Rangers Conclude Regular Season Game Against Ottawa

The Blueshirts will play their final game of the regular season as they host the Ottawa Senators. Monday night’s game will have major playoff implications one way or another (7:00PM on MSG).

Rangers	Rankings	Senators
54-22-4	Record	36-40-4
1st	League Rank	26th
8th	Goals For	18th
7th	Goals Against	28th
3rd	Power play	23rd
3rd	Penalty Kill	29th

Rangers vs Senators

It all comes down to the last game of the season for the Rangers with everything on the line on home ice at Madison Square Garden (MSG). If the Blueshirts win, they will win the Metro Division, clinch the Eastern Conference, and win the Presidents Trophy for the top team in the league. Should New York lose, they could be overtaken by Dallas, Carolina, or Boston and possibly not win any of those accolades.

The Rangers and Senators have played twice so far this season with each team winning once. The Senators defeated the Rangers 6-2 in the first meeting, while the Rangers defeated Ottawa 7-2 in the last game before the all-star break.

For the Blueshirts, they are not expected to rest any regular players as they postseason looms. The Rangers will have a rest following Monday night’s game as the playoffs won’t start until this upcoming weekend. The Blueshirts will likely start on Sunday given that the Knicks opening game for the playoffs will be on Saturday in MSG.

One player the Rangers hope will be back for the playoffs is Filip Chytil. Chytil played in the opening ten games this season, but hasn’t played since due to a concussion. The Czech center has practiced with the team the past few days with no restrictions. Chytil won’t play in the regular season finale, but could be available at some point in the playoffs. With no salary cap in the playoffs, the Rangers can just activate Chytil and insert him into the lineup.

But before they can look forward to Chytil’s possible return, they have to get through Monday night against the Senators. Ottawa has some big injuries which the Rangers hope they can take advantage of. Josh Norris is out for the remainder of the season, while it appears unlikely Tim Stutzle will play against the Blueshirts as he is still in a non-contact jersey. Stutzle has 70 points on the season which is second on the team. Travis Hamonic, Ridly Greig, and Dominik Kubalik are all listed as day-to-day and could miss out on Monday.

But Ottawa still has some serious talent that can hurt you including Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson. Tkachuk is as feisty as they come and he is pushing 40 goals on the season. Tkachuk will likely finish as the top point scorer on Ottawa this season. Batherson on the opposite wing has 65 points – a new career high. And veteran Claude Giroux has 64 points on the season. Ottawa will not make the playoffs this season despite being one of the teams looked at as possibly making noise and moving up the standings at the start of the year. On Monday night, they will be looking to play spoiler.

Joonas Korpisalo will be in the net for the Senators. Korpisalo has 21 wins on the season with an .890 save percentage. Korpisalo’s only start against the Rangers as a member of the Senators came in that 7-2 defeat earlier this season. New York has managed at least three goals on the Finnish netminder in seven-of-eight games against Korpisalo. The only time New York didn’t score three goals on the 29-year-old was during the very first time they faced him, back when he was a member of the Blue Jackets in 2016.

Igor Shesterkin will be in goal for New York. Shesterkin is 2-1-1 lifetime against the Senators with a .919 save percentage.

In other Rangers news, Artemi Panarin has been named as the team’s MVP for the season, whereas Jonathan Quick has won the Players’ Player Award for this season.

Bet of the Night

We have been down bad as of late and haven’t hit one in forever. So let’s shoot for a home run to get out of the red. Let’s do a three-leg parlay to try and finish the season strong. First leg, the Rangers puck line at -1.5. The second leg is for Adam Fox to record over .5 assists. The third leg is for Artemi Panarin to record over 1.5 points. Combine that with a profit boost and the odds jump to +350. A $5 bet would pay $22.52 for a profit of $17.52. The Rangers need their best players to show up on Monday night, and this bet would indicate them doing just that.

Current record: 20-23

Current Money Total (Based on $5 bets) – We are down $8.23 on the season. After being positive the whole season, we currently find ourselves in the red for the first time.