The Carolina Hurricanes visit Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Rangers in a Metropolitan Division match up (7:00 P.M. ET, MSG).
The Rangers offense came to life Sunday evening in Columbus scoring five goals. However, the Rangers would fall to their divisional foe 7-5. Alex Georgiev made a second consecutive start and he finished the game with 33 saves. Head coach David Quinn elected to give Georgiev both games of a back-to-back to give starting goalie Henrik Lundqvist a break. However, after the final horn, Quinn let the media and his team exactly what he thought of their performance.
“Listen, you’re going to lose hockey games, but you better want to battle somebody,” Quinn said. “It’s just ridiculous. You know, three games where we feel pretty good about our effort and compete, and then we come out here and do that? It’s a freaking joke.”
The Rangers played split a home-and-home with the Islanders and lost a tough game in Vegas, prior to Sunday’s game against the Blue Jackets.
“Listen, that’s a team that competes hard on pucks and they test your mettle and we failed miserably tonight. Miserably,” said Quinn. Our lack of determination on one-on-one battles, fishing for pucks, you do that in this league, that’s what happens. You get your asses handed to you.”
Quinn is determined that the Rangers will continue to work on one-on-one battles. “We’re going to keep working at in any fashion that we can whether it be film, talking…we’re going to get after it.”
Since the game in Columbus, the Rangers have made two transactions. They acquired Connor Brickley from Nashville in exchange for Cole Schneider. In addition, they learned that they will be without Neal Pionk till possibly after the all-star break with a lower-body injury. They also announced that Freddy Claesson will likely miss the next 2-3 weeks.
With injuries come opportunities, and that is what 20-year-old Ryan Lindgren has. With the Blueshirts down two defensemen, they recalled Lindgren from Hartford. Lindgren, who will play in his first career NHL game, earned praise from Quinn during his press conference with the media.
“We thought Lindgren had the best first half of any defenseman in Hartford,” Quinn said. “He has a chance to stay.”
Lindgren was acquired from the Bruins during the Rick Nash trade. He has registered five points and had a plus-seven rating for the Wolf Pack.
“It’s time for me to show them what I’ve got and make a good impression,” said Lindgren. “Stick to what works and really enjoy it too.”
Tonight’s opponent, the Carolina Hurricanes, have won seven of their last eight games and are now just five points out of a playoff spot. 21-year-old Sebastian Aho and he is having a career year. Aho has 51 points in 46 games and is well on pace to beat his career high of 65 points which he registered last season. In addition, Aho was also make his first all-star appearance.
Fellow Metropolitan Division all-star Henrik Lundqvist will look to keep Aho quiet as he makes his return in between the pipes following a “mental break.” Lundqvist is on a five-game winning streak against the Hurricanes and he owns a .930 career save percentage against them.
Adam McQuaid is listed as day-to-day and could miss tonight’s game. Quinn said if he is good to go than he will play and someone else will sit for Lindgren. Kevin Hayes is still considered as day-to-day and won’t dress for tonight’s game.
Projected lineup:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Chytil-Strome-Fast
Vesey-Howden-Namestnikov
McLeod-Nieves-Buchnevich
Skjei-McQuaid
Staal-DeAngelo
Lindgren – Shattenkirk
Lundqvist
[fanaticswinter]