The Rangers look to make it three in a row tonight in Denver against a very, very good Colorado Avalanche team that is as close to full strength as they can get. The top half of this lineup is scary, and can put up 6 goals in a hurry if the Rangers revert back to their December defense. They also have one of the best defensemen in the league in Cale Makar and one of the top pairs with him and Devon Toews. The Avs have one of the best top-halves of the lineup in the NHL.
But Colorado’s depth, while still good, is beatable. With the Rangers getting both Filip Chytil and Chris Kreider back in a third line capacity, the Blueshirts have the potential to feast on depth. But, and this is a big one, they need to stay disciplined in the neutral zone and in the defensive zone if they want to limit what that top line can do.
Avs Lines
Jonathan Drouin-Nathan MacKinnon-Mikko Rantanen
Arturri Lehkonen-Casey Middlestadt-Ross Colton
Joel Kiviranta-Parker Kelley-Logan O’Connor
Jere Innala-Juuso Parssinen-Jason Polin
Devon Toews-Cale Makar
Calvin de Haan-Josh Manson
Keaton Middleton-Sam Malinski
Mackenzie Blackwood gets the start.
Rangers Lines
Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle-Mika Zibanejad-Reilly Smith
Chris Kreider-Filip Chytil-Arthur Kaliyev
Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Matt Rempe
Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller-Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen-Braden Schneider
Igor Shesterkin gets the start.
Crazy Prediction: Three in a row? Is that even possible?
Game time is 9pm.
