The Rangers kick off three games in four nights in Minnesota against the Wild. New York got back to their previous winning ways with a much better defensive effort and performance, especially structurally, Tuesday against Edmonton. The team will need to have a similar performance to beat a solid Wild team at home.
The lineup we saw Tuesday will be the same tonight. Dan Girardi will miss his second straight game with his swollen injury. His absence was classified yesterday by AV as 'day-to-day, week-to-week,' which provides little clarity as to the expected length of his absence. In his stead, Brady Skjei, one of the Minnesota (Lakeville) natives enjoying the trip back home, will be in the lineup for the second straight game, playing in front of his home state.
Skjei likely will be in again tomorrow night against Winnipeg, as Kevin Klein, out since Nov 30 with a strained oblique, is not expected to play. Klein, who practiced Wednesday, is on the trip, just in case he is ready, but it looks as if the earliest he will be back is Sunday. However, it wouldn't shock me if he is out until Tuesday against Anaheim or even beyond that.
Derek Stepan, another Minnesota native (Hastings) and sidelined with broken ribs since November 27, is also out tonight. It's possible that Stepan gets back in tomorrow against the Jets, as AV said he is a bit ahead of Klein to return. When he is back in the lineup, Stepan will wear some extra padding to protect those ribs.
As I commented the past few days: Per the CBA: "If a player is considered to have a long-term injury (causing them to miss a minimum of 10 games and 24 days), they can be placed on the Long-Term Injury Reserve (LTIR), which can be used to receive cap relief." By missing tonight's game, it marks 10 games and 20 days that Stepan has been sidelined. If he does not play against Winnipeg on Friday, he will have missed 11 games and 21 days. His next opportunity to play will be Sunday against Washington. If he misses that, he will have hit the requirements of 10 games and 24 days.
So here is my question to you. By not putting Stepan on IR, it prevented the call up of Skjei which forced G to play hurt against Edmonton and Calgary; two losses. If Stepan does play tomorrow and Sunday, you will have gotten two games from him that might not have first been expected based on the projected return date. Are those two games worth not being able to sit Skjei, which given the G struggled could have resulted in the wins? If Stepan doesn't go tomorrow and Sunday, the decision not to place him on LTIR looks even worse.
Captain Ryan McDonagh (St. Paul) is the final member of the Minnesota trio playing in their home state. Last year, NY defeated the Wild in Minnesota, as part of their fine road play the first two years under AV, during which they went 53-25-4 away from home. This season, New York is just 6-5-2 on the road, though much of those struggles have been during their recent swoon, as they are 0-3-2 away from home in their last five. Minnesota is 5-0-3 in their right, buoyed by the return of Zach Parise. In addition, Devan Dubnyk, out since suffering an injury on Dec. 5, will start tonight, replacing backup Darcy Kuemper, who filled in nicely tomorrow. It gets no easier tomorrow, as the Jets are 8-5-1 at home and 14-15-2 overall.
A lot of chatter yesterday on the seemingly impending addition of Pavel Buchnevich. The timing of when that will occur is unclear but all signs seem to point to him coming over to North America from Russia. Ideally, you would love to have him play a bit in Hartford to adapt to the Rangers system and the North American game before promoting but just the notion that signs point to him coming is a possible major future boost to the team's top six and lineup.
If the Rangers play with the same discipline, attention to detail and use of their structure as they did Tuesday, they should beat Minnesota. If they revert back to the poor form they displayed in Western Canada, the task to beat a solid Wild team will get even harder. Get a win tonight to make it two straight and build on the good feelings from the other night.