New York Rangers Continue Road Trip in Minnesota

Rangers	NHL Rankings	Wild
36-15-5	Record	32-19-3
5^th	NHL Standing Rank	15^th
18^th	GF/PG	3^rd
3^rd	GA/PG	22^nd
4^th	PP%	19^th
7^th	PK%	23^rd

Previous Game

Sunday night, the Rangers defeated the Jets 4-1 in a comfortable victory. Despite being outshot 46-22 by Winnipeg, the Blueshirts felt in complete control from start to finish. Barclay Goodrow opened the scoring just two minutes into the game and the Rangers never looked back. Chris Kreider added his 37^th and 38^th of the season in the first and third periods.

“The big guys are scoring big goals at key times and it put us in control of the game,” said head coach Gerard Gallant.

With the score 3-1, Jacob Trouba would strike against his former team to put the cherry on top.

Igor Shesterkin continued his historic pace with another 45 saves. Shesterkin improved his save percentage to .942 and his goals-against average to 1.93.

Greg McKegg still isn’t practicing as he continues to be out with a non-covid illness. Expect McKegg to remain out of the lineup in Minnesota.

Rangers

The Blueshirts will look to continue to string together wins as they look for revenge against the Minnesota Wild. The Wild defeated the Rangers 3-2 on Henrik Lundqvist night after a Rangers goal in the final seconds was ruled off for goaltender interference.

On Sunday, Gallant opted to use eleven forwards and seven defenders for the first time this season. Gallant stated he doesn’t like to do that often and it appears that Julien Gauthier will return to the third line after being a healthy scratch.

Kreider scored two goals in the previous games and is currently tied for second in the league with 38. Auston Matthews of Toronto has 40 goals with the same number of games played while Leon Draisaitl of Edmonton also has 38 goals.

Shesterkin is once again expected to be back in the net for the Blueshirts. Shesterkin is currently 28-6-3 as he continues to build his case for the Hart trophy.

“With what he’s done for our team, there’s no doubt he’s going to be a strong candidate,” Gallant said.

Wild

The Wild enter this game, not as the same team that defeated the Rangers in Madison Square Garden. While the Wild are a very strong even-strength team in terms of scoring goals, they have struggled on the defensive side of the game and it has shown why they have been struggling since mid-February. Minnesota holds a record of 2-8-0 in their last ten games and they have conceded a lot of goals. In the last ten games, the Wild have given up 48 goals and they have given up at least three goals in every one of those games.

Leading the Wild in points is Kirill Kaprizov who continues to develop into a superstar in the NHL. Kaprizov has 70 points in 53 games and isn’t experiencing a sophomore slump even in the slightest. Also averaging over a point-per-game is former Ranger Mats Zuccarello. Zuccarello has 56 points in 46 games as he continues to be a leader of the Wild.

Having an impressive rookie season is Matthew Boldy who has gone under the radar. Boldy, a former first-round pick in 2019, has 20 points in 23 games on the Wild’s second line. At 20-years-old, Boldy has seven power-play points and has a scoring percentage of 15.3.

Cam Talbot is expected to get the start against his former team. Talbot made 25 saves in a winning effort in the first meeting. Talbot currently holds a .908 save percentage on the season, but has a sub .900 save percentage in each of the past five starts.