rangers islanders isles

The Rangers are out of the bye week and entering the fire, with two tough divisional games coming up. Today the Rangers take on the Islanders, who are a solid offensive team that struggles on defense. They are tied for third in goals scored in the division, so they are not to be taken lightly. The good thing is that they hemorrhage goals, which is why they aren’t higher in the standings.

Kevin Hayes is a question mark, and he’s 50/50 for the game. Paul Carey, despite his solid play early on, is the scratch. That’s not a slight on Carey, but the Rangers need to see what Lettieri is while keeping Buch in the lineup. If Hayes can’t go, then the lines below will be juggled a bit. If he can, then the lines below are what we should expect.

Isles Systems

On the forecheck, they appear to rotate between a 2-1-2 and a 1-2-2, but use both aggressively. In the defensive zone, it looked like an aggressive zone, likely a hybrid strong side overload/zone. On the penalty kill, it looks like a wedge+1. The powerplay is mostly overload, but they work in a 1-3-1 every now and then.

Islanders Lines

Anders Lee-John Tavares-Alan Quine
Andrew Beauvillier-Matt Barzal-Jordan Eberle
Michael Dal Colle-Brock Nelson-Nikolay Kulemin
Jason Chimera-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck

Nick Leddy-Sebastian Aho
Adam Pelech-Scott Mayfield
Thomas Hickey-Ryan Pulock

PP1: Lee-Tavares-Nelson-Barzal-Leddy
PP2: Beauvillier-Quine-Eberle-Dal Colle-Pulock

Jaro Halak gets the start.

Rangers Lines

JT Miller–Mika Zibanejad–Mats Zuccarello
Rick Nash–Kevin Hayes-Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner–David Desharnais–Vinny Lettieri
Jimmy Vesey–Boo Nieves–Vinny Lettieri

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

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

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Scratches/Injuries: Chris Kreider (blood clot), Brendan Smith (healthy), Paul Carey (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: No fights in the stands.

Game time is 1pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game shenanigans.

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