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Rangers face Sabres at home tonight, Fox practices in regular jersey |
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The Rangers look to continue their winning ways against a Sabres team that is a disappointing sixth in the Atlantic Division and without Tage Thompson. Wednesday, New York takes on Detroit, who sits a surprising third in the Atlantic, and has received excellent play from Dylan Larkin and especially, Shayne Gostisbehere, who is up to 18 points in 19 games on the season. The Rangers are 15-3-1 and have won three in a row and seven of their last eight contests.
Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Bonino-Kakko
Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Miller-Trouba
Lindgren-Gustafsson
Jones-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches: Mackey IR: Chytil LTIR: Fox
New York is close to getting one of their injured players back in the fold. Adam Fox, on LTIR and eligible to return Wednesday, skated in a regular jersey today. While that’s no guarantee that he will suit up against the Red Wings, it’s most certainly a positive sign.
The fun part comes two-fold with Fox’s return? First, who sits? Second, who man the first unit PP? On point one, Zac Jones is the favorite to sit and the remainder of the pairings restore to where they were before the injury. But would coach Peter Laviolette keep Erik Gustafsson with Ryan Lindgren and play Fox with Braden Schneider? Fox’s return affords the team some flexibility as if a D man needs a day off, Jones can step in and fill that spot.
The second one is even trickier. New York’s PP is humming along. But two adages apply, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and you don’t lose your spot due to injury. Those said, Laviolette could opt to keep Gustafsson in his PP1 spot, for now, and have Fox slot on PP2, at least initially. Not an easy decision but one that looms.
The Jacob Trouba-Trent Frederic “incident” from Saturday dominated Twitter after it happened. Trouba was remorseful in the below interview, saying the right things, including how he needed and needs to be in control of his stick. Extenuating circumstances did apply to an extent, as Frederic did have a hold of his stick/arm, but Trouba is lucky no damage was caused and he did received a suspension of any sort.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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