The Rangers complete a three-game homestand and look to extend their MSG winning streak to seven games tonight against the Islanders. Last Thursday, the Blueshirts were a mess defensively and fell 7-5 to the Isles at the Barclays Center, continuing their futility against their Metro rival. Tonight, the Rangers get a chance to extract some revenge with a home contest.
Mats Zuccarello is likely to miss his third straight contest with a recurrence of his groin injury. Due to his absence and the probable return of Brady Skjei, who gets a chance at redemption after sitting the last two games as a healthy scratch, the bottom part of the roster and blue line is in a bit of flux. What's unclear is to who will sit to make room for Skjei.
Coach David Quinn may opt to go with 11 forwards and seven defenseman to make room for Skjei. The top-nine forwards, as seen below, are likely set. Quinn, due to his propensity for keeping his fourth line on the bench in the third period, resulting in minimal minutes for Cody McLeod, Lias Andersson, and Monday, Steven Fogarty, may opt to sit one of those forwards and roll with seven defenseman. Making that move would allow Quinn to mix-and-match late against the Islanders to find those players who are successful in defending hard in front of their net, as they did much better the last two games. In addition, that could allow Andersson and either Fogarty or McLeod, whichever one plays, to maybe see a slight uptick in playing time as they are rotated on with other forwards.
What is set as of now:
Namestnikov-Zibanejad-Fast Kreider-Hayes-Chytil Vesey-Howden-Strome
The defensemen might remain as we saw the last two games, which was Smith-DeAngelo Staal-Pionk and Claesson-Shattenkirk. of that list, who would you sit? To me, maybe, maybe, maybe DeAngelo, but even that could be a stretch, seeing how they all played Monday and even Saturday to an extent. I could see ADA sat with Smith moving to the right side, allwoing Skjei to play on his strong side.
In net, Henrik Lundqvist gets a day off, replaced by Alexandar Georgiev. With four games in six nights, Quinn sat Georgiev would get a game and that opportunity comes tonight. He played well after replacing Lundqvist to start the third period Thursday against the Isles and we all know how many feel the team plays better in front of the back up, so maybe tonight ends the skid against their rival.
Lundqvist has started 17 of the team’s first 21 games, with the most recent of Georgiev’s four starts coming Nov. 10 in Columbus. Getting Georgiev enough work to stay sharp, instead of sending him down to Hartford, has to be a focus for Quinn. The same with making sure Lundqvist receives sufficient rest so he isn't burned out after the calendar turns to 2019.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.