The Rangers look to build off their 2-1 win Friday when they face the Predators at home tonight. New York benefitted from what has now been a called an incorrect overturned offsides call to maintain their lead with under a minute to go in the game. Nashville comes in off a 3-2 victory over the Devils on Friday and sit 16-10-1 on the year, Following today's contest, the Blueshirts face Colorado and Arizona on the road Tuesday and Wednesday before returning home to take on Vegas on Friday.
Game recap:
A few thoughts:
1) The overturned goal: regardless of which side of the coin you sit, getting the call right is first and foremost. It's amazing that on the initial replay and then on the follow up, we still don't have a clear sense as to what the call should be. If you are a Rangers fan, you think the overturned call Friday was correct. If a Buffalo fan, you are chafed that the call was overturned initially and then hear from the NHL that this call was incorrect. With so many replays and angles, get the call right.
Regarding our explanation on TV of the offside review in Buffalo tonight, this picture shows Olofsson about to touch the puck in the zone, which he hadn’t yet, and Dahlin had tagged up and Thompson was still onside as well. Skinner at the bottom of the screen was also onside. pic.twitter.com/s3f7a2yZHE
— Martin Biron (@martybiron43) December 11, 2021
Statement from @NHL Senior Executive VP Colin Campbell regarding the disallowed @BuffaloSabres goal on Friday, Dec. 10, 2021: https://t.co/rAxHBONhIA pic.twitter.com/pEOr2G40nB
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) December 11, 2021
2) Lineup: Ryan Strome and Nils Lundkvist were not on the ice for the morning skate. With all the recent news on COVID cases and absences due to protocol, the first thought is that each could be out due to that reason. The concern with Strome, though, is this would be his second COVID related absence, as he missed four games due to that reason in October. This is pure speculation at this point until Gallant addressed the situation, which is to occur later today.
In practice, Dryden Hunt took Strome's spot on PP1, Julien Gauthier is manning Lundkvist's on PP2
Update: both were out due to maintenance and are expected to play tonight
Ryan Strome and Nils Lundkvist are not on the ice here at the Rangers morning skate.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) December 12, 2021
3) Mika Zibanejad: benefitted from a lucky bounce to score Friday. Maybe this will help get him going, but we have said that before. The team only scored twice against Buffalo and were pretty lousy the last two periods. I am expecting a tight-checking, low-scoring game today given the Preds defense and play of Juuse Saros. But, the resurgence of Ryan Johansen and Mikael Granlund, even if Matt Duchene (upper body) is out, makes the Preds a dangerous offensive team.
4) Last two periods: Yucch. Gerard Gallant said it perfectly: ""I was really happy with the first period. Obviously it was a great period, we didn't give them much at all. We were playing real good hockey. Then, we talked about it a lot in the locker room about changing momentum of the game, and we started turning pucks over again and that gave them momentum. Buffalo works hard, they compete hard, but we gave them a lot of those opportunities in the second period. Self-inflicted wounds, so we've got to be better in those situations. Again, got to get that 60-minute game and we're still working at it."
Following the first intermission, it was almost like the teams switched jerseys. Buffalo carried play while tNew York was back on their heels. Do that with the schedule this week and it could get very ugly. The Rangers need to maintain the pressure and not take their foot off the gas, especially through the neutral zone and in the offensive zone.
5) Igor Sheshterkin: skated on Friday and on the ice this morning. I am not expecting him to play tonight with Alexandar Georgiev in net. Assuming no setbacks, we could see Igor on Tuesday against the Avalanche. Shesterkin faced shots this morning and is making practice, potentially putting him in line to play Tuesday. I wouldn’t be shocked though if he is given off until Friday, especially if the team defeats Nashville.
6) Brennan Othmann: as jimbo wrote, he has to be garnering a lot of interest from general managers. Captain of the Flint team, Othmman has been their biggest offensive weapon this year. Likely should have made Team Canada WJC team, but per Chris Peters, may have missed out due to being only 18 with management looking to take players a year older. Othmann, a mildly surprising first round pick last year, has made Rangers' management look smart with how his game has grown.
I think there was some valid criticism of them not taking Brennan Othmann, especially with him scoring 17 goals in 21 games so far for Flint. He also played in the U18s last year and scored a few big goals for them in that tournament. In the end, I think they had enough guys that play the game similarly to Othmann. It seems like if it was close between older players and 18-year-olds, they were going with the 19-year-old. It doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but it really can show itself in these types of settings.