After a longer than usual wait, the Rangers play a game that has some meaning Thursday. The Blueshirts kick off their 90th season by meeting their long-time rivals the Islanders. No intra or inter-conference game to start the season, but a match up against a hated rival.
Some videos to get you in the right mood for the season<:
90 years of Rangers hockey: 2016-17 Season Preview ajcastigliaa
Forwards:
Vesey-Stepan-Zuccarello, Kreider-Zibanejad-Buch, Miller-Hayes-Nash, Grabner-Pirri-Fask
Jooris
(In my prior blog, I said, "If Nash is with Hayes on the third line, then Miller will play the left, which is probably his best side. If Vesey is with Hayes, Miller would play the right, leaving Nash to be reunited with Stepan and Zucc." Miller gets to play on his best side. Interesting that Vesey gets a shot with Stepan. I view the second line as the first line, while you can call the listed first and third lines whatever you want.
AV could still swap in Jooris, but I think Pirri gets the Opening Night nod. It's possible Grabner sits, but I believe he and Fast will be one of the first two PK duos. So, that leaves Jooris as the odd man out)
Defense:
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi Marc Staal-Nick Holden Brady Skjei-Adam Clendening
Dylan McIlrath
(Kevin Klein won’t play Thursday after an MRI revealed a back strain; he’s day-to-day. That opens the door for Holden to get in the lineup. Holden, who shoots left, will be playing on the right, his off-side, where he struggled in the final preseason game, so this is something to watch. Skjei gets to play his strong (left) side while you know my view of having Girardi paired again with McDonagh.
One interesting question that was posed to McDonagh was :How much different it is under Beukeboom than it was under Samuelsson?“It’s pretty similar, just a little different terminology, different areas of where to be aggressive, where to kind of pull back,… McDonagh said. “A lot of the game is rushes and rush-reads and they’re trying to be aggressive in some areas, and if you know you don’t have the numbers, know you don’t have the right situation, just make sure you take care of the slot area and try and give away an outside shot and play a lot more high percentage in that area, where you don’t have a chance to be aggressive.…
That doesn't sound much different than last year. It comes down, as always, to execution. The last two years, it was lacking, if it's better this year, then team will be better)
Goaltending:
Henrik Lundqvist Antti Raanta
(Carp - "Lundqvist faced more dangerous scoring chances than any goalie in the league last year (he faced 397 high-danger scoring chances last season according to the stat-tracking website Corsica, 73 more than Washington's Braden Holtby, who was second in that category) and still it was mostly his play early in the season that allowed the Rangers to put up 101 points despite their many woes." Hank wore down last year, imploding in the playoffs. A lighter load - maybe 55-58 games - and fewer quality shots faced - see prior post on defense - and he should be in line for an even better season)
Special Teams:
PP: Kreider- Zibanejad- Buchnevich worked on a power-play unit Wednesday with McDonagh and Pirri, an indication Pirri could start on the fourth line. The other PP may be Vesey-Stepan-Nash-Zucc-Clendening
PK could be Grabner-Fast, Nash-Stepan, Zib-Miller. Look for McDonagh-Girardi and maybe Staal-Holden as d-pairings, but I might go McD-Skjei, Staal-Holden.
Two points of focus that came out from comments the last two days are Consistency and Turning the Page:
First AV (on Focus):“We’ve asked our leadership group this year, that when we (the coaches and management) are not around to make sure players are conducting themselves the way they’re supposed to, that they’ve got their priorities in order. That’s what we expect from this group and that’s how we’re going to get the consistency that I believe they can bring on a nightly basis."
Carp: As a follow-up, Vigneault was asked if that means he felt the professionalism or the priorities had slipped the year before, when they bobbed and weaved to 101 points, third place in the best division in the league, and a five-game playoff exit at the hands of the Stanley Cup champs.
“I don’t know if it slipped,… he said. “I would say the right answer to that is everybody would have their theory on last year. Some people might say it’s priorities, some people might say the demands of all those playoff games caught up a little bit, and it might have been a little bit of mental and physical fatigue.
“Whatever theory you subscribe to, I would say right now that I feel about this group. I feel the energy from them. I feel the energy from our fans. There seems to be a heightened state of awareness on everything that we’re trying to do, and whether that was … the priorities or those other possible explanations, right now I feel really good about where we are mentally and where we are as a team on the ice.…
Derek Stepan (on turning the page)
“Something I think our group really needs to focus on is this is a new year,… Derek Stepan said Wednesday. “We’re not gonna go back to seasons past. We’ve done everything in seasons past: We’ve had great starts; we’ve had terrible starts; we’ve made it deep in the playoffs; we’ve ended short in the playoffs. This is a new year. We’re gonna try to avoid talking about years past, but if you’re really talking about the feeling in this room, I think the biggest thing we’ve all been saying for weeks is we just want to get this season started.…
(Both are interesting. In terms of focus, it's clear that the coaching staff and management believe that the required focus was lacking. Whether that's day-to-day or in game, there was something amiss there a year ago. It's possible that contributed to issues during games, which led to several breakdowns. Stepan's comments on turning the page could be construed as similar to focus. That the team needs to all be on the same page and focus on the current year without looking back to the past).
The 90th New York Rangers' season starts tonight.