The New York Rangers Begin Their Road Trip with First-Ever

Rangers	NHL Rankings	Kraken
5-2-1	Record	3-4-1
7^th	NHL Standing Rank	26^th
26^th	GF/PG	19^th
6^th	GA/PG	21^st
22^nd	PP%	29^th
19^th	PK%	4^th

Previous Game

The Rangers are coming off an impressive 4-0 victory in a divisional matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Coming into the game, the Rangers primary goal-scoring came into the game struggling to create offense. On Friday night, the primary offense came through with goals coming from Ryan Strome, Alexis Lafreniere, and two goals from Chris Kreider on the power play. Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin each had three assists on the night.

Igor Shesterkin recorded his first shutout of the young season stopping all 31 shots he faced.

“They definitely played very well in front of me,” Shesterkin said. “Happy to have their support all game. They did a great job getting in lanes and helping out a lot. I’m very thankful for their effort tonight.”

Would also just like to give a shoutout to Blue Jackets goaltender Elvis Merzlikins for the sportsmanship he showed at the end of the game. Columbus had possession of the puck in their own zone with about 20 seconds left. With Madison Square Garden on its feet, Merzlikins basically told his team to hold the puck in their own zone and don’t try to score. The Latvian native saluted Shesterkin on his performance as time expired. It was a moment of good sportsmanship that showed the respect Merzlikins had for his opposition. Some fans on social media were saying that he should’ve let his team try to break the shutout and that it would have meant more to Shesterkin for a complete 60-minute shutout. At the end of the day, the game was already beyond reach and it wasn’t worth a possible injury occurring to either team. Respect to Elvis.

Rangers

The Rangers offense will look to keep momentum as they head to Seattle for the first-ever meeting with the Kraken. For the first time in a game this season, the Rangers scored four goals on a goaltender and will now have a chance to string two good offensive performances together. While the Kraken has a top-five penalty kill to start the season, they rank just 21^st in goals against per game. This tends to indicate that they are vulnerable at even strength. Given the offensive struggles the Rangers have had to start the season, a favorable matchup at five-on-five could help build the confidence of some struggling offensive players.

Ryan Reaves remains out of the lineup with a lower-body injury. Reaves suffered the injury early in the first period against the Flames and was unavailable against the Blue Jackets. Reaves will be eligible to return early next week after spending seven days on the injured reserved.

Seattle Kraken

The Kraken open the season and history books 3-4-1 as they look to get back to .500. The Kraken’s roster was made from the expansion draft which saw them take one player from each team. The Blueshirts lost Colin Blackwell to Seattle but he has yet to play a game for the Kraken this season. Blackwell has been dealing with a lower-body injury and he isn’t expected to be available. Blackwell has been skating before practice and his Kraken debut is inching closer. The 28-year-old recorded 22 points in 47 games for the Rangers last season.

Seattle is currently on a two-game winning streak with wins over the Montreal Canadiens and the Minnesota Wild. Seattle outscored both opponents by the score of 9-2.

Seattle will play the first leg of a back-to-back which will force head coach Dave Hakstol into an interesting goaltending decision. The Kraken host the Rangers tonight before playing in Edmonton for a divisional matchup on Monday night. It is possible the Hakstol deems the Oilers game as a more important game and saves his number one goaltender Phillip Grubauer. Grubauer has stopped 53 of the past 55 shots he faced while third-string goalie Joey Daccord is the current backup with Chris Driedger out due to injury. Daccord is 0-1-0 to start the season stopping 29 of 32 shots in his only start this season.

What to Watch

The biggest thing that concerns me entering this game is what kind of start will the Rangers get off to? The Blueshirts played Friday night in New York and got off to a good start and competed hard for the entire game. Can the Rangers match the intensity especially playing an opponent outside their conference and having to travel across the country to Seattle?