The Rangers welcome in the Blues and the return of Mr Happy, Pavel Buchnevich, to MSG tonight. New York comes in off a lackluster 5-2 loss to Vancouver on Sunday while St. Louis shut out Chicago 4-0 on the same day. Filip Chytil will be back in the lineup after missing three straight games and eight of his last 11 contests.
Igor Shesterkin will be back between the pipes, which comes as no surprise. In addition, Patrik Nemeth, out after the birth of his child, will also opt back in. My guess is that Morgan Barron will be scratched for Chytil, reasons already known to all of us. For Nemeth, I would presume Zac Jones will be out.
I can write chapter and verse on Buchnevich, how I wanted him to stay, how I think a path existed for him to stay, etc., but my thoughts have already been expressed and well-known. My twitter feed today is filled with a ton of back and forth on the topic. Buch was partially moved due to his potential cap hiit, which New York likely figured was going to start with a six as the first digit. In addition, room needed to be carved out for the Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad extensions. Plus, the hope, belief and/or expectation was that Alexis Lafreniere and Kaako Kappo were going to step up and fill the breach left by Buch. Laf has lately, Kakko has not.
You can argue that even with those two "stepping up," a need existed on the third line and one of the three could fill that spot. Buch also was used on the PK last year and a spot on PP2 awaited him. If Sammy Blais recovers fully from his injury and plays next year like the snippets we saw this year and Will Cuylle becomes a third line power forward, some of the hand wringing on the deal will dissipate. But Buch's step forward and status as a third round pick who panned out and is becoming what we all thought he could be are the major drivers for the current view of many.
A great stat in the Post today: "Since Kakko’s injury, Lafreniere has been back in the top six. That group, it seems, has found something. In six games since the All-Star break, the threesome of Lafreniere, Zibanejad and Kreider has outscored opponents 4-1, outchanced them 44-27 and outshot them 45-29, per Natural Stat Trick." Any questions on if Laf has taken a step forward and will fulfil the hopes in place when he was selected first overall look to have been answered. Granted. more growth is needed, but confidence begets confidence which is evident in play, especially along the boards and in space.
When describing what he wanted to see from Chytil, coach Gerard Gallant raised the bar high: “If there’s a guy I’d like to see him play like, go out and play like Mika Zibanejad,… Gallant said. “You’re a left-handed Mika.… Before everyone went off the deep end due to the enormity of the task, Gallant clarified what he meant by that statement: “Mika plays a complete game. Face-offs, power play, he goes out there and does a good job,… the coach explained. “Go out there and have fun. Play hard and compete.… If it was solely competing and having fun, sure, we all know that is not the case.