New York, fresh off their 7-4 win over the Sharks, have an Original Six matchup Wednesday against the Red Wings. The Rangers are 2-1, led by the stellar early-season play by Chris Kreider, who may well be becoming the prototypical power forward we all hoped he might be. Detroit is 1-2, with that win coming in their last game, keyed by Mike Green's hat trick, Darren Helm's pair of goals and Thomas Vanek's three assists.

Kreider has begun the season like he has been shot out of a cannon. Multi-point performances in each of those three contests leaves CK20 with three goals and three assists. What's been most impressive is that he has used his speed to create chances on the rush and his strength to carve out space in front of the net. It's that combination we all have been waiting to see and finally - at least early on - is here. The one negative is that his line has struggled defensively, which could adversely impact his minutes late in a close game New York is winning if that continues.

Pavel Buchnevich will miss his second game with back spasms. As a result, Monday's lineup, with Rick Nash on a line with Kreider and Mike Zibanejad will once again take the Garden ice. That also means Josh Jooris, who had a solid game against the Sharks, will play with Michael Grabner and Brandon Pirri with Jesper Fast moving again up to skate with Kevin Hayes and J. T. Miller. That leaves the Vesey-Stepan-Zucc line intact.

We have seen early on that the Rangers' speed is a major handful for opponents. However, that speed can also kill defensively, if the team is so focused on that pell mell style it continues to leave gaps defensively. New York has been subject to quick counter-attacks and some communication issues on players coming down the slot. The latter issue hasn't been as apparent as the past two years, but several goals have resulted due to that lack of communication, which must be cleaned up before becoming an epidemic.

Defensively, the Blueshirts are expected to welcome back Kevin Klein, who missed the first three games with back spasms. Klein, who practiced Tuesday, is not a lock to play but unless his back locks up on him again, its a pretty good probability he will be in the lineup. If Klein does play, he will replace Dylan McIlrath.

McIlrath drew the ire of coach Alain Vigneault for coming to the defense of Antti Raanta and taking an extra penalty in doing so. Once I read the following quote, you knew that McI was in trouble, likely not just for now for the future. In discuss the play, in which McI went after Tomas Hertl, Vigneault said: “I’ll tell you the truth, I’m not quite sure what happened on that play,. I haven’t looked at the replay. I just know we were short-handed and we had to kill a penalty, and we did.”

That quote kind of tells us all we need to know on McI's spot on the team. McI may have gone a bit over the tip, but we have bemoaned in the past the lack of physical presence and inability or unwillingness to defend a teammate. Raanta was appreciate of the move, as was the fan base for the most part, but AV didn't see it that way. McI wasn't helped by his poor shot metrics numbers, though not all of that can be placed on him, since the forwards play a role in that as does his defensive pair mate.While we like McI partially because he was a first round pick and we want him to succeed possibly coupled with that physicality, it's become clearer that his role on this team is marginal at best. Once everyone is healthy, the likelihood of a trade to move him increases.

While Klein is likely back today, Dan Girardi, sidelined with a hip injury, will be out again. The good news is that G may skate today or tomorrow, meaning it's an outside possibility he plays Saturday against the Caps. When G can go, Adam Clendening is likely the odd man out.

If Klein is back today, I wouldn't play him on the top pairing with Ryan McDonagh. Klein should be paired with Marc Staal with either Nick Holden or Brady Skjei with McD, who should be on a high having welcomed the birth of his first daughter, Falan Erin. Whoever is not paired with McD will skate with Clendening.

Henrik Lundqvist will be back between the pipes after ceding the start to Raanta on Monday. AV before the year indicated he wanted Hank to get 55-58 starts. That will require periodic rest, so Raanta was to start Monday or Wednesday. Raanta wasn't great Monday but he was good enough for New York to get the win. Look for Lundqvist to play tonight and Saturday against Washington

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