The Rangers have put up two duds in a row at home against Detroit and the other night in Vegas. Now they have a tall task of beating the league best Colorado Avalanche. It feels like the Avs put up 11 goals a game, and while that’s hyperbole, they are certainly capable of such an offensive outburst, especially if their opponent mails it in for a night. The Rangers haven’t mailed it in (not full games, at least). Effort isn’t the issue. It’s execution. I leave it to you to decide what’s worse.

The Rangers have new lines, shaking up the top six and moving Alexis Lafreniere to Mika Zibanejad’s line, replacing JT Miller, who moves to Laf’s spot with Vincent Trocheck. There are also reporting conflicts about Will Borgen’s availability, as some beats had him playing but also had Scott Morrow on the powerplay.

Rangers lines

Will Cuylle-Mika Zibanejad-Alexis Lafreniere
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-JT Miller
Conor Sheary-Noah Laba-Jonny Brodzinski
Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Taylor Raddysh

Vlad Gavrikov-Adam Fox
Carson Soucy-Braden Schneider
Matthew Robertson-Scott Morrow

Igor Shesterkingets the start.

Colorado lines

Artturi Lehkonen-Nathan MacKinnon-Martin Necas
Ross Colton-Brock Nelson-Gavin Brindley
Gabriel Landeskog-Jack Drury-Victor Olofsson
Parker Kelley-Zakhar Bardaokv-Joel Kiviranta

Devon Toews-Cale Makar
Josh Manson-Brent Burns
Samuel Girard-Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood gets the start.

Game time is 9pm.

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