Miller Returns as Rangers Resume Play

K’Andre Miller is set to return to the lineup as the Rangers return from the holiday break against Tampa Bay (7:00PM on MSG2).

Rangers	Rankings	Lightning
16-17-1	Record	19-11-2
23rd	League Rank	15th
22nd	Goals For	1st
14th	Goals Against	8th
21st	Power play	3rd
4th	Penalty Kill	14th

Rangers vs Lightning

K’Andre Miller makes his return to the lineup after missing the previous six games. The last game played by Miller was on December 11th
- Miller will pair with Will Borgen for the first time in his NHL career
- “I think this could really be the turn to our season,” Miller said. “Everybody’s rested. Everybody’s ready to go. Kind of a new mindset.”
- “Now we’ve got our full crew here on the backend and we’ll take a look at it tonight,” said head coach Peter Laviolette on his defensive core being healthy.
- One interesting note – the Rangers upper-management staff seem to remain confident in Laviolette. If the Blueshirts were going to make a coaching change after going from 12-4-1 to last in the division – it likely would have been during the holiday break where the new coach would have had some time to travel and a couple of practices with the team.
- Zac Jones will be a healthy scratch in the lineup as Urho Vaakanainen will be paired with Braden Schneider.

The Blueshirts defensive core is fully healthy and they will be challenged as they look to slow down the number one ranked offense in the league.
The Lightning made some notable offseason moves perhaps notably letting their captain Steven Stamkos walk as a free agent. Victor Hedman was named the team’s new captain this offseason. They also traded away young Mikhail Sergachev to Utah
- They brought in Jake Guentzel as a free agent to replace Stamkos
- On defense, they brought back former Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh and JJ Moser to help reshape their defensive core
Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning in points with 50 on the season. Kucherov is fourth in the NHL and is just ten points shy of Nathan MacKinnon who leads the league
- Brayden Point is second on the team with 39 points in 28 games played. Point’s 22 goals leads the team and is tied for fourth in the NHL
- Guentzel has 35 points including 19 goals as he is having a terrific start to his tenure in Tampa Bay
- Total – the Lightning have six guys either above a point-per-game pace or within two points of being a point-per-game player
Andrei Vasilevskiy will get the start for the Lightning. Vasilevskiy is 15-10-1 with a .911 save percentage
Igor Shesterkin will be in the net for New York. Shesterkin is 11-13-1 with a .913 save percentage
Laviolette will go with the forwards that started the season, except with Brett Berard filling in Kaapo Kakko’s spot. The Blueshirts will hope this break gets them going including guys like Alexis Lafreniere, Chris Kreider, and Mika Zibanejad