The Rangers played their second clunker on Monday night, losing to Minnesota and again struggling for consistency on offense. They now hit a soft spot in the schedule with San Jose tonight before traveling to Calgary, two very winnable games before a mini gauntlet next month. No game in October is a must win, and this is no different in the grand scheme of things. I’m calling it a must win because, to be direct, I don’t want to deal with the negativity if they lose.

The Rangers have the defensive structure seemingly down pat, which is the tougher part of transitioning to a new system. Now it’s about finding the right times to take chances on offense to help right that ship. Some of their struggles are personnel based, but we are looking for progress. Continue moving forward in the big picture.

Rangers lines

Artemi Panarin-Mike Zibanejad-Will Cuylle
Conor Sheary-JT Miller-Alexis Lafrenière
Juuso Parssinen-Noah Laba-Taylor Raddysh
Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Matt Rempe

Vlad Gavrikov-Adam Fox
Matthew Robertson-Will Borgen
Carson Soucy-Braden Schneider

PP1: Fox, Panarin, Lafreniere, Zibanejad, Miller
PP2: Schneider, Sheary, Cuylle, Panarin, Rempe

Igor Shesterkin gets the start.

Sharks lines

Tyler Toffoli-Macklin Celebrini-Will Smith
William Eklund-Alex Wennberg-Jeff Skinner
Collin Graf-Michael Misa-Adam Gaudette
Barclay Goodrow-Ty Dellandrea-Ryan Reaves

Dmitry Orlov-Timothy Liljegren
Mario Ferraro-Vincent Desharnais
Nick Leddy-Vincent Iorio

Alex Nedeljkovic gets the start.

Game time is 7pm.

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