new teammates, a new environment, friends and family. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time. He’s not the first player to go through this, to come back home and play. But he’s a hard working young man with a real good attitude, very accountable to his performance. He knows the areas that he needs to improve and that we expect him to do better and I’m very confident that we’re going to get there because our team needs that.”

“Yeah, I’m definitely guilty of that (placing pressure on himself, adversely impacting his game),” Shattenkirk said. “Last year in the playoffs, it was another prime example of me doing that to myself and doing it too much. I think it’s only natural. I think I’ve always been that way. I’ve always wanted to be the harshest on myself more than anyone else. And there are times when I need to let myself off the hook a little bit and relax. I’ve felt that way the last couple of games, I’ve felt a lot more relaxed and just playing my game. It’s hard to do sometimes. You get caught up in things. When things start going poorly, you try to do too much to correct it.”


One quick World Juniors update. Lias Andersson scored his tourney leading fifth goal Sunday, but that's not the main story. He took a hard check in the third, smashing his shoulder into the boards, which kept him out of the overtime and shootout. Chris Peters tweeted out after that the game that Sweden's coach Tomas Monten had no update on Andersson. Monten said they will look at Andersson during the off day Monday and hopefully will know more then.




The Winter Classic should be an awesome event. As noted before. I will be in section 427, row 6 and at the stadium early since I have to be in Queens for a bris earlier in the morning. Let me know if want to meet up. PM me on the site if want my contact details. Hopefully the Rangers bring in the New Year on a winning note.

I will try and check in periodically on the site as long as my fingers have not frozen.

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