Game #35: New York Rangers vs Tampa Bay Lightning Open Thread

After a high-octane defeat in Sunrise 24 hours ago, the Blueshirts have made their way west across the state of Florida and are ready for more action. Amalie Arena in Tampa is the site for tonight’s contest as the Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning square off in a rematch of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals.

Friday’s game features plenty of fire wagon hockey against a young, skillful Panthers team. While the Lightning aren’t without their upper echelon skill players such as Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov, tonight’s game is likely to be a more defensive minded one. The Lightning appear to finally be on the downswing after years as one of the NHL’s premier franchises. Two Stanley Cup championships and three Finals appearances are in the rear view mirror, and after last season’s first round exit and this season’s current position of not being in playoff position as of now, the Rangers have a prime opportunity for a bounce back effort tonight.

Player to Watch: Will Cuylle

Cuylle scored the second of New York’s three goals in Florida last night, bumping his season total up to seven. That was also his seventh career goal, tying him with Lias Andersson (Andersson was traded for the 60th overall draft pick used to select Cuylle in 2020) on the all-time leaderboards. Keep an eye on Cuylle tonight as he looks to carry over his strong effort from yesterday, and perhaps find the back of the net once more to leapfrog Lias on the scoring leaderboard.

Enjoy the game!