Game 58: Avoid the trap game against the Oilers, make it five in a row

Nostalgia time! (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Rangers enter tonight’s game on a four game win streak. Edmonton is a bottom feeder again. Pittsburgh is tomorrow. Naturally, this is a trap game. The Rangers are at risk of looking ahead to their big divisional matchup. Problem is the Oilers are very skilled and can take advantage of that. Their goaltending got a lot better by adding Ben Scrivens, but they still can’t play defense to save their lives (142 shots against in 3 games coming into this!).

On the ice, Dallas Eakins coaches the Oilers in a very similar fashion to Patrick Roy and the Avalanche, so you will see a lot of the same tonight that you did on Tuesday. On the forecheck it is a straight 2-1-2 without sitting on leads. In the defensive zone, the Oiler play man-on-man, but also drop to a zone depending on puck location and situation. On special teams, the Avs run a 1-3-1/overload power play and a box penalty kill.

Rangers Lineup:

Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Rick Nash
Carl Hagelin–Brad Richards–Ryan Callahan
Benoit Pouliot–Derick Brassard–Mats Zuccarello
Brian Boyle–Dominic Moore-Dan Carcillo