The Rangers are in Pittsburgh tonight to kick off a home-and-home with the Penguins. Monday's game will be the first without Mika Zibanejad, who will miss the next 6-8 weeks with a broken fibula suffered Sunday night. The one piece of 'good' news received concerns the status of Pavel Buchnevich.
Coach Alain Vigneault said he'll use the following lines tonight: Kreider-Hayes-Zucc, Grabner-Stepan-Nash, Vesey-Pirri-Miller, Lindberg-Jooris-Fast
Kreider gets moved back to the top line, where he is joined by Hayes. Grabner goes back to the top-six, though with his speed, I would have him and CK20 trade spots. Pirri becomes the third line center with Lindberg sliding to wing. Again, no guarantee this stays as is, even during the game, since this is the initial reaction to Zib's injury.
The blue line remains the same. This means that we will see McD-G, Staal-Holden and Skjei-Klein. I don't understand why AV won't play Clendening especially on the tail end of a back to back. That's especially true against a quick team like Pittsburgh, where Clendening's puck moving ability would seem to fit. AV said he would rest G periodically, I would think the same for Klein or Staal, yet, he has rested G once and not Klein or Staal. I hope I am proven wrong but unfortunately think I may not be tonight.
Buchnevich's MRI showed no structural damage but he will be out 2-3 weeks as he strengthens his core. Buch needs to get in NHL shape, so a 2-3 week absence now rather than longer term later likely is good news. Plus, seeing how we all expected worse, this has to qualify as a semblance of good news.
For now, the 12 healthy forwards will be what we see. But today, New York claimed Matt Puempel off waivers from the Senators. Puempel's skill set has been compared to Brandon Pirri, so maybe the Rangers find a diamond in the rough who succeeds in AV's system. Puempel, selected 24th overall by Ottawa in the 2011 draft, did not put up a point in limited duty (8:34 per) in 13 games this season. In addition, he has four goals and two points in 52 career games over the course of three years with the Senators, so we need to be careful not to overrate. But Puempel — who is on a one-year, two-way contract worth $900,000 at the NHL level — provides depth at wing, who has junior experience at center.