New York Rangers vs Ottawa Senators 7pm At Madison Square Garden. Tickets
Rangers | NHL Rankings | Senators |
46-20-6 | Record | 26-38-6 |
4th | NHL Standing Rank | 27th |
18th | GF/PG | 26th |
3rd | GA/PG | 23rd |
2nd | PP% | 22nd |
9th | PK% | 13th |
- Last game – Rangers shut out the Pittsburgh Penguins by the score of 3-0. Igor Shesterkin recorded 30 saves in a much-needed feel-good win
- The Rangers‘ victory came with two casualties as Tyler Motte and Filip Chytil won’t be available against the Senators on Saturday
- Chytil is expected to be out for a short period of time and is listed as day-to-day. Motte on the other hand took a big hit from Anthony Angelo and is out with a “significant” upper-body injury. The good news is head coach Gerard Gallant wouldn’t rule Motte out for the season and that he didn’t suffer a head injury of any kind
- While it is never good to see two players get injured – the good news is the Rangers have depth and they could get a boost as the return of Kaapo Kakko and Kevin Rooney are imminent.
- Gallant said after practice on Friday “There’s definitely a chance” for both to be available.
- Kakko practiced on the third line with Alexis Lafreniere and Barclay Goodrow while Rooney practiced on the fourth line with Dryden Hunt and Ryan Reaves
- Ottawa is dealing with a plethora of injuries to many key players. Drake Batherson (illness) and Tim Stutzle (lower-body) are both day-to-day and won’t play against the Rangers
- Thomas Chabot has a fractured hand and is out for the remainder of the season. And rookie Shane Pinto and veteran netminder Matt Murray are both on the IR and are out indefinitely
- Rangers must stop the top line of Ottawa that has a duo of Brady Tkachuk and Josh Norris. Tkachuk leads Ottawa with 53 points while Norris has 31 goals in 54 games. If Norris was healthy all season, he would be on pace for just shy of 50 goals
- Anton Forsberg is expected in goal for Ottawa and he has done an excellent job as the Senators continue their rebuild. Forsberg has a record of 17-15-3 with a 2.73 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage
- Rangers can clinch a playoff spot with a win against the Ottawa Senators who are way less than full strength
- Despite Ottawa being less than full strength, they can’t take them lightly as they learned only managed to defeat the Senators by one goal in each of the first two meetings this season