The Rangers face the Vegas Golden Knights for the first time in history tonight. But that’s not the story. Apparently Alain Vigenault is on a game-to-game leash. Apparently there is a ton of smoke around Montreal and the Rangers. And apparently four big-wigs took in that Montreal/Ottawa game last night after being at Rangers/Montreal over the weekend. Something is brewing.
To the task at hand: The Rangers need two points desperately. A win keeps them under the four point threshold we’ve been talking about all month. A loss has them at five points out, which is a hole that could be too deep to climb out. This is a good spot to get points, as Vegas is on there 120th string goalie and on the second of a back to back.
Vegas Systems
Gerard Gallant is the man in Vegas. I haven’t watched them closely yet, but while in Florida, Gallant ran a 1-2-2 forecheck, which was used aggressively or conservatively pending the game situation (e.g., the score, puck location, etc.). In the defensive zone, he ran a straight up zone defense. For special teams, ran a standard umbrella power play and diamond force/box penalty kill system.
I’d expect this to be the same for Vegas.
Vegas Lines
Reilly Smith-Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson
David Perron-Cody Eakin-James Neal
Oscar Lindberg-Eric Haula-Alex Tuch
William Carrier-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Tomas Nosek
Luca Sbisa-Nate Schmidt
Deryk Engelland-Brayden McNabb
Colin Miller-Brad Hunt
PP1: Neal-Haula-Marchessault-Smith-Schmidt
PP2: Tuch-Karlsson-Smith-Miller-Hunt
Maxime Legace gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Chris Kreider–Mika Zibanejad–Pavel Buchnevich
Rick Nash-Kevin Hayes-Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey–David Desharnais–JT Miller
Michael Grabner-Boo Nieves-Jesper Fast
Ryan McDonagh–Brendan Smith
Brady Skjei-Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal–Steven Kampfer
PP1: Nash-Miller-Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Shattenkirk
PP2: Hayes-Desharnais-Kreider-Zuccarello-McDonagh
Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.
Scratches/Injuries: Paul Carey (healthy), Nick Holden (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: Vegas loses another goalie, holds a contest in between periods to replace him for the game.
Game time is 7pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game.
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