After a few weeks out of the lineup due to groin (Zuccarello) and finger (Buchnevich) injuries, both Mats Zuccarello and Pavel Buchnevich are set to return to the lineup tomorrow. The Rangers have been a train wreck without them, which makes sense. Losing two top forwards on a thin team certainly will lead to struggles. The Rangers adjusted their lineup earlier in the week by returning Steven Fogarty and Cole Schneider to Hartford.
Per Brett Cyrgalis, the Rangers are inserting them both back into the top-six:
Staal taking a maintenance day. So, #NYR at practice:
Chytil-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Kreider-Hayes-Buchnevich
Vesey-Howden-Fast
Andersson(Beleskey)-Strome-Namestnikov
Skjei-McQuaid
Claesson-DeAngelo
Smith-Pionk— Brett Cyrgalis (@BrettCyrgalis) December 12, 2018
Cyrgalis did clarify that Matt Beleskey is rotating with Ryan Strome, not Lias Andersson. So it will be one of Strome/Beleskey in tomorrow.
Also slated to return is defenseman Adam McQuaid. With Kevin Shattenkirk out, there was a natural opening for him. The pairings above have Marc Staal out on a maintenance day, so my guess is he’s back in with Neal Pionk and Brendan Smith will be the healthy scratch.
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