The Rangers are back at MSG tonight for their last game before the NHL trade deadline. It’s a bit sad that most of the attention will be on the deadline, because we have a potential Eastern Conference Final matchup tonight. The Panthers are, realistically, the only team that truly scares me in the Eastern Conference. I think the Rangers can beat anyone in 7 games, Florida included, but the Panthers are loaded and they play 16 game type hockey.
The Rangers are still going in without any true scoring depth aside from the Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere line, and it’s becoming a problem. The Kreider/Zibanejad duo has done nothing, and the third line has crashed back down to Earth. While they’ve been winning, they are certainly flawed at the moment. Hopefully fixing the forward depth will help the blue line and their play. This stuff is connected, after all.
Panthers Lines
Carter Verhaeghe-Alex Barkov-Sam Reinhart
Nick Cousins-Sam Bennett-Matt Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen-Anton Lundell-Evan Rodrigues
Jonah Gadjovich-Kevin Stenlund-Ryan Lomberg
Gustav Forsling-Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola-Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson-DmitriyKulikov
Sergei Bobrovsky gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jimmy Vesey
Will Cuylle-Jonny Brodzinski-Kaapo Kakko
Matt Rempe-Barclay Goodrow-Adam Edstrom
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Erik Gustafsson-Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin gets the start
Injuries: Filip Chytil (concussion), Blake Wheeler (leg)
Crazy Prediction: Someone besides the Trocheck line scores.
Game time is 7pm.
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