New York tries to end their two game losing streak tonight in New Jersey. The Devils have given the Rangers fits this year - the last time a 7-4 victory on March 22 - by the Path train rivals but may be without Jack Hughes. The Blueshirts look like they will get Ryan Strome back in the lineup this evening.
NYR top nine in practice today were:
Kreider - Zib - Vatrano Panarin - Strome - Copp Laf - Chytil - Goodrow
Other forwards rotated on the fourth line. Some trio from Tyler Motte, Ryan Reaves, Greg McKegg, Dryden Hunt, Julien Gauthier and Jonny Brodzinski will be cobbled together. Consistency be damned at this point. I would go with Reaves-Motte-Brodzinski, but Reaves, along with McKegg, skated at the Rangers Training Center today, meaning those two are likely out. That leaves three of these four Brodzinski-Motte-Hunt-Gauthier - to be chosen from as the fourth line.
Strome is a game time decision. If cleared by trainers, he will be in. No update on either Kakko Kappo or Kevin Rooney. A little surprised since expected some status update following the information from last week.
With Strome back, the top unit PP has been reunited. Zib, Panarin, Kreider, Strome and Fox are back together. PP2 is Trouba, Laf, Chytil, Vatrano and Copp. The power play has hit a power outage. Need to get back to the success rate we saw earlier in the year, especially heading into the post season.
The third pair defense is not set yet as well. Justin Braun, Patrick Nemeth and Braden Schneider, who sat Sunday, rotated. What looks fairly clear is that Braun will not play the left side, meaning that barring an injury, Nemeth will be in the lineup each game.
Dan Rosen tweeted this out today:
“Gallant said he won't give lineup information any longer, so we don't know who the goalie is going to be tonight, but this morning Alexandar Georgiev was playing in the net the Rangers will defend in the 1st and 3rd periods, typically an indication of who starts. We'll see.“
This has been Gallant’s MO all season. Still strikes me as odd and surprised with advent and focus on betting that the league hasn’t forced him to change. But this isn’t changing any time soon.
Georgiev starting would be a mild surprise. Igor Shesterkin has struggled recently. But the goal should be to get him right for the playoffs. Maybe it’s a technical issue that he and Benoit Allaire are working in behind the scenes or in practice. Perhaps he is nursing a minor injury or viewed as overworked. With 12 games remaining, Gallant has provided Igor healthy does of rest lately, so if the issue is a lack of work or need to play more consistently, sitting him tonight - even with a game in Pittsburgh on Thursday - makes little sense.