The Rangers have won three in a row, and are looking to make it four against a bottom-feeder Carolina team. That doesn’t mean Carolina is a push over, as they have a great blue line. They just lack consistent goaltending and forward depth. Plus, the Rangers are getting Pavel Buchnevich back.
The interesting thing about the Rangers is that they are just lighting up the opposition, seemingly scoring at will. The goaltending is beginning to come around after a slow start, which they will need when the shooting comes back to Earth. It’s good to bank points this early in the season, so any win they can get while they figure out the blue line is good.
Canes Systems
Under Bill Peters, the Canes play a passive 1-2-2 on the forecheck and look to trap up the neutral zone. In their own end they run your standard low zone collapse. Not the most exciting of systems. On special teams, they run an umbrella powerplay, and a diamond/box hybrid PK.
For more on these systems, check out our Hockey Systems page.
Canes Lines
Andrej Nestrasil-Viktor Rask-Lee Stempniak
Joakim Nordstrom-Jordan Staal-Sebastian Aho
Teuvo Teravainen-Elias Lindholm-Phillip Di Giuseppe
Bryan Bickell-Jay McClement-Viktor Stalberg
Jacob Slavin-Justin Faulk
Ron Hainsey-Brett Pesce
Noah Hanifin-Jakub Nakladal
PP1: Staal-Aho-Lindholm-Teravainen-Faulk
PP2: Stempniak-Rask-Nestrasil-Di Giuseppe-Slavin
Cam Ward gets the start.
Rangers Lines:
Jimmy Vesey–Derek Stepan–Rick Nash
Pavel Buchnevich–Mika Zibanejad–Mats Zuccarello
J.T. Miller–Kevin Hayes–Jesper Fast
Brandon Pirri–Oscar Lindberg-Michael Grabner
Ryan McDonagh–Dan Girardi
Marc Staal–Kevin Klein
Brady Skjei–Nick Holden
PP1: DJ ZBad-Miller-Pirri-Zucc-McDonagh
PP2: Nash-Stepan-Vesey-Hayes-Girardi
Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.
Injuries/Scratches: Chris Kreider (back), Josh Jooris (shoulder), Adam Clendening (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: A shutout? Maybe?
Game time is 7:30pm. No gifs tonight (Sorry!). Be sure to follow our snapchat (blueseatblogs) too!
Share:
More About:Game Thread