Following four days off between games and two days of practice, the Rangers are back in action tonight. New York will play 19 games in 36 days beginning with a contest in Montreal. The contest against the Canadiens kicks off three road games in four nights, which should further assist with the team bonding. Even better, the Blueshirts will actually dress 18 players tonight after playing shorthanded the last week-plus.
Hopefully, the two days of practice and return of Tyler Motte, following his injury last Thursday, will go a long way to increasing the cohesiveness on the team. Incorporating Patrick Kane and creating four lines that can be rolled out are keys to success the rest of the season. Just as important is having the top three lines recognize the need to pick up their defensive responsibilities in the neutral and defensive zone to avoid the debacle we saw on the ice last week, especially against Boston.
Larry Brooks' column had two interesting nuggets: Term of service continuity - Filip Chytil is the third most senior Ranger behind Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad. He made his NHL and Blueshirts debut in the 2017-18 season opener. He is sixth on the team in continuous service, however, also behind Adam Fox, Jacob Trouba and Artemi Panarin, who have been here since the start of 2019-20, while Chytil was in AHL Hartford until Oct. 29 of that season. He was promoted for good the same day and same way as Ryan Lindgren. What this shows is how quickly things change in the NHL - and sports overall - even for a team where there has been some continuity. But as seen from the above, the majority of the roster has turned over in the last few seasons.
Schedule: The match in Pittsburgh on Sunday will kick off a bizarre stretch in which the Rangers and Penguins will hook up three times within four games, including consecutive contests at the Garden on March 16 and 18. The second wild-card Penguins are six points behind the Rangers and each team has 19 games to go. The NHL scheduler in their infinite wisdom had the Blueshirts complete their contests against the Islanders, who now are just five points behind New York, who have three games in hand, in December and now have them face the Pens three times in a four game span. Way to balance it out.
Lines: Presuming Motte plays, and he practiced in a regular jersey yesterday, the four lines should be set with 12 forwards and not 11, as we saw last week. Ryan Lindgren practiced in a non-contact jersey yesterday, evidencing that he is inching closer to returning after missing four games with a likely shoulder injury. I would say he is doubtful for tonight. But if he does practice tomorrow, Lindgren could be back for the contests against Buffalo and Pittsburgh this weekend. K'Andre Miller will be back in the lineup, having served his three-day suspension for spitting. Having him back should substantially help the blue line, which misses Lindgren tremendously.
(Update at 11:45am: no Motte tonight, meaning Jonny Brodzinski may be in the lineup as he was the emergency call up. If Brod does go, look for him to center the fourth line with Barclay Goodrow on the wing. If not, with Lindgren out, New York will again be at 11F/6D)
Kreider-Zibanejad-Tarasenko Panarin-Trocheck-Kane Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko Vesey-Goodrow-Motte
Mikkola-Fox Miller-Trouba Harpur-Schneider
The power play has been tweaked. Zib and Kreider have been moved to the "second" line to create balance. On one of the podcasts I listened to the last few days, it was mentioned that there was some thought in the past of moving Adam Fox off that unit to help with the balance, putting a harder shot on the first unit and more puck movement/control on the second. These views are ones that I get but not fully in favor of, and we shall see how long these "changes" last before the units are mish-mashed again. The moves do balance out the talent and hopefully coach Gerard Gallant allows for the groupings to gain some cohesion and see if they can remain together. But that may depend on if the team wins these upcoming games even if the PP doesn't contribute and struggles.
Lafreniere-Panarin-Trocheck-Kane-Fox Kreider-Zibanejad-Chytil-Tarasenko-Trouba