The Rangers are in Columbus tonight to kick off a pretty rough stretch for them. They play four of the next five on the road, including another three-in-four starting tonight. The Blue Jackets have good process and decent possession/expected-goals numbers, but really lack high-end skill and goaltending to make it work. Yes, skill and goaltending still matter.
The Rangers have better skill and goaltending, but the process is still a mess. They’ve been better lately, and a lot has to do with Filip Chytil’s emergence and Mika Zibanejad’s return. They’ve been getting 47% of the expected goals share since Chytil was recalled, which is much better than the 40% prior.
Blue Jackets Lines
Gustav Nyquist-Boone Jenner-Oliver Bjorkstrand
Nick Foligno-Alex Texier-Cam Atkinson
Sonny Milano-Pierre Luc-Dubois-Emil Bemstrom
Riley Nash-Alex Wennberg-Josh Anderson
Dean Kukan-Seth Jones
Ryan Murray-David Savard
Vladislav Gavrikov-Andrew Peeke
PP1: Nyquist-Dubois-Jenner-Bjorkstrand-Jones
PP2: Milano-Foligno-Anderson-Kukan-Murray
Joonas Korpisalo gets the start.
Rangers Lines (best guess)
Brendan Lemieux-Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin-Ryan Strome-Kaapo Kakko
Chris Kreider-Filip Chytil-Jesper Fast
Boo Nieves-Brett Howden–Brendan Smith
Brady Skjei–Jacob Trouba
Libor Hajek–Tony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren–Adam Fox
PP1: Panarin-Zibanejad-Strome-Kreider-Fox
PP2: Kakko-Buchnevich-Chytil-Trouba-DeAngelo
PK Forwards: Fast, Kreider, Strome, Howden, Lemieux
PK Defense: Skjei, Trouba, Staal Smith
Alex Georgiev gets the start.
Scratches: Marc Staal (ankle), Greg McKegg (lower body), Micheal Haley (healthy)
Crazy Prediction: Hank finally gets a shutout.
Game time is 7pm.
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