The Rangers fell 4-3 to the Canadiens on Wednesday, losing for the three straight game. As coach Gerard Gallant said post-game, the main concern was getting out of the contest healthy, which happened. I largely agree with that view, though not completely, as I will note below. New York closes the regular season tonight at home against Washington, who are still in play for the third seed in the Metro.
Pittsburgh sits a point ahead of Washington and faces Columbus tonight. A win or tie and they lock up the third seed in the Metro. If the Penguins fail to gain a point and Washington notches a victory, the Caps will finish with 102 points to the Penguins 101 and face the Rangers at MSG in Game 1 on Monday or Tuesday. Right now, I don't have a preference on who to face, nor should the Rangers, unless you tell me Alexander Overchkin's mild injury will sideline or limit him, same for Tristan Jarry, who is currently sidelined with a broken foot. One other factor could be the Tom Wilson specter and just avoiding that whole undo focus.
New York's lineup against the Canadiens could be similar to what they roll out tonight. Gallant wisely opted to sit several veterans with nothing on the line. I would expect something similar today, though maybe some variations on who sat Wednesday.
Lafrenière-Chytil-Kakko Goodrow-Strome-Vatrano Hunt-Rooney-Reaves McKegg-Brodzinski-Gauthier
Miller-Braun Nemeth-Schneider Hajek-Jones
Georgiev
Adam Fox, Ryan Lindgren, Jacob Trouba, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad were all healthy scratches, while Andrew Copp (lower body) and Artemi Panarin (upper body) were held out of the lineup after exiting the 4-3 loss to the Hurricanes on Tuesday with injuries. In addition, Georgiev started in place of Igor Shesterkin, meaning that eight usual starters were out of the lineup Wednesday.
In place of the scratched forwards up front, Greg McKegg, Jonny Brodzinski, Ryan Reaves and Julien Gauthier dressed. Come playoff time, Reaves or Dryden Hunt, who has been in the lineup fairly consistently, are the only ones who potentially would dress, if situations are normal. If Tyler Motte's upper-body injury heals enough to allow him to play, then he will be on the fourth line. In addition, Kaako Kappo returned to the lineup after missing four games with a lower-body injury.
On the back end, Libor Hajek and Zac Jones replaced Trouba and Lindgren while Justin Braun or Patrik Nemeth, one of whom normally sits, started for Fox. The Hajek-Jones pairing was nothing to write home about in the contest, not lending tremendous confidence that either could step in if needed. Jones did run the power play, though the unit scuffled in the contest.
On the game, as noted above, Gallant didn't seem overly concerned based on his quote below. I agree to an extent. If there was one thing I wanted to see, it was a bit more dominance or control by the Lafrenière-Chytil-Kakko line, which was not the case. The remainder of what we see can be put in the trash, since it really didn't matter based on current standings and what the end goal was.
“Nobody got hurt, that was a key thing tonight,… Gallant said after the Rangers’ third straight loss in regulation, which hadn’t happened previously this season. “We played pretty well overall and we got through the game.…