New York kicks off a four-game west coast road trip tonight in Seattle. Following the game against the Kraken, the Rangers face the Sharks on Saturday and the Kings and Ducks on back-to-back nights, November 22 and 23. Seattle comes in 8-5-3 propelled by the fine play between the pipes of Martin Jones and Matty Beniers up front. The Blueshirts, off since their 4-1 win over the Coyotes on Sunday, should be well-rested for the contest.
The practice lines Tuesday and Wednesday were: Kreider - Zib - Vesey Panarin - Trocheck - Kravtsov/Goodrow Laf - Chytil - Kakko Blais - Carpenter - Gauthier/Reaves
PP1 remained the same yesterday, as expected. But PP2 on Wednesday started with Trouba, Laf, Chytil, Kakko and Blais. What is important from this - despite the minimal time that unit gets - is who make up the five skaters. As seen, Zac Jones and Vitali Kravtsov are not part of this unit. Jones has been a scratch the past few games for Libor Hajek and will remain out today. This is not a surprise, seeing how Hajek has played.
Kravtsov, finally healthy after a bout of the stomach flu and rumored extensive dental work to clean up an infected tooth, will be a healthy scratch as the Rangers will go with the same lineup as Sunday. Mollie Walker noted he was likely to sit in her tweet yesterday. With this the case, Barclay Goodrow will again slot in as the second line right winger, Julien Gauthier should be on the fourth line with Ryan Reaves scratched again. Reaves recognizes the position he is in, as seen by the Larry Brooks column the other day, and he will be used against heavier/more physical teams. This could mean he suits up in one or more of the other three games in the trip, though that is far from set in stone.
#NYR Gerard Gallant says he “thinks… Vitali Kravtsov is cleared to play, but it sounds like No. 74 had some serious dental work done.
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) November 16, 2022
Judging by practice today, it didn’t look like Kravtsov will play.
Tonight will be Gauthier's 10th game. Once he plays, he will need to go through waivers to be sent down. As we have discussed, the signs certainly point to Gauthier remaining with the parent club since unlike earlier in the season, if Gauthier was exposed to waivers, he probably would be claimed based on his play since his recall. The fourth line is not the optimal spot for Gauthier, but if Sammy Blais can continue to work his way back and find his speed and Goodrow slots back to the last trio, that line could be an effective one.
The above alignment also presumes that Kravtsov ends up regaining and retaining his second line position, which certainly is up in the air. A component of this is that Reaves and/or Ryan Carpenter are potential waiver candidates, largely to free up some cap space to accumulate for the trade deadline. Carpenter would seem to be the easier choice given Reaves' relationship with coach Gerard Gallant, but either being exposed would not be surprising.