The Montreal Canadiens are in town tonight, as the New York Rangers are going to look to build on their solid shutout of the Philadelphia Flyers earlier in the week. The Rangers are well rested, with their Friday night game in Buffalo postponed due to biblical amounts of snow. The Habs are a solid team this year, building on their run to the Eastern Conference Finals last season, sitting atop the Atlantic Division with a 16-5-1 record. One of those wins came against the Rangers in October by a score of 3-1.
Under Michel Therrien, the Canadiens play a 1-2-2 forecheck, but do use a 2-1-2 style from time to time based on the score and puck location. Though this team prefers to want to play passive and clog up the neutral zone. Like the Rangers, Montreal’s defensive zone system is to overload when the puck is along the boards and man-on-man when the puck is down low.
What’s interesting is that Therrien has said in the past that they overload the boards because of their team size and speed (note: small and fast). On special teams, the Habs play your standard umbrella powerplay. On the penalty kill, they rotate between a diamond force and a box depending on puck location. They really look to pressure the opposition all over the ice when shorthanded.
Rangers lineup:
Rick Nash–Derick Brassard–Martin St. Louis
Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Mats Zuccarello
Carl Hagelin–Kevin Hayes–Anthony Duclair
Tanner Glass–Dominic Moore-Lee Stempniak
Marc Staal–Dan Boyle
John Moore–Dan Girardi
Matt Hunwick–Kevin Klein
Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.
Scratches/Injuries: Ryan McDonagh (shoulder), Jesper Fast (healthy)
As always, be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to a game.
Game time is 7pm on MSG.
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