Rangers Continue Road Trip in Vancouver – Pregame Notes

After a night to forget against the last place Calgary Flames on Sunday, the Blueshirts continue their pacific northwest road trip against the Vancouver Canucks (10:00PM on MSG).

Rangers vs Canucks

• Tuesday night’s puck drop will be the third to last of the evening on NHL Frozen Frenzy
  • Every team in the league will play on Tuesday night
• For the Rangers it is about getting back to the basics. They started the season off playing really good team defense and that has become unglued in the last couple of games
  • The Rangers have given up a combined eleven goals in the last two games which came against the then last placed Sharks, and the current last place Flames who average the fewest goals per game
• The first few games the Rangers were playing the right way. They were playing very good defense allowing very few high danger chances from the slot. Despite struggling to score, they created many high quality chances
• The last two games have looked more like the team from last year leaving the middle of the slot wide open and not defending well as a team
• Jonathan Quick is expected to get the start in goal for the Rangers. Quick last appeared in their 4-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
• Head coach Mike Sullivan gave injury updates on Tuesday afternoon
  • Matt Rempe’s injury will be “longer-term”
  • Vincent Trocheck who is not on the road trip resumed skating on his own
• Tuesday night’s game in Vancouver will be J.T. Miller’s first game back in Vancouver since being traded last year
• Vancouver enters the game with a ton of injuries that will play into the Blueshirts hands. Notable injured players who won’t play on Tuesday night:
  • Quinn Hughes
  • Filip Chytil
  • Victor Mancini
  • Teddy Blueger
  • Derek Forbot
  • Nils Hoglander
• One name to keep an eye on is Canucks winger Kiefer Sherwood. Sherwood does not get enough attention, but the winger is someone you hate to play against. The 30-year-old has six goals on the season and he finishes every single check. Last season he finished with 462 hits – 156 more than second place. This year, Sherwood is at 45 and is just one hit shy of being tied for the lead league in hits.
  • Will Cuylle has 42 hits on the season
• Thatcher Demko is likely to get the start in goal for the Canucks. Demko is 4-2-0 with a .922 save percentage
• Jonny Brodzinski will draw back into the lineup on the fourth line in place of Brennan Othmann Othmann was just called up, but only played in one game before becoming a healthy scratch
• Matthew Robertson will also be a healthy scratch as Urho Vaakanainen will return to the lineup
• The Blueshirts will play two more road games before returning to home ice

Projected Lineup 

Panarin-Zibanejad-Cuylle

Sheary-Miller-Lafreniere

Parssinen-Laba-Raddysh

Edstrom-Carrick-Brodzinski

Gavrikov-Fox

Borgen-Vaakanainen

Soucy-Schneider

Quick