rangers canadiens

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The Rangers were horrid on Monday night, and somehow came away with a win. Tonight they face a Montreal Canadiens team that thoroughly dominated them last month, and are one of the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference this year. Montreal has been superb. Carey Price is following up his Vezina/Hart campaign with another solid year. The Habs basically score at will, and their defense has been great thus far.

As for the Rangers, well they need to play better. For the first 21 games, they’ve been hemorrhaging shot attempts, and it’s taken herculean efforts from Henrik Lundqvist to ensure victory. That can’t continue, and Montreal is a team that will beat them into the ground if they continue to play that way. Play better with the puck, and the ice will finally tilt in the other team’s direction. No team, none, can continually win by sitting and waiting for counter attacks. Sooner or later, those opportunities won’t come. Puck possession, dirty shots, dirty goals. They are needed.

Habs Systems

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 powerplayOn 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.

Habs Lines

Max Pacioretty-Tomas Plekanec-Devante Smith-Pelley
Lars Eller-Alex Galchenyuk-Sven Andrighetto
Tomas Fleischmann-David Desharnais-Dale Weise
Paul Byron-Brian Flynn-Alex Semin

Andrei Markov-P.K. Subban
Nathan Beaulieu-Jeff Petry
Tom Gilbert-Alexei Emelin

PP1: Pacioretty-Galchenyuk-Plekanec-Markov-Subban
PP2: Fleishmann-Desharnais-Semin-Beaulieu-Petry

PK: Flynn, Byron, Eller, Fleishmann, Plekanec, Pacioretty, Subban, Markov, Petry, Gilbert

Carey Price gets the start

Rangers Lines

Rick NashDerick BrassardMats Zuccarello
Chris KreiderDerek StepanKevin Hayes
J.T. MillerOscar LindbergJesper Fast
Jarret StollDominic MooreViktor Stalberg

Ryan McDonaghDan Girardi
Marc StaalKevin Klein
Keith YandleDan 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: Um. The Rangers play better?

Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 7pm on MSG. All gifs will be on nyrgifs.com.

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