Rangers vs. Bruins: Lineups, storylines as Blueshirts try to end slump
The New York Rangers hope history repeats itself when they visit the Boston Bruins on Saturday afternoon in a nationally televised game.
One of the brightest spots in the Rangers’ up-and-down season came in their last visit to Boston just over six weeks ago. They put on one of their best performances of the season on Black Friday before a national TV audience, thumping the Bruins 6-2 behind a four-point afternoon by Artemi Panarin and a solid defensive effort that limited the B’s to just 21 shots on goal against Igor Shesterkin.
That team had an elite goalie and a premier defenseman in Adam Fox. The team that takes the ice Saturday will have neither. Shesterkin and Fox sustained lower-body injuries Monday in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth at Madison Square Garden. Shesterkin is on injured reserve but is eligible to return next week; Fox is on long-term IR and can’t return until Jan. 31 at the earliest.
The Rangers will probably be glad to be on the road after back-to-back home losses to Utah and the Buffalo Sabres this week dropped them to 5-11-4 at the Garden. In contrast, their 15-8-2 record on the road is among the NHL’s best.
One problem the Rangers have had is “chasing the game” – falling behind early and spending the night playing catch-up. It’s what happened in the 5-2 loss to Buffalo on Thursday – they allowed an early goal, trailed 3-1 after two periods and couldn’t get the tying goal despite thoroughly dominating the third period and getting a late four-minute power play.
“I thought the third period was our best, without a doubt – just the heightened level of intensity, just playing the right way, making good decisions,” coach Mike Sullivan said after practice Friday. “I think when we play fast, we look fast, and I think that was an indication of that in the third period last night. I think that third period was one of our better periods in the last handful of games.
“That’s the type of game we aspire to put on the ice more consistently, and that’s going to be our challenge moving forward.”
The Rangers enter the weekend at 20-19-6; by points percentage (.511), they are 15th among the 16 teams in the Eastern Conference. The Blueshirts are five points out of a playoff spot after going 1-3-2 since the Christmas break, so running off a few wins sooner rather than later is a must.
A matchup with the Bruins, who enter the day two points ahead of the Rangers, could be an ideal starting point. New York is 6-1-0 in its last seven games against its longtime rival, including 3-1-0 in Boston.
3 storylines when Rangers visit Bruins
1. More needed from Jonathan Quick
Shesterkin’s injury puts a lot of heat on Jonathan Quick, and the future Hall of Famer has to pick up his play.
On the surface, his 2.39 goals-against average and .911 save percentage are excellent. But he’s struggled since the start of December, going 0-4-2 in six decisions (five starts) and posting a sub-.900 save percentage in five of those six games.
He wasn’t awful against the Sabres, but he didn’t make the big save when it was needed – Buffalo scored a back-breaking shorthanded goal during the late four-minute power play on a shot that Quick should have stopped. It put the Sabres up two goals and completely deflated the Rangers and their fans.
Quick went through a slump at the same time last season; he was 1-4-2 in seven starts during December and January and had a save percentage over .900 in just one of those games. The good omen for the Rangers: It came in a 2-1 win over the Bruins on Jan. 2 when he stopped 32 of 33 shots.
The Rangers need another effort like that on Saturday.
2. Shuffling the blue line
Sullivan kept the shuffled defense pairings he used Thursday at practice Friday, moving Carson Soucy to the left side with rookie Scott Morrow and putting Soucy’s usual partner, Will Borgen, together with Matthew Robertson.
With Fox on the shelf, Morrow is the best puck-moving defenseman left on the roster. But Sullivan has shown he doesn’t trust the defensive aspects of the rookie’s game, and he’s hoping that pairing Morrow with a veteran will balance things out.
“We were trying to spread it out; we’ll take it game to game,” Sullivan said of the switches. “We’ll watch and see how the performance is, how we think the pairs are working. But our thought going into it was to spread the young kids through some of our more veteran guys and help us create a little more balance.”
3. Laba ready to return?
The Rangers have missed rookie Noah Laba, who provides speed, physicality and a dash of offense while centering the third line. Laba hasn’t played since New Year’s Eve, when he was freight-trained by Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals in a 6-3 loss.
But Laba was a full-contact participant in Friday’s practice, and Sullivan said he’ll be a game-time decision.
“He’s a possibility,” the coach said. “He participated in full contact (Friday). We’ll see how he responds and make decisions from there.”
Sullivan is pleased with the way Laba has made the transition from college hockey to the NHL – especially the physicality and the longer schedule and travel time.
“I think he’s done a really good job,” he said. “Lavs has steadily improved his overall game, game to game, week to week, month to month. I think without a doubt, one of the biggest challenges, especially coming from college where guys are used to playing a 30-40-game schedule to 80 or 100 (games) is a significant difference. The intensity, the preparation, all of the things that come into play with respect to that. It can be fatiguing in a lot of ways, not just physically. I think Lavs has done a great job handling (it).
Laba has 12 points (five goals, seven assists) in 42 games while averaging 13:13 of ice time.
New York Rangers projected lineup
Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Will Cuylle
J.T. Miller — Vincent Trocheck — Alexis Lafreniere
Gabe Perreault — Noah Laba — Taylor Raddysh
Anton Blidh — Sam Carrick — Matt Rempe
Vladislav Gavrikov — Braden Schneider
Carson Soucy – Scott Morrow
Matthew Robertson – Will Borgen
Jonathan Quick
Spencer Martin
Rangers vs. Bruins: When, where, what time, how to watch
Who: New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins
When: Saturday, Jan. 10 at 1 p.m. ET
Where: TD Garden
How to watch: ABC
