New York Rangers Host Red-Hot Lightning – Pregame Checklist

After defeating the tough Colorado Avalanche in overtime, the Rangers remain on home ice to take on the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning (7:00PM on TNT).

• Rangers have won their last two starts including the game prior to the all-star break
• Jonathan Quick will make his third straight start in goal. Quick has given up three goals in the last six periods including one overtime
• Head coach Peter Laviolette told the media that the plan was always to start Quick for the first two games after the all-star break. Part of it is because of the strong play of Quick and the other part of it is to give Igor Shesterkin more time with goaltending coach Benoit Allaire
• Tampa Bay have won eight of their last nine games including the past three-in-a-row
• The Lightning have scored six goals in each of the previous three games
• The former back-to-back Stanley Cup champions will be playing their first game in eleven days
• One player to watch out for is Nikita Kucherov who is currently in consideration for the Hart Trophy
• Kucherov has 85 points in 49 games which is tied for the most in the league with Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado. Kucherov has played in two less games than MacKinnon. Besides MacKinnon’s goal, the Rangers did a good job defensively against the Canadian center and will need that same effort against Kucherov
• Other players on Tampa Bay that are over a point-per-game include Brayden Point, Victor Hedman, and Steven Stamkos
• Jacob Trouba will return to the lineup after being suspended for the past two games 
• Connor Mackey has been reassigned to Hartford with Trouba’s return to the lineup
• Andrei Vasilevskiy will be in goal for the Lightning. The Russian netminder was hurt to start the season, but he hasn’t been at his usual best since being available. Vasilevskiy 16-10-0 with an .899 save percentage
• Austin Watson, Tanner Jeannot, and Haydn Fleury are all out of the lineup for the Lightning
• Filip Chytil is the lone Ranger who is out of the lineup

The bet of the night – The bet of the night is for there to be a goal in the first ten minutes of the game. This is a promotion on Draftkings that gives you boosted odds to +115. A $5 bet will pay $10.75 for a profit of $5.75. The reasoning behind this is that Tampa Bay has been involved in a lot of scoring on both ends of the ice and this has hit in five of their past six games. This also can be a goal from either team.

Current record: 17-14

Current Money Total (Based on $5 bets) – We are up $23.90 on the season

Projected Lineup

Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler

Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere

Cuylle-Brodzinski-Kakko

Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick

Lindgren-Fox

Miller-Trouba

Gustafsson-Schneider

Quick