In a matchup of Original Six teams, the Rangers meet the Red Wings at MSG tonight. New York enters the game fresh off a pair of shootout losses while Detroit comes in off a loss but 5-2-3 in their last 10 contests. It's a nationally televised contest, resulting in an 8pm start.
The lineup shuffle continues Wednesday for New York. Kevin Klein, who was injured Saturday blocking a shot from Jacob Trouba, rejoins the fray after sitting out Monday. He replaces Dylan McIlrath, whose first exposure to regular season action saw him more time in the penalty box then on the ice and shows that he still has more work to do. McIlrath should benefit from seeing top-two or -four duty at Hartford as opposed to 8-10 minutes in NY or sitting in a press box. In addition, Mats Zuccarello, who missed Monday's game with an undisclosed - likely leg - injury, will be back in the lineup, replacing Ryan Malone, who has gone from waivers to playing to now sitting again.
Speculation is rampant that Derek Stepan will try and talk his way into the lineup, but it's more likely he plays Saturday against Toronto. Once he returns, it's up in the air with whom he plays, but I expect it to be with Chris Kreider and Zuccarello with the Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Martin St. Louis sticking together. When Stepan comes back, the bottom-six will also hopefully settle in. Russ Cohen wrote today about giving Kevin Hayes a real shot at the fourth center. I agree, but view him more as a third liner, as Dominic Moore is better suited to the fourth line, so I would hope we will see Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Anthony Duclair and Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Lee Stempniak with Chris Mueller possibly in at center or wing if needed.
Those combinations, especially the bottom two lines, give coach AV some flexibility to mix and match and find the right combinations while establishing some stability that has been lacking the first month. Injuries have wreaked havoc with the forwards and defensive pairings, but that's not an excuse for the play to date, just a statement of fact. The offense has to be much better and gets a mild break with Jonas Gustavsson and not Jimmy Howard in net tonight, though as we have seen in the past, backup goalies play like a combination of Hadek-Roy-Brodeur against the Rangers, so it may not be a benefit.
Potential Rangers combinations:
Rick Nash-Derick Brassard-Martin St. Louis Chris Kreider-Kevin Hayes-Mats Zuccarello Carl Hagelin- Dominic Moore-Anthony Duclair Tanner Glass-Chris Mueller- Lee Stempniak
Matt Hunwick-Dan Girardi Marc Staal-Kevin Klein Conor Allen- Mike Kostka (I could see Klein on the third line with Kostka on the second but to me this makes more sense)
Henrik Lundqvist
Detroit line combinations:
Henrik Zetterberg-Pavel Datsyuk-Justin Abdelkader Johan Franzen-Darren Helm-Gustav Nyquist Tomas Tatar-Riley Sheahan-Tomas Jurco Joakim Andersson-Luke Glendening-Drew Miller
Niklas Kronwall-Jonathan Ericsson Danny DeKeyser-Brendan Smith Brian Lashoff-Jakub Kindl
Jonas Gustavsson
Will do my best to get the gameday blogs up earlier. Given all the injuries and lineup shuffling, trying to have most up-to-date information in the blog, but will work on allowing more time for commentary. Thanks and apologies.