The Rangers take on the Red Wings tonight at MSG before facing the Hurricanes tomorrow. New York comes in off a brutal 6-2 loss to Ottawa on Monday. Lineup changes were expected and we got them in spades, and yes, not surprisingly, they are head-scratchers.
Lineup, reflecting changes noted in tweet below and Mika Zibanejad sitting again tonight and tomorrow: Panarin-Strome-Fast Kreider-Chytil-Buchnevich Lemieux-Howden-Kakko Haley-McKegg-Smith
(Note: we could see Kaako and Fast swap lines as they did the last 25 minutes of Monday's game)
Hajek-Trouba Skjei-DeAngelo Staal-Fox
Lundqvist
Lineup changes per Coach Quinn:
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) November 6, 2019
-Henrik gets the start
-Staal and McKegg slot back in
-Lias and Lindgren will be out
Quinn’s rationale for the moves above:
Staal, McKegg in, officially. Lias, Lindgren out. DQ said he noticed a slight dip in Lias’ play vs. OTT. He’s played well, but it’s not a bad thing to sit for a game. Lindgren, he didn’t want to scratch, but he wanted Staal back in and decided nobody else needed a benching.
— Colin Stephenson (@ColinASteph) November 6, 2019
We all expected to be back in Staal, the only question was for who. Lindgren would not have been my first choice. As seen below, his advanced metrics skating with Fox has been impressive (see below). Brady Skjei did not have an impressive game Monday nor did Libor Hajek, who could use a day off and who also might benefit from a short stint in the AHL, as we have discussed. In addition, see the tweet below for evidence of how Neal Pionk has performed this season compared to Jacob Trouba and it’s a further referendum on how Lindy Ruff needs to move on. If the defensive issues are not caused by Ruff, then the system Quinn is using must be changed. Further evidence of that is how well blueliners play elsewhere after leaving New York.
Another interesting thing is that Fox/Lindgren is already NYR's ninth most frequent pairing, and it has been a pretty good one pic.twitter.com/zwZPCyq73H
— Tom Urtz Jr. (@TomUrtzJr) November 6, 2019
Andersson, as pointed out in the blog comments, has not posted a shot in five of six games. His confidence is shot. Playing him on the fourth line with the linemates he has had is doing nothing for his development. He came to camp in great shape and in most of our opinions, showed he belonged at this level. But that didn’t translate into game action once the season started. In fact, he has almost seen less time than previously received, adversely impacting his value and play. Quinn for some reason loves Brett Howden, who in my view should be on the pine or the fourth line. Since that looks like a pipe dream, then send Andersson down to Hartford so he can see major minutes like what was done with Filip Chytil or deal him down the road. But realize that his value is as low as it could possibly be due to mismanagement of his ice time, which falls squarely on Quinn’s shoulders.
Zibanejad misses his third straight game following the reverse check by Patrice Bergeron. The injury has been reported as being to his neck. As we wait for him to return and the longer he is out, the concern is that he suffered another concussion. The whiplash effect of the check sure looked like a concussion might be possible, so I am happy the team is being cautious. But the potential lack of accurate reporting coupled with the extended absence has to raise red flags that Zib suffered a concussion.