The Rangers, fresh off their “win” in Arizona, travel to Vegas for the first time in franchise history to take on the surprising Golden Knights. The Knights are tops in the Pacific Division right now, and are second in the league in goals with 141. They also have just two regulation losses at home. Simply put, that is very impressive for an expansion team.
The Knights biggest weakness is on the blue line. They have allowed 112 goals so far (2.8 per game), and are exploitable. Teams with deep scoring have given them trouble, as showcased by the Rangers the last time these two teams met. Vegas can seemingly score at will, but match them, and it becomes a question about which team will get the timely save. That’s a battle Henrik Lundqvist rarely loses.
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
David Perron-Eric Haula-James Neal
Reilly Smith–William Karlsson-Jonathan Marchessault
Brandon Leipsic-Cody Eakin-Alex Tuch
William Carrier-Pierre-Edouard Bellemare-Tomas Nosek
Brayden McNabb-Nate Schmidt
Deryk Engelland-Shea Theodore
Colin Miller-Brad Hunt
PP1: Neal-Haula-Perron-Miller-Theodore
PP2: Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith-Tuch-Schmidt
Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start.
Rangers Lines
JT Miller–Mika Zibanejad–Jesper Fast
Paul Carey–Kevin Hayes–Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey–David Desharnais–Rick Nash
Michael Grabner–Boo Nieves–Vinny Lettieri
Ryan McDonagh–Nick Holden
Brady Skjei–Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal-Steven Kampfer
PP1: Nash-Zuccarello-Not Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Shattenkirk
PP2: Vesey-Miller-Desharnais-Skjei-McDonagh
Ondrej Pavelec gets the start.
Scratches/Injuries: Chris Kreider (blood clot), Brendan Smith (healthy), Pavel Buchnevich (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: Buch and Smith beat AV to death with hockey sticks.
Game time is 10pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game shenanigans.
Share:
More About:Game Thread