I just want to troll a few people with this picture. Sorry.
After a strong win against St. Louis the other night, the Rangers are in Ottawa to take on the Senators in a Saturday matinee. The Rangers have won seven in a row behind elite goaltending and opportunistic shooting, and are 9-0-2 in their last 11 games. Much of this is thanks to Henrik Lundqvist and an offense that makes the most of their chances. The defense still needs to improve, as they’ve been shaky through the first 16 games.
The Sens are second in the Atlantic at 8-5-3, and have actually struggled a bit at home (3-3-2). They are not a good possession team (45.6 CF%), sitting in the bottom-three in the NHL in both even strength CF% and score-adjusted even strength CF%. However this is a team that can put the puck in the net. They have six guys in double-digit points already. But after those six the Sens are very thin, with no one over five points.
The Rangers usually feast on teams that lack depth and have poor goaltending. The Sens certainly lack depth, and Anderson has been shaky to start the year. That said, the Rangers have been playing above their heads for a while now. This should be a fun game to watch, I’m expecting a lot of chances on both sides. So….it’ll be a boring 2-1 game.
Sens Systems
Under Dave Cameron, the Sens have simplified their game a bit. They play an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck, sending two guys in to pressure the puck. They sometimes leave them high in the zone, setting up two at the blue line and one at the red line to clog the neutral zone. In the defensive zone, the Sens play a strong side overload, which is similar to what the Rangers play. The difference is that the Sens go into a low zone collapse if the puck gets to the weak side point, whereas the Rangers switch to man when the puck gets deep.
On special teams, the Sens run a standard umbrella powerplay and a hybrid penalty kill.
Sens Lines
Matt Puempel-Mika Zibaejad-Bobby Ryan
Milan Michaelek-Kyle Turris-Mark Stone
Mike Hoffman-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Alex Chiasson
Curtis Lazar-Zack Smith-Chris Neil
Marc Methot-Erik Karlsson
Patrick Wiercioch-Cody Ceci
Mark Borowiecki-Chris Wideman
PP1: Ryan-Turris-Zibaknejad-Michalek-Karlsson
PP2: Stone-Lazar-Hoffman-Chiasson-Karlsson
PK: Smith, Lazar, Turris, Zibanejad, Stone, Methot, Borowiecki, Wiercioch, Karlsson
Craig Anderson gets the start
Rangers Lines
Rick Nash–Derick Brassard–Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–J.T. Miller
Oscar Lindberg–Kevin Hayes–Viktor Stalberg
Jarret Stoll–Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh–Dan Girardi
Marc Staal–Kevin Klein
Keith Yandle–Dan Boyle
PP1: Nash-Stepan-Zuccarello, Brassard-McDonagh
PP2: Kreider-Hayes-Lindberg, Yandle-Klein
PK: Stepan, Nash, Stoll, Lindberg, Moore, Girardi, McDonagh, Staal, Klein
Henrik Lundqvist is in net.
Scratches/Injuries: Emerson Etem (healthy), Dylan McIlrath (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: Kreider finally scores.
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 1pm on MSG. All gifs will be on nyrgifs.com.
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