Tonight the Rangers are looking to bounce back from their awful 2-6-1 stretch against the Oilers, who beat them 7-5 in the ugliest game of the season over the weekend. The Blueshirts will be without Dan Girardi, who is out with a knee injury. This means Brady Skjei will get his first game with the Rangers tonight. Worth noting: He’s not Brian Leetch.
I’d say this is a must win, but that’s a bit much. I’d like to see a much better process from the Rangers. Control the game, control the tempo, win the puck possession battle, and play proper defense. These are critical aspects of a championship caliber team that the Rangers haven’t exhibited yet this season.
Oilers Systems
I haven’t watched the Oilers much, but in San Jose Todd McLellan had his Sharks mostly running an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck, mixing in some 1-2-2 depending on game situation. In the defensive zone schemes they overloaded the boards and played zone defense when the puck is at the points or down low. The power play was a 1-3-1 and their penalty kill formations were hybrid (depends on puck location/opposition setup). It’s a fair assumption to expect the same from Edmonton.
Oilers Lines
Tayler Hall-Leon Draisaitl-Teddy Purcell
Jujhar Khaira-Ryan Nugent-Hopkins-Jordan Eberle
Matt Hendricks-Mark Letestu-Lauri Korpikoski
Luke Gazdic-Anton Lander-Iiro Pakarinen
Darnell Nurse-Andrej Sekera
Oscar Klefbom-Justin Schultz
Brandon Davidson-Eric Gryba
PP1: Purcell-Draisaitl-RNH-Hall-Schultz
PP2: Purcell-Draisaitl-Eberle-Hall-Schultz
PK: Hendricks, Letestu, RNH, Purcell, Lander, Korpikoski, Klefbom, Davidson, Gryba, Nurse, Sekera
Anders Nilsson gets the start.
Rangers Lines (Unconfirmed)
Chris Kreider–Oscar Lindberg–Rick Nash
Emerson Etem–Derick Brassard–Mats Zuccarello
J.T. Miller–Kevin Hayes–Jesper Fast
Tanner Glass–Dominic Moore–Viktor Stalberg
Marc Staal-Ryan McDonagh
Brady Skjei–Dan Boyle
Keith Yandle–Dylan McIlrath
PP1: Nash-??-Zuccarello, Brassard-McDonagh
PP2: Kreider-Hayes-Lindberg, Yandle-??
PK: Nash, Lindberg, Moore, Fast, McDonagh, Staal, Boyle
Henrik Lundqvist is in net.
Scratches/Injuries: Derek Stepan (ribs), Dan Girardi (knee), Kevin Klein (abdominal strain)
Crazy Prediction: Skjei scores in his debut.
Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 9pm on MSG. All gifs will be on nyrgifs.com.
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