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               After winning his NHL debut on Tuesday against the Colorado Avalanche, Rangers Igor Shesterkin will make his second straight start against the New Jersey Devils (7:00 P.M. ET, MSG).

Rangers Ranks Devils
20-18-4 Record 15-20-7
10th GF/PG 28th
25th GA/PG 30th
14th PP% 29th
20th PK% 18th

               Tuesday night, Igor Shesterkin made his NHL debut against the Colorado Avalanche. After allowing two early goals, the Russian netminder settled in and finished the game with 29 saves. Following the conclusion of the game, Shesterkin discussed how nervous he was prior to the game.

               “On my way to the arena, my hands were shaking,” Shesterkin said. I couldn’t even drink water. But as I stepped on the ice, I felt everyone’s support and energy, and that really helped me.”

               “He didn’t look nervous when he made that 70-foot saucer pass,” said head coach David Quinn. “That might have calmed his nerves a little bit. But he certainly settled in.”

The Blueshirts won the game 5-3 and got big games from their top six. The Blueshirts top six made up 11 of the 15 points with the other four points coming from defenders. Artemi Panarin and Jesper Fast each recorded three points.

“We kept playing and established our forecheck,” Quinn said. “I thought we defended well. Another big kill in the 3rd period. I really liked the feel. There was a lot of energy before the game and hopefully we’re going to continue this maturation.”

The Rangers will look to carry the momentum against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. Shesterkin will get the start for the second straight game. After playing the league’s top offense in the Avalanche, the rookie netminder will play one of the league’s worst in New Jersey. Quinn said Shesterkin will start because he earned it.

Since the Rangers last saw the Devils in a 4-0 win on November 30th, the Devils have made some serious changes. First, they fired head coach John Hynes. Hynes wasn’t on the market for long as he recently signed a contract to become the head coach of the Nashville Predators. Shortly after firing Hynes, the Devils traded away their star forward Taylor Hall to the Arizona Coyotes. In addition, the Devils will also be without their top overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft Jack Hughes. Jesper Bratt will also be unavailable for the Devils. The Devils top point scorer is all-star Kyle Palmieri who has 30 points. He will feature on the top line with Nico Hischier.

New Jersey has been decent over the past ten games – posting a 5-3-2 record including wins over the Boston Bruins and New York Islanders. The Devils will turn to MacKenzie Blackwood to try and keep their recent strong play going. Blackwood is 14-11-6 with a 2.87 goals against average and a .907 save percent.

The Blueshirts will stick with the same lineup from last game. Ryan Lindgren was not suspended for a big hit on Joonas Donskoi and he is good to go after receiving stiches from a fight with Nazem Kadri who stood up for Donskoi. Alex Georgiev will be a healthy scratch for a second straight game.

Projected Lineup

Kreider-Zibanejad-Buchnevich

Panarin-Strome-Fast

Howden-Chytil-Kakko

Smith-McKegg-Fogarty

Skjei-Trouba

Lindgren-Fox

Staal-DeAngelo

Shesterkin

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