There have been countless line shuffles through the Rangers’ 2-4-1 getaway, which includes the five-game winless streak (0-4-1) they bring into Thursday night’s Garden match against the league-leading Sabres.
But coach David Quinn has yet to separate his two best players up-front, keeping Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad as the Bread & Butter duo. But the time has come to see how a separation might work.
In Wednesday’s practice, Quinn had Panarin skate with Ryan Strome and Pavel Buchnevich, while 18-year-old rookie Kaapo Kakko skated with Zibanejad and Chris Kreider.
“Maybe that’s good, change something,” Panarin said, admirably doing his best to get through an interview in English without an interpreter. “Maybe I need that help for us. So, same team, work for win.”
The Rangers signed Panarin to a seven-year, $81.5 million deal this summer hoping he could be a key cog. He has four goals and six points through the first seven games, but, like the rest of the team, he evaluated his individual play as inconsistent thus far.
“Sometimes good, sometimes not,” Panarin said. “The first three games, we [don’t] have good timing because of the schedule. Already hard. I’m not happy for my game 100 percent. Maybe 70 [percent].”
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist is set to get his fifth start of the season. He and Alexandar Georgiev have alternated the first eight games, besides two in a row Lundqvist played in Washington on Oct. 18 and at home against the Canucks two days later.
Now that the schedule has returned to relative normalcy after a strange start, Quinn is open to one goalie taking the reins if necessary.
“If one gets hot, I’ll go with one,” Quinn said. “But I like both their games right now. … Now that we’re in a rhythm, one guy might play a couple more.”
Lundqvist has a 3.57 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage in four games, while Georgiev has a 2.69 goals-against average and .923 save percentage in three.
It seems Micheal Haley will be the scratch for the second straight game, as the fourth line was Brendan Smith, Lias Andersson and Greg McKegg. That left the third line as Brendan Lemieux, Brett Howden and Jesper Fast.
"line" - Google News
October 23, 2019 at 08:12PM
https://ift.tt/2N4je6a
David Quinn busts up Rangers' top line - New York Post
"line" - Google News
https://ift.tt/33OHZdp
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
No comments:
Post a Comment