The Rangers kick off five games in eight nights with a contest Tuesday against the Blues. New York fell 3-2 to the Blues on October 15 in a game where New York dominated stretches of action but were stoned by Carter Hutton. Following tonight's game, the Rangers welcome in Cam Talbot, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday. As I mentioned in the comments to yesterday's blog, I will be at the game, so let me know if you will be there and want to meet up there.
After missing four games, Chris Kreider returns from neck spasms for tonight's game. To make room for CK20, Oscar Lindberg will be a healthy scratch. It's the depth up front, including the ability of Brandon Pirri to play center coupled with presence of Boo Nieves, Nicklas Jensen and Marek Hrivik in the minors that has made Lindberg the prominent name mentioned to go in any trade. Obviously, it remains to be seen if any deal for a blue liner is made, but if a move does transpire, look for Lindberg - presuming no injuries or ineffectiveness up front - to be the one who goes.
In addition, Pavel Buchnevich, who was in the top six before suffering back spasms that forced him to sit for five games, slides down to the fourth line with Pirri and Jesper Fast. That switch enables Kreider to play on a line with Mike Zibanejad and Mars Zuccarelllo. In the preseason and to start the season, the KZB was an effective trio, but while Buch and then Kreider were out, the lines got shuffled and Zucc and Zib have found some chemistry. So rather than mixing several lines, only one line is truly affected, since the Vesey-Stepan-Nash and Grabner-Hayes-Miller trios remain intact.
Much has been made of Hayes' resurgence starting the year. While his production was down last season, his advanced metrics still were fairly positive. But what's even more impressive than his play was that he realized he needed to be better and worked on his game. That included dropping weight and coming to came in better shape, making him quicker, working on his faceoffs - which are up to a 47% success rate - and attention to the defensive side of the game. It's that latter aspect that to me is the most noticeable. If Hayes gets beat or loses the puck in the neutral zone, he isn't giving up on a play or cruising back into the defensive zone, but he is busting his rear to recover, which has blunted several scoring chances against. If he continues to do that, his talent will result in scoring occurring naturally and organically.
The blue line, which was solid against Tampa Bay, will be the same tonight. That means McD-G, Staal-Holden and Skjei-Klein. While it's only nine games, Girardi's play has been eons beyond where it was last year. Maybe the injuries and short rest the past few years did have the adverse impact that was suggested. That's not to say that G is back to where he was years ago and the decline has been fully blunted, but he has been better. If he can at least play around this level, GM Jeff Gorton won't be forced to make a deal in the short term and overpay for a top-four, d-man, who is still needed. Adam Clendening, scratched again tonight for the fifth straight game, will get in sometime over this stretch of five games in eight nights. To keep G and Staal and Klein fresh, sit one of them over this next fresh, enabling Clendening to play three of the five games.
Henrik Lundqvist will be back between the pipes. My feeling from yesterday that Antti Raanta should play tonight as a reward for his Sunday performance and allow Hank more time to work out the kinks in his game on the side hasn't changed. I can understand why AV would go back to Lundqvist but that doesn't mean I agree with the decision.