The Rangers play their next to last game at home Sunday against the Flyers. Philly (38-32-8) comes in off a 3-0 win Saturday, during which Michael Neuvirth collapsed but fortunately is dealing just with an illness that is not to believed to be serious. Anthony Stolarz, who was called up because Steve Mason was ill, stopped 26 shots for the win. Following today's game, New York plays at Washington on Wednesday, in Ottawa on Saturday and home against the Penguins next Sunday to close the regular season.
The Rangers (46-26-6) last earned a victory at MSG on February 19. Since then, the Rangers are winless in eight straight games at home, going 0-5-3 following Friday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Penguins. Five of the eight losses at home were one-goal games, including the last four in a row, lending some home that the team isn't far away from righting ship. But, the Blueshirts are 6-7-4 in their last 17 contests, so they are somewhat limping to the finish.
i understand the annoyance of Vin and Tom on the blog. In addition, I can also fully empathize with the view that the will be one and done in the playoffs. But, there are some signs that maybe just maybe not all is lost. You can see progress. Unfortunately, that has been masked at times by stretches in which they look look. Then, the switch flips and the early-season Rangers are on display, like what we saw in the third period Friday when they scored twice to earn a point. But it's lack of consistency and inability to put together a full game that is the most concerning, damning and hard to figure out. Until they regain and maintain that focus throughout 60 or more minutes, the anger and annoyance is perfectly placed.
Boston won both game this weekend, so they now sit at 92 points with three games to go. With those two wins, they now are in second in the Atlantic Division, though their max is 98 points. Toronto is in third with 91 points and five games left while Ottawa is also at 91 points and five games left, but they are now the second Wild Card. The Rangers have 98 points with four games left and a magic number of one to avoid the Metro Division winner and face Montreal; presuming that's a good idea seeing New York's struggles against the Canadiens. If they earn two points, New York will have a franchise-record third consecutive season with 100 or more.
If there was one true positive from Friday's loss, other than Rick Nash scoring again, it had to the play of Henrik Lundqvist. The King had by far his best start of the three he has made since missing almost three weeks because of a hip injury. Lundqvist made 32 saves, some of them spectacular on grade-A chances to keep New York in the contest as Pittsburgh controlled play for stretches of the game. He will start today, Wednesday and then next Sunday with Antti Raanta going Saturday against Ottawa. The goal is for him to get better each game and peak just in time for the playoffs. In the past, it has taken Lundqvist a while to round into form after an extended absence. This time, he has about two weeks to do, which hopefully will be enough,
Jimmy Vesey, who struggled against San Jose and sat Friday, returns to the lineup. In addition, Tanner Glass will also get back into the lineup for the first time since March 22 against the Islanders. Glass may be playing due to the expectation that the game will be extremely physical. Pavel Buchnevich and Matt Puempel will come out for Vesey and Glass. Puempel comes as no surprise but Buch won't get better by getting jerked in and out of the lineup. J.T. Miller stays on the second line, while Michael Grabner remains on the third, despite his fall off in production with Vesey joining Grabs there. The fourth line is more of a transition last trio with Jesper Fast sliding down a line.
Chris Kreider - Derek Stepan - Mats Zuccarello J.T. Miller - Mika Zibanejad - Rick Nash Michael Grabner - Kevin Hayes -Jimmy Vesey Tanner Glass - Oscar Lindberg - Jesper Fast
On D, Ryan McDonagh's day-to-day injury keeps him out again. The belief is that McD was injured on March 17 against Florida and has been playing through the injury. Good for him to rest now and be 100% come playoff time.
The pairings from Friday have been shuffled again. Friday, it was Staal-Klein, Holden-Girardi and Skjei-Smith. Holden was a tire fire again while Skjei played 25:09. AV is rightfully changing up the pairings, but Adam Clendening and Steven Kampfer sit again while Kevin Klein is in the lineup for the second straight game. Take a look below. Interesting first pairing, scary second one and possibly half a good one on the third. But the goal now is to find out which duos might work as well as which players should be in the lineup come playoff time. To me, McD, Skjei, Smith and G are givens, the other two are not, though Staal and Holden are expected to be the final two that suit up.
Brady Skjei - Dan Girardi Marc Staal - Kevin Klein Brendan Smith - Nick Holden
Get the one point, lock up the top Wild Card, then sit players like Mats Zuccarello a game or two to give them some rest.