The Rangers play one of their final two games before the Xmas break tonight in New Jersey. With the Metro Division bunched tighter than a rush-hour NYC subway, all of these divisional games take on added importance. New York is riding a three-game win streak, extended by a 4-1 win over the Ducks, who New Jersey defeated the night before. Following Thursday’s contest, the Rangers take on the Maple Leafs on Saturday at home and then have three games off before taking on Washington on the 27th of the month.
The New York papers today have pointed out that Ryan McDonagh looks to be rounding into form. Watching him the last few games, there is no doubt he has looked better. I still think McD has several more levels he can rise, since him playing better is in relation to his struggles earlier this year and not that long ago. The good news is that the progress we were looking to see and signs of the old McDonagh have been on display lately, now the hope has to be he builds off his recent success and gets to that upper tier.
The anti-analytics crowd probably were not happy with coach Alain Vigneault’s comments about the use of advanced stats. I know it’s out there after every game, the shot attempt, Corsi, whatever you want to call it,… Vigneault said. “I’ve got other things that I rely on, so I don’t put a lot of stake into that.… On the flip side, his remarks didn’t curry favor with the pro-analytics crowd either, because if the team does have the reported sophisticated stats package and make use of it, how do you explain some of the player deployments?
Tonight’s lineup will be the same as Tuesday. That means Henrik Lundqvist between the pipes for the 30th time in the 35 games the Rangers have played. I wouldn’t be shocked if Hank also plays Saturday. But AV has to start giving Ondrej Pavelec, who played well - or at least well enough - in his two starts in place of Lundqvist recently, some work to avoid wearing Hank down, regardless of how much work he likes. Steven Kampfer will be on the bench again as well Boo Nieves, the latter of which comes as no surprise after David Desharnais’ fine game against Anaheim.