Game 25: Get off the schneid

Photo Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports

The Rangers are 2-3-1 in their last six games, and have played some pretty poor hockey in that stretch. They are dealing with injuries, but they are also dealing with a regressing blue line and regressing shooting, which is taking its toll on the offensive potential of the team. No matter which way you look at it, the Rangers need to play better.

Enter Carolina, who is very quietly just three points out of a playoff spot. It’s still very early, but it’s clear Carolina is moving in the right direction. Give them a halfway decent goaltender, and they might be a sneaky playoff team. They are able to move the puck well, but struggle a little to score (2.46 G/G). They have a -4 goal differential, but that is almost entirely on bad goaltending.

This is a perfect opportunity for the Rangers to get some confidence back by lighting up the Canes, but the last time we said this, they lost.

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:

Mats Zuccarello-J.T. Miller-Rick Nash
Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner–Kevin Hayes–Brandon Pirri
Matt Puempel–Josh Jooris–Jimmy Vesey