Perseverance is the name of the game as the New York Rangers will face off against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight in Raleigh.
- New York Rangers (5-2-0)
- Carolina Hurricanes (1-3-2)
- NHL, Today, 7:30 PM on FSCR and MSG, Full Preview
- PNC Arena, Raleigh, NC
The team assumed the role of the comeback kids on Wednesday night, having beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 after being down by two goals early in the game.
The shoes of Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich are not small shoes to fill but the Blueshirts have demonstrated their ability to persevere.
The depth and perseverance of this team should not be taken lightly.
It’s a good thing too, because they will need to continue to prove that they can fill the vacancies of players like Kreider, and now Josh Jooris.
Jooris isn’t exactly a power forward, but his solid and reliable play will be missed on the back end of the lineup as he recovers from a separated shoulder.
The big news though, came yesterday.
McIlrath (NYR) & Paajarvi (STL) on waivers
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 27, 2016
McIlrath was never going to have a permanent roster spot while Alain Vigneault is behind the bench.
His style of play is about 15 years behind the times, he can’t consistently move the puck, and his tough-guy style will often put the team on the penalty kill.
Vingeault’s comments confirm what we all suspected:
“there are a lot of positives that you see, the size and work ethic and every day he comes here and works on getting better and trying to improve his game. We obviously felt that there were a couple of areas, puck skills and puck decisions…maybe it was less about him and more about the other guys this year showing they were a little bit better than he is at this time. It doesn’t mean that if he clears waivers and goes to Hartford and plays well, things change rapidly in this league. What we feel after what he went through last year and this year he needs to play. He is a young player who still has a hockey future in front of him and needs to play some games.”
So long, Dylan.
Buchnevich will make his return to the roster tonight, and it will be interesting to see how AV and company construct the lines with Kreider out.
Rick Nash–Mika Zibanejad-Pavel Buchnevich sounds enticing, but such a line might be missing the grit which Kreider adds to the forecheck.
Henrik Lundqvist has seen the bulk of the action early, although I am a big surprised to see that AV isn’t throwing backup goalie Antti Raanta into the fire tonight.
#NYR update from Raleigh: Buchnevich, Lundqvist in vs Canes: Kreider better but will miss weekend games; Jooris (IR, shoulder) out 3-4 weeks
— Steve Zipay (@stevezipay) October 28, 2016
Raanta will most likely see some action next weekend when the Rangers have a back to back against the Boston Bruins and Winnipeg jets.
If Wednesday’s self-proclaimed “rivalry” game was a trap contest for the Rangers, then tonight’s game is no different.
The Rangers will need to continue to lean on players like Rick Nash (yes, that Rick Nash) and Brandon Pirri for production. The Nash haters haven’t had too much to chew about thus far, as Nash has been one the Rangers’ better players through seven games.
The defense has also been solid, Dan Girardi included, and they will need to continue to execute their “bend but not break” system.
