New York Rangers Host the Surging Kraken

After ending their four-game losing streak on Sunday afternoon, the Rangers host the Seattle Kraken before heading west for a four-game road trip (7:00PM on MSG)

Rangers	Rankings	Kraken
27-13-2	Record	19-15-9
6th	League Rank	20th
14th	Goals For	26th
10th	Goals Against	9th
2nd	Power play	16th
7th	Penalty Kill	12th

Rangers vs Kraken

The Rangers snapped their longest losing streak of the season after defeating the Capitals 2-1. It wasn’t pretty, but they don’t ask how and the Rangers got a much needed two points.

Kaapo Kakko returned to the Rangers lineup after missing an extended period of time and he skated on the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. That line was held scoreless on Sunday afternoon as the second line contributed with both goals. Despite being held scoreless, the line generated a handful of chances and looked dangerous at times.

New York knows they need more than one line to contribute on offense and they do expect more out of Zibanejad. The Swedish center has not been at his best since the turn of the new year. In six games played, Zibanejad has just two assists and he has not scored a goal in the past seven games.

The Rangers will need a good game from Zibanejad if they want to defeat the surging Seattle Kraken. While Seattle sits just 20th overall in the league, they have been on an absolute tear as of late and they have revitalized their season. Prior to losing to the Penguins on Monday night, the Kraken were on a 13-game point streak (11-0-2) and they brought a nine-game winning streak into Pittsburgh. Prior to that monstrous point streak, the Kraken were just 8-15-7 on the season after making the second-round of the playoffs last season.

Leading the Kraken in points is Vince Dunn. The 27-year-old defenseman has 10 points in his past eight games. Dunn did not play in Monday’s defeat to the Penguins as he was out with an undisclosed injury. Oliver Bjorkstrand is their second leading point scorer with 34 points, and he too missed the game against the Penguins. Bjorkstrand was injured against the Blue Jackets on Saturday and was replaced in the lineup by Kailer Yamamoto. In addition, second-year center Matty Beniers was placed on the IR earlier Tuesday morning and will miss at least a week for the Kraken. All three will be unavailable against the Rangers.

And if all of those key injuries were not bad enough, the Kraken have also been without starting netminder Phillip Grubauer since early December. Since the injury to Grubauer, the Kraken have rode the hot hand of Joey Daccord. Daccord is 13-6-8 with a .923 save percentage on the season. But because Daccord played on Monday night, the Kraken will turn to veteran Chris Driedger. Driedger was selected by the Kraken when they entered the league from the Florida Panthers and he was expected to compete to be their number one netminder right away. Instead Driedger has been plagued with injuries and he is making just his second start since the 2021-2022 season. The 29-year-old made 37 saves on 38 shots in his only start this season against Calgary back at the end of December.

Igor Shesterkin is slated to be back in goal for New York. Shesterkin is 17-10-0 on the season and is coming off a win against the Capitals.

Tyler Pitlick is close to rejoining the Rangers lineup. Head coach Peter Laviolette told Rangers media on Tuesday morning that “[Pitlick] cleared to go full with us… no restrictions,” said Laviolette. Rangers will let Pitlick practice to get back into game shape like they did with Kakko prior to reintroducing him to the lineup.

Following conclusion of the game on Tuesday, the Rangers will head to the western United States to play the Golden Knights, Kings, Ducks, and Sharks.

The bet of the night – Let’s try something different and do a two-leg parlay shots-on-goal parlay. Adam Fox has three shots in each of the past three games and his line is at 1.5. Combine that with Alexis Lafreniere a line of 2.5 and he has had over two shots in each of the past seven games. With Fox’s line at -145 and Lafreniere’s line at -120 – combining the two for a two-leg parlay will give you odds at +192. A $5 bet will payout $14.60 for a $9.60 profit.

Current record: 15-9

Current Money Total (Based on $5 bets) – We are up $40.70 on the season