6:27PM: David Quinn mentioned that the Rangers think Jack Johnson’s injury is short term and that Brendan Smith comes into the lineup. (NYR)
On Tony DeAngelo, “I thought he had his best game the other night and we fully expect him to be the player he was last year, even at a higher level. He’s only played four games, not the start he envisioned but there are a lot of guys in that boat, so I don’t want to harp on one guy. There is more than a handful of guys who need to be better and I know they will be because of their track record.” (NYR)
Julien Gauthier is still out and the lines that start will be similar to the ones that the Rangers had in the third period on Tuesday. (NYR)
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Colin Blackwell will start with Panarin and Strome and that Mika Zibanejad and Panarin is “always on the table.” (NYR)
Quinn said that he thinks Alexis Lafreniere is getting better and better and that he is encouraged that he is getting chances. (NYR)
On Igor Shesterkin, “He’s in a good spot right now. We know we are going to get good goaltending and we are certainly expecting it tonight.”(NYR)
4:08PM: Jack Johnson is out tonight with a groin strain. (NYR)
12:05PM: Igor Shesterkin will start on Thursday against the Sabres as the Rangers finish out their four game road trip. (NYR)
The Rangers are 0-2-1 so far on this trip and have lost four games in a row.
The rest of the Rangers lineup and lines will be announced later today.
David Quinn said on Wednesday that many of the Rangers are “pressing” and that “it was a frustrating evening last night, that is for sure and I think that what happened is the frustration from the previous three games boiled over into last night and after we gave up that shorthanded goal, I just thought we stopped doing some of the things we needed to do to claw back in it.” (NYR)
Quinn added, “it hasn’t been the effort, why we have the record we have. We’ve gotta get better play out of a bunch of people, make timely plays, be mentally tough when things don’t go well. The thing I did like is that we had a much better third period after having a horrific second last night. A lot of teams are going to play three games and come up with one point and ours just happens to be right now and we need to rectify it ASAP.”
Adam Rotter: This isn’t a must win game for the Rangers, but it’s pretty close. They need one guy, a bunch would be better, to step up and lead them. Whether it’s Igor Shesterkin in net, Artemi Panarin or Mika Zibanejad or even someone like Kaapo Kakko or Alexis Lafreniere breaking through, someone needs to take over tonight and lead the Rangers. This is a group that believes they can be a playoff team and while their effort, for the most part, has reflected that, the results haven’t and a large part of that is the big guys not pulling their weight. It’s nice when Pavel Buchnevich is the Rangers best forward, or K’Andre Miller plays well, but if they are the ones, along with Adam Fox and some bottom-six players, leading the way, the Rangers will be right back in the mix for a top-five pick. They need someone to step up tonight, otherwise it could be five losses in a row and changes could be coming.