The Rangers face the Oilers in the middle game of their five game road trip. New York gets to take on Edmonton without Connor McDavid, who is sidelined 1-2 weeks with an upper body injury, in the lineup. The Blueshirts look to improve to 3-0 on this swing out West.
Lines tonight are the same as Tuesday:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko Panarin-Chytil-Lafrenière Cuylle-Trocheck-Wheeler Goodrow-Bonino-Vesey
Miller-Trouba Lindgren-Fox Gustafsson-Schneider
Shesterkin Quick (Update 8:30pm: Quick between the pipes tonight)
New York didn’t play a great game Tuesday but blocked enough shots and created sufficient offense for the win. Edmonton is off to a 1-4-1 start and the boo birds have started. The Oilers are desperate for a win but have benefitted from the Pacific Division being off to a slow start, especially beyond Vegas.
A few interesting nuggets from the pre-game notes:
-Since 2012-13, the Blueshirts are 5-2-2 on the road against the Oilers, including a shootout victory against them on Feb. 17, 2023- The Rangers’ 30.8 power play percentage ranks sixth in the NHL on the road and their 54.4 road faceoff percentage is tied for fifth.
-According to NHL Edge, Panarin has spent the highest percentage of offensive zone time (53.5%) of any skater in the NHL.
-Since the 2021-22 season, Igor Shesterkin leads the NHL with 76 wins, ranks tied for second in save percentage (.924) and tied for second in GAA (2.30).
-According to NHL Edge, Fox ranks third among defensemen in most percent of time in the offensive zone (48.4).
-Among NHL skaters with 90 or more faceoffs, Vincent Trocheck ranks eighth in faceoff percentage (59.2)