The Rangers face the Oilers on 'Glen Sather' night in Edmonton. The architect of five championships for the Oilers and long-time GM of the Rangers gets a long overdue honor from his former squad. New York comes in off a 2-1 loss to Vancouver on Wednesday and will face Calgary on Thursday evening.
Early this morning, speculation was that Kevin Hayes might be scratched. As I wrote yesterday, you could make a long list of those who deserve to be sat of production warranted playing time. Since there is a limited number of players you could sit due to roster restrictions and limited cap space, only one would take up residence in the press box tonight. Hayes would have been a good candidate as he has regressed in his sophomore season but it turns that he will not be the one watching tonight.
Either Emerson Etem, who seems to have a hold of that press box seat, or Viktor Stalberg, another deserving candidate, will take a seat tonight. (Update, it's Stalberg) Regardless of which one sits, the remaining lines and combinations, which were set when Derek Stepan went down, are unlikely to be changed. You could most certainly argue due to the paucity of offense that a change is warranted but none appears to be in the horizon.
We have railed about how Chris Kreider doesn't look like the Kreider of a few years ago. If you believe what's written here (http://www.msgnetworks.com/shows/hockey-night-live/chris-boyle/why-numbers-dont-tell-the-full-story-on-kreider.html) and it's a pretty darn good take, it's just a dip in production due to a small sample size coupled with maybe a need to go a bit more to the net that has resulted in that view. It's a perception issue that has skewed our view and not an actual issue with his style of play. I agree that it may be the case but to the eye - and maybe that is why we all feel this way - it's his style of play causing the lack of production not just a perception of what we see. What we see is a player not taking advantage of his gifts. Maybe if the production was there, we would think differently, but our view is that the production is lacking because of his style of play. I would love to be proven wrong by seeing what happens over the next 25 games and if the numbers, production goes up while the metrics or style of play has remained constant, then I will say I am wrong. But I am not convinced it's solely a production issue, and if it is, style of play is a major cause of it.
When this game and the upcoming one against Edmonton was announced, we all expected it to be Hank against Talbot. So much for the best laid plans of mice and men. Talbot has struggled this year, due to porous defense, his own poor play and maybe the lack of Benoit Allaire, resulting in him watching more than playing lately. Anders Nilsson, the ex-Islander who came over to Edmonton this offseason from Chicago, is pretty much the new #1 netminder for the Oilers.
You would hope/expect/think this would be the perfect game for New York to find their offense. But the effort needs to be there to result in the better execution. If they play as they did against the Islanders and the first part of the game against Vancouver, that should be the case. But if it's how they played versus Colorado and third period Wednesday, they will head to Calgary 0-2 on the road trip and 2-6-1 in their last nine after starting 16-3-2. Despite Stepan being out, the talent is there, however, the production and creation of the cycle, or at shots, hasn't been. It would be nice to see New York tie them together and give Sather a win against his former team.