The Rangers play the second game of their three-game Western Canada tonight against the Oilers. Tomorrow, New York is in Calgary to take on the Flames before heading home to face the Jets on Monday. The Blueshirts come in on a roll but will be tested by an Edmonton team who seemingly can score at will, but still struggle defensively.
Tonight's lines will be the same as Wednesday. What this means is Jaroslav Halak should be between the pipes tomorrow, which is in line with what I expected. Halak has won seven in a row, so the switch from Igor to him is not a downgrade, and lately, Halak has actually played better than Shesterkin, who has scuffled since the break.
One area of focus will be the interplay between Leon Draisaitl and Jacob Trouba. I know the twitter sphere lost their minds when Trouba did not respond after Draisaitl took the stick out of hands after scoring what provided to be the game-winning goal when the teams met at MSG. Based on score and time left, not responding then was the right move. But we will see if Trouba tries to send a little message tonight.
Kreider-Zibanejad-Tarasenko Panarin-Trocheck-Vesey Lafreniere-Chytil-Kakko Leschyshyn-Goodrow-Gauthier
Miller-Trouba Lindgren-Fox Mikkola-Schneider
Shesterkin Halak
Kailer Yamamoto returns tonight for the Oilers, who needed to make a roster move to activate him off injured reserve. Jesse Puljujarvi was rumored to potentially be the casualty to make room for Yamamoto, though Edmonton ended up sending Vincent Desharnais and Dylan Holloway to their AHL team. Twitter speculation was New York should move Vitali Kravtsov for Puljujarvi, though unsure that type of transaction makes sense.
First, cap hit. Puljujarvi is $3 mil while Kravtsov is at 875K. Even if Edmonton, who has their own cap crunch, ate half the difference in salary, that would leave New York with no available cap space for the deadline. I prefer to use that space for a better fit.
Second, where would Puljujarvi play? Right now, unless there is a vastly better option, I am not moving Jimmy Vesey off the second (or third, depending on your view) line.. Puljujarvi proved not to be a fit on either of the top three lines in Edmonton, so why do we think it will be any better in New York.
Third, Puljujarvi is an RFA with arb rights. Even if he came cheaper than the 3 mil salary he has now, the savings would be minimal based on the CBA. Based on what we have seen from him to date, coupled with the tight cap New York and need to re-sign others, he is a pass for me.