The Rangers return home after a successful two-game road trip to face the Hurricanes. Carolina, after struggling earlier this season, has been better of late while New York is a franchise-tying best 10-2-2. The Rangers haven’t been great in each game but good enough to win.
Obviously, the big two stories are Dominic Moore sitting and Dan Boyle playing again. On Moore, the goal was for Jarret Stoll to play with two wingers rather than be on the wing for with a center and wing. In addition, you know have 13 viable forwards for 12 spots, so someone has to sit. Emerson Etem deserves to play following a strong weekend in place of Rick Nash. So if he plays, who other than Moore sits? Maybe Stoll, but as others said, Stoll and Moore are similar players. You know what Moore brings and how he will be used down the stretch and in the playoffs. The same can be said about Stoll, but that knowledge and experience is with him in other organizations. By playing him tonight with Etem and Jesper Fast, AV can see how effective that combination is and store that knowledge for future use. I am sure Moore is not happy – no one world be – but as we have seen, these situations have a way of working themselves out.
I think we all expected Boyle to play again tonight following a decent game Saturday. Boyle knows that his time here is up after the year and has said his confidence has been shaken. So that understanding begs the question of when you sit Boyle? Does it come after a strong game whereby he sits with knowing he played well, yet that wasn’t enough for him to play over McIlrath? Or does he sit after a bad game, where he knows he played badly and his confidence gets further shaken? There is no great or right answer. AV has established that McIlrath will play, mainly to give Boyle a rest and keep him fresh. For McIlrath’s development, I think we would all like him to play more. But that also looks like it won’t be something that occurs frequently enough for our liking.
Rick Nash, after missing two games with a back injury, returns to action. He lines up with Brassard and Zuccarello while Stepan centers Kreider and Miller and Hayes is between Lindberg and Stalberg. Defensively, there are no changes while Henrik Lundqvist is back between the pipes after a game off. This appearance will be Lundqvist’s 743rd overall between the regular season and playoffs, breaking the tie he established with Mike Richter on Friday. In addition, he is just eight saves shy of having the most saves in team history.