Rangers Put Undefeated Outdoor Streak on the Line in Miami

The Blueshirts are 5-0-0 all time in outdoor games and on Friday night, they will put that on the line against the Florida Panthers (8:00PM on TNT).

Rangers	Rankings	Panthers
19-18-5	Record	21-15-3
21st	League Rank	13th
31st	Goals For	12th
7th	Goals Against	20th
15th	Power play	20th
17th	Penalty Kill	6th

Rangers vs Panthers

The Rangers are 5-0-0 in outdoor games, but perhaps are now more at risk of losing their first outdoor game in franchise history than during any other outdoor game during this streak. Friday night’s game will take place at LoanDepot Park – home of the Miami Marlins. One thing to keep a close eye on during Friday night’s game is the condition of the ice. Rangers forward Will Cuylle has already raised concerns about the ice ahead of Friday night’s tilt.

“The ice was pretty bad and pretty slow,” Cuylle said to the media following a practice and family skate around on New Year’s Day.

Currently, the Rangers are not playing great hockey. New York had just two regulation wins in the entire month of December. They currently are on a three-game losing skid.

To make matters worse, the Rangers depth which was already thin to begin with, suffered a couple of blows with Noah Laba and Conor Sheary each going down with injuries, and neither are expected back in the lineup in the short-term. Laba is listed week-to-week while Sheary is on LTIR and has to miss at least the next ten games. Adam Edstrom was already out with a lower-body injury and his timeline is murky. And captain J.T. Miller is currently week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

With the Rangers now short four forwards and with the team already struggling to score – New York will rely heavily on the top-six to get the goals as the Rangers bottom-six is not packing many scorers. With the two new injuries, the Blueshirts have sent down Brennan Othmann (for cap reasons with his bonus), and have recalled forwards Anton Blidh, Justin Dowling, and Brett Berard. Berard will likely skate on the fourth line with Carrick and Rempe. Dowling and Blidh are veterans of the AHL who the Rangers will hope can be defensively responsible. Dowling skated on a line with Taylor Raddysh and Jonny Brodzinski.

The Panthers are currently beat up too as they have five injuries up front and one on the back end. The two notable names are their two superstars in Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov. Tkachuk has resumed skating in a non-contact jersey as his return is inching closer. Barkov, on the other hand, underwent surgery to repair his ACL and MCL after suffering a nasty preseason injury. The Finnish forward won’t be available for the entire regular season and isn’t expected to be back until late April at the earliest.

Fortunately for the Panthers, they are in way better shape to handle a few injuries then the Rangers are. They have serviceable NHL proven depth veterans such as Jesper Boqvist and Luke Kunin. Not sexy names by any means – but these are not career AHLers. Unfortunately for the Panthers, many of their injuries are long term and besides Tkachuk, no one else is expected back for a couple of months including Dmitry Kulikov who was a vital piece on their run to back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Sergei Bobrovsky will start in goal for the Panthers. Bobrovsky has had an interesting season as he has a good record of 17-9-1 with a 2.80 goals-against average. However, his save percentage sits at just .888. The Russian netminder has now won seven of his last eight starts.

Igor Shesterkin will be in goal for the Rangers. The newly turned 30-year-old is 3-1-1 in his last five outings. Shesterkin had the night off during their last game in Washington D.C.

On Friday, Team USA announced their roster for the Olympics and Adam Fox, who just recently returned from injury, was noticeably snubbed. Seth Jones of Florida is one of the players who makes the team after missing out in the four nations. Interestingly, Miller and Tkachuk, who are both injured and won’t play in the Winter Classic, have made Team USA. Vincent Trocheck will represent the Stars and Stripes in Milan. The only other Ranger to make it to the Olympics is Mika Zibanejad for Team Sweden.