Chytil Remains Out as New York Rangers Travel to Calgary

After escaping Vancouver with a 4-3 win, the Blueshirts are in Calgary where Filip Chytil remains out of the lineup (9:00PM on MSG).

Rangers	Rankings	Flames
12-4-1	Record	10-6-3
7th	League Rank	11th
5th	Goals For	24th
4th	Goals Against	8th
7th	Power play	28th
2nd	Penalty Kill	27th

Rangers vs Flames

The good news for the Rangers is that Filip Chytil did not suffer a concussion and has joined the team in Calgary. Unfortunately, Chytil skated only with the extras after practice and will be unavailable for Thursday night. Jonny Brodzinski will remain on that line in Chytil’s absence. Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko have had terrific starts to the season and Brodzinski seemingly fit in without a drop off. Cuylle has 14 points on the season which is tied for the third most on the Rangers, and he gets very little power-play time. In addition, Kakko is having the best start to a singular season in his career, and he is showing some offensive promise along with some sneaky good ability to play the center position.

Unlike Tuesday’s opponent – The Vancouver Canucks, the Calgary Flames enter the game with mostly a clean bill of health. The only player they are missing is Anthony Mantha who is undergoing ACL surgery and will miss the remainder of the season. Mantha had seven points in 13 games and was a plus six.

Mantha’s absence will only put more pressure on Calgary’s top lines to produce more offense. Unfortunately for the Flames, their leading point scorer is Rasmus Andersson – a defender who has twelve points. Veterans Jonathan Huberdeau and Nazem Kadri each have ten points as they are tied for most points on their team by a forward.

Instead of being top heavy, Calgary has a more balanced scoring output through their lineup with many players contributing up and down the lineup. The Flames have 13 forwards with at least six points on the season whereas the Rangers have just eleven.

Since the first three games, Calgary has not managed to score four goals in a single game (not counting a shootout victory). If the Blueshirts can manage four goals, they should find themselves with a tremendous spot to win the hockey game.

But getting four goals won’t be easy as Calgary will have Dustin Wolf in the net for his eleventh start of the season. Wolf is 7-2-1 on the season with a .925 save percentage. Calgary have won three of their last four games and they have not given up four goals in the month of November yet (not counting an empty net goal).

Igor Shesterkin will be back in goal for the Blueshirts having recorded two straight wins. Shesterkin has not been at the absolute top of his game in the past few starts, yet he still is giving the Rangers a chance to win on every night. The Russian netminder is 8-4-1 with a .911 save percentage on the season.

Expect the Rangers to stick with the exact same lineup as they had in Vancouver with no changes looking likely. The Zibanejad line had one of their better games of the season and they will be looking to build off that. Mika Zibanejad’s line recorded two goals including the game winning goal by Chris Kreider.

Bet of the Night

We need to get back in the win column and this is a bit of a tricky game to bet on confidently as this doesn’t seem like it will be high scoring. The bet of the night is just the Rangers moneyline at -166 odds. A $5 bet would pay $8.01 for a profit of $3.01. With many iffy lines and the fact that this doesn’t appear to be a high scoring game, let’s play it safe and we win if the Rangers win.

Current record: 4-5

Current Money Total (Based on $5 bets) – We are down $8.90 on the season