The Rangers face the Maple Leafs tonight at MSG. New York will be without K’Andre Miller, who will not play due tonight due to personal reasons. Miller joins Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko on the sidelines. For the Blueshirts, it’s next man up. Tonight, it will be Zac Jones again.
Projected lineup tonight:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière Cuylle-Bonino-Brodzinski Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Lindgren-Fox Gustafsson-Trouba Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin Quick
Scratches: Miller, Robertson LTIR: Chytil, Kakko
Speculating is never a good thing, but in Miller‘s case, it’s hard not to given the lack of clarity as to why he is sidelined. First and foremost is concern for him and his family and the hope is that it is a short-term absence, but coach Peter Laviolette was rightfully unable to provide much clarity today. To replace him on the active roster, the Rangers called up Matthew Robertson from Hartford today. I was a little surprised that they made this move since the team is trying to maximize their cap space and by calling up Robertson, he eats into that available room. it’s possible that Robertson is in the active lineup tonight in place of Miller, but my expectation is that it should be Jones lining up on defense.
The second pair combination should be Erik Gustafsson matched with Jacob Trouba while Jones is paired with Braden Schneider. Upfront, the forward combinations should be the same as we saw Sunday night against Los Angeles. Toronto comes in having lost 4-3 to the Islanders in overtime last night as John Tavares notched two points to give him 1,000 in his career. The Maple Leafs have top-end offensive talent so the Blueshirts have their work cut out for them defensively tonight.
The one slightly surprising roster move is that Igor Shesterkin will be between the pipes tonight. Given his recent play coupled with how good Jonathan Quick has looked, I thought Coach PR Laviolette might go with Quick tonight. With back-to-back games this weekend, we know that Quick and Shesterkin will each likely see one contest. I felt that Quick deserved the start tonight based on his recent play while it also give Igor another mental health day. But Laviolette and goaltending coach Benoit Allaire definitely thought differently.