Questions in goal for Rangers as they look to get even against Wild
On Thursday night, the New York Rangers will take on the Minnesota Wild at home in a rematch following last week’s 5-4 road shootout. After blowing an early three-goal lead to their Central Division opponent, the Rangers will look to even the score and stretch their points streak to nine games.
With an intervening 5-3 win at home Tuesday night against the Detroit Red Wings, the Rangers hold a record of 9-2-1. They remain first in the Metropolitan Division, with the Carolina Hurricanes and New Jersey Devils closest on their tail. The Wild currently stand fifth in their division at 5-5-2.
New York will aim to remain consistent tonight while still missing several critical players. Adam Fox (LTIR) and Filip Chytil (IR) remain out, while Igor Shesterkin, who took a brief practice on Wednesday, is still day-to-day. In yet another wrinkle, it was announced last night that Jonathan Quick has an upper-body issue that puts his status for tonight’s game in jeopardy. Hence, the Rangers recalled both goalies from the Hartford Wolf Pack in Louis Domingue and Dylan Garand, along with defenseman Connor Mackey.
Here’s tonight’s game and broadcast info:
New York Rangers (9-2-1) vs Minnesota Wild (5-5-2)
Date/Time: November 9, 2023 @ 7:00 PM ET
Arena: Madison Square Garden
TV: MSG
Radio: ESPN 98.7 FM
Note: Subject to change, updated for each game
Additional Note: Tonight, the Rangers will honor and support those who serve and have served with Military Appreciation Night, presented by Northwell. The night will feature in-arena promotions such as the recognition of military members and a national anthem featuring members of the United States Air Force.
New York Rangers Projected Lineup
Prior to Tuesday night’s victory over the Red Wings, head coach Peter Laviolette made some changes to the lineup he’d used previously, but only in part due to the injuries to both Fox and Chytil. The other reason given by the coach for the adjustments was that he just wanted to switch things up and give a couple of alternative lines a look.
It’s expected the lineup will remain the same as on Tuesday for tonight’s game, with the possibility of Louis Domingue in net instead of Jonathan Quick.
Kreider – Zibanejad – Wheeler
Panarin – Trocheck – Lafreniere
Cuylle – Bonino – Kakko
Vesey – Goodrow – Pitlick
Miller – Trouba
Lindgren – Gustafsson
Jones – Schneider
Domingue
Garand
Note: The Rangers will have a pre-game skate scheduled for 10:30 AM ET at the MSG Training Center. Check back in for updates.
UPDATE: Louis Domingue will start
Rangers look to emulate Tuesday’s win
Though the Rangers took their foot off the gas by the second period in their last game facing the Wild, they maintained offensive zone pressure for almost the entire 60 minutes Tuesday night against the Red Wings. A strong first and second period allowed them to emerge victorious from the competition, although they didn’t quite demonstrate the “lock it down, close it out” focus you would hope to see by the end of the third period.
Jonathan Quick, following up on his previous four performances for the Rangers, was just about everything you could ask for in net; and most especially for a backup goaltender. Other high points in the game for New York were two goals scored by a surging Vincent Trocheck; two goals scored by Chris Kreider and Artemi Panarin, respectively; and the third goal of the season for rookie Will Cuylle — who continues to prove the Rangers correct in their decision to add him to the NHL roster this season.
As is common for the Blueshirts, special teams were a large part of the story of the game. New York went a perfect six-for-six on the penalty kill, and scored two of their five goals on the power play. The Rangers scored all five of their goals in the first two periods, but halfway through the third period, they appeared to lose discipline in the defensive zone and allowed Detroit three goals in quick succession.
Said Laviolette after the game, “Really good win. It was a little frustrating in the third period where they [the Red Wings] were able to capitalize on a few things…The last two goals, some line rush issues — and we can fix that. But overall, I thought we came out with the right attitude and the right pace, and really put the game where we wanted to put it right from the start; so I was happy with that.”
As of Wednesday, as per the Rangers, this season New York has points in eight straight games (7-0-1) and are 3-1-0 at home. In the NHL, New York has the third most wins (8) and points (19). It’s the fifth time in team history the Blueshirts have won at least nine of their first 12 games of a season (2023-24, 2016-17, 2008-09, 1990-91, 1983-84).
The Rangers would like to continue getting off on the right foot with a 7-1-1 record when scoring first. That’s currently tied for the most wins in the NHL when getting on the board early.
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