antti raanta

Photo: Harry Howe/Getty Images

The Rangers are in Arizona tonight to face the already-lottery-team Coyotes, a team that is so bad it really defies all logic. On paper, the Coyotes should be better. They’ve dealt with some injuries, that’s for sure, but they have a talented young forward group and a surprisingly solid –on paper– blue line, minus that bottom pair. They should be better. Coaching? Players? Both?

The story the last time these two teams met was the return of Derek Stepan to Madison Square Garden. Antti Raanta was injured and did not play in that game. Tonight the story will be Raanta facing his former team. Don’t expect an emotional affair this time around, but it still stinks to see Stepan in Arizona. Raanta, good for him on getting a starting role, something he deserved.

Yotes Systems

Rick Tocchet is the new man in Arizona. I know nothing of how Tocchet coaches, but I’m not sure if that’s because I haven’t watched the Yotes, or that they are so bad you can’t identify the system. He was with Pittsburgh as an assistant the last three years. I’ll take an educated guess that he runs similar systems to Mike Sullivan. So we can run through those systems and see if they are a match. Hooray systems!

Sullivan has the Penguins running a 2-1-2 forecheck, much like Sully used to have when he was an assistant here under John Tortorella. The Penguins run a full zone in the defensive zone, overloading the boards and switching to a box+1 depending on puck location. On special teams, Sully runs a 1-3-1/umbrella hybrid powerplay and a full fledged zone hybrid (box, diamond, wedge+1) penalty kill.

For more details on hockey systems, check out our Systems page.

Yotes Lines

Brendan Perlini-Derek Stepan-Tobias Rieder
Clayton Keller-Max Domi-Christian Fischer
Lawson Crouse-Christian Dvorak-Josh Archibald
Jordan Martinook-Nick Cousins-Anthony Duclair

Oliver Ekman-Larsson-Jason Demers
Jakub Chychrun-Alex Goligoski
Kevin Connauton-Luke Schenn

PP1: Domi-Stepan-Keller-Fischer-OEL
PP2: Archibald-Dvorak-Perlini-Chychrun-Goligoski

Antti Raanta gets the start.

Rangers Lines

JT MillerMika ZibanejadMats Zuccarello
Michael GrabnerKevin HayesRick Nash
Jimmy VeseyDavid DesharnaisPavel Buchnevich
Paul CareyBoo NievesJesper Fast

Ryan McDonaghNick Holden
Brady SkjeiMarc Staal
Brendan SmithKevin Shattenkirk

PP1: Nash-Zuccarello-Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Shattenkirk
PP2: Vesey-Miller-Desharnais-Skjei-McDonagh

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Scratches/Injuries: Chris Kreider (blood clot), Steven Kampfer (healthy), Vinny Lettieri (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: Raanta gives up 7 goals in the first two periods.

Game time is 8pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game shenanigans.

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