Game 3: Right the ship

Photo: Jim McIsaac/Newsday

The Rangers are off to an inauspicious start to the season, losing to a bad Colorado team and then no-showing most of the game in Toronto. Now they are home against Montreal, a team that has allowed eight goals in two games. However offense doesn’t seem to be the problem for the Rangers, at least in the short term. This is still a team that is hemorrhaging quality chances against and hanging Henrik Lundqvist out to dry.

There’s going to be a learning curve with all the new faces, but this is not quite what was expected to start the season. The Rangers went through similar issues to start the 2013-2014 season, AV’s first in New York. However that was for a whole new system. This is the same system, but a good number of different guys. Perhaps it’ll straighten itself out, because this team is too good to be this bad.

Habs Systems

Claude Julien is one of the top coaches in the game. He gets his team to play consistent team defense, and it has worked in Montreal. He starts with an aggressive 2-1-2 forecheck early and then a more conservative 1-4 or 1-1-3 lock later with a lead. In the defensive zone, the he keeps it simple with a low zone collapse, defending in layers depending on puck location. On special teams, it’s again simple with an umbrella power play (perhaps a little 1-3-1 sprinkled in) and a wedge+1/diamond force penalty kill where they pressured for turnovers.

For more on these systems, check out our Hockey Systems page.

Habs Lines

Max Pacioretty-Jonathan Drouin-Brendan Gallagher
Charles Hudon-Tomas Plekanec-Artturi Lehkonen
Alex Galchenyuk-Phillip Danault-Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron-Jacob de la Rose-Ales Hemsky

Jordie Benn-Shea Weber
Karl Alzner-Jeff Petry
Victor Mete-Mark Streit

PP1: Drouin-Galchenyuk-Pacioretty-Gallagher-Weber
PP2: Hudon-Lehkonen-Shaw-Mete-Streit

Carey Price gets the start.

Rangers Lines

Chris Kreider–Mika Zibanejad–Pavel Buchnevich
Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-Mats Zuccarello
Michael Grabner-JT Miller-Rick Nash
David Desharnais–Paul Carey

Marc Staal-Ryan McDonagh
Brady Skjei-Kevin Shattenkirk
Nick Holden-Tony DeAngelo
Steven Kampfer

PP1: Zibanejad-Kreider-Buchnevich-Zuccarello-Shattenkirk
PP2: Nash-Desharnais-Miller-McDonagh-DeAngelo

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Scratches/Injuries: Jesper Fast (hip), Filip Chytil (healthy), Brendan Smith (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: Defense?

Game time is 7pm.