The Rangers are back home tonight to take on the surprisingly good Vancouver Canucks. The Canucks have made many people look silly, as they wheeled and dealed and made most of us question their end goals. Now, they are sitting pretty in a playoff spot and have looked halfway decent too. They aren’t as strong on paper as some of the other competing teams, but they find ways to win.
The Canucks are very top heavy, as you can see from their lines. They have great skill on their top line and top pair, but it really drops off after that. Even at full strength, the Rangers would have a tough time stopping that top line. With all the injuries and without a true shutdown line to speak of, that may be a difficult task.
The key for the Rangers is slowing the game down. Vancouver plays fast. If the Rangers can slow them down in the neutral zone and on the breakout, they will likely find success.
Canucks Lines
Elias Pettersson-JT Miller-Brock Boeser
Ilya Mikheyev-Pius Suter-Andrei Kuzmenko
Dakota Joshua-Teddy Blueger-Conor Garland
Nils Hoglander-Nils Aman-Sam Rafferty
Quinn Hughes-Filip Hronek
Nikita Zadarov-Ian Cole
Carson Soucy-Tyler Myers
Thatcher Demko gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Blake Wheeler
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle-Barclay Goodrow-Jimmy Vesey
Brennan Othmann-Nick Bonino-Jonny Brodzinski
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Erik Gustafsson-Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin gets the start.
Injuries: Filip Chytil (concussion), Kaapo Kakko (knee), Tyler Pitlick (lower body)
Crazy Prediction: 10 goals between both teams
Game time is 7pm.
Share:
More About:Game Thread