The Rangers head to the Barclays Center to take on the Islanders for the first time this year. True rivalry games have a little extra juice regardless of how well the two teams are playing. But a matchup of two squads wheee each of whom are playing better than anticipated and you have a little added zip.
Larry Brooks in his column today laid out well the futility the Blueshirts have had facing the Islanders the last several seasons, why this game has some extra oomph to it and a big reason for the Islanders’ success in these match ups:
The Blueshirts have never won a game at the Islanders’ temporary housing facility, going 0-5-1 overall while losing the past five in regulation entering Thursday’s match at Barclays. The Rangers are not only 0-5-1 in Brooklyn the past three seasons, they also are a grotesque 1-9-2 in the rivalry since the start of 2015-16, the only victory coming in the 2016-17 season opener at the Garden.
The Rangers and Islanders are both exceeding expectations through the first six weeks. The Blueshirts (9-7-2) are on a 6-0-1 roll. The Islanders (9-6-2) are 6-2-1 in their last nine. If the season ended today, they would match up in the first round of the playoffs. (The season doesn’t end today.)
The Islanders’ physical dominance of this series has gotten old for the Rangers. They have been pounded and hounded relentlessly by their hungrier opponents, routinely forechecked into submission.
The latter paragraph is a major key. Our Blueshirts have been unable to sustain any attack, getting shut down through more physical play by the Isles. The lack of push back in the recent contests between the two teams has been way too apparent while watching the games. Retaliating with their own style of physical play, showing that they won’t be pushed around, is a major key tonight. Under new coach David Quinn, New York has shown an increased, desire and willingness to take the body and play a more physical style; an area of weakness the past several seasons.
Quinn was asked and noted in his post-practice press conference that d-zone breakouts and own zone coverage has been issue despite the 6-0-1 record recently. Those two components were a major focus on practice yesterday. As Brooks noted, coverage for the most part has remained stable, but the Blueshirts need to clear the zone with more coherence much more of the time. Breaking out, hopefully via the pass to create a counter attack rather than just chipping the puck to the neutral zone, resulting in a counterattack, must be more on display tonight for the Rangers to notch the victory.
Mats Zuccarello returns to game action after missing the last three contests with a groin injury. With Zucc re-joining the active roster, Quinn shuffled the lines for tonight’s game. Filip Chytil, who was moved up to the top line during Tuesday’s win, remains with Mika Zibanejad with Zucc sliding into that trio as the right wing. Vladislav Namestnikov, whose play has taken a 180-degree turn for the positive in the past 2-3 weeks, shifts down to right wing on the second line with Chris Kreider and Kevin Hayes. The Jimmy Vesey-Brett Howden-Jesper Fast unit remained intact, as Lias Andersson, who’d played the last three games on the wing, centered Cody McLeod and Vinni Lettieri on the fourth line with Ryan Spooner a healthy scratch.
To me, as I wrote yesterday, I would have left the Chytil-Zib-Nam combination together and inserted Zucc on the second line. After last year, I was all for keeping Spooner and moving on from Nam. Now, Nam has far exceeded Spooner. Maybe Spooner has a reversal of fortune like Nam, but as of now, he deserves to be in the press box with McLeod outplaying Spooner in almost every game.
Defense tandems remained intact, meaning that Brendan Smith will sit for the third straight game while Freddy Claesson skates with Kevin Shattenkirk again. The top two pairings stay as Brady Skjei-Tony DeAngelo and Marc Staal-Neal Pionk. Adam McQuaid is inching closer to practicing but not yet ready. Henrik Lundqvist will be between the pipes, backed up Alexandar Georgiev, who started and won for Hartford yesterday. I’m not sure I understand calling Georgiev back up and sending Marek Mazanec down rather than letting Georgie play this weekend in the minors with Lundqvist likely to start the Rangers next game Saturday.
I will be at the game. Shoot me note if you are attending as well. We can possibly try to meet before or during the contest.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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