New York Rangers vs. Montreal Canadiens: Open Game Thread
The New York Rangers (27-26-10, 64 points) are fresh off an overtime loss vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning and will take on the Montreal Canadiens (34-23-7, 75 points) in a Friday night Original Six matchup at Madison Square Garden.
The Blueshirts are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, and put up a decent fight against the best team in the league on Wednesday. The Canadiens are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and are coming off an 8-1 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings. Montreal currently hold the top wild card spot, and the Carolina Hurricanes (second wild card) and Pittsburgh Penguins (on the outside looking in) both have 74 points with a game in hand.
This is all to say that there will be a lot of motivation for the Habs to pick up two very important points as their playoff future depends on it. With all that said, here are the projected lines for both sides
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Jimmy Vesey
Vlad Namestnikov — Ryan Strome — Jesper Fast
Brendan Lemieux — Lias Andersson — Pavel Buchnevich
Connor Brickley — Boo Nieves — Brendan Smith
Brady Skjei — Kevin Shattenkirk
Libor Hajek — Neal Pionk
Henrik Lundqvist
Montreal Canadiens
Tomas Tatar — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher
Jonathan Drouin — Max Domi — Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Joel Armia
Artturi Lehkonen — Nate Thompson — Dale Weise
Jordie Benn — Shea Weber
Victor Mete — Jeff Petry
Brett Kulak — Christian Folin
Carey Price
Enjoy the game!
