The New York Rangers are set to host the Nashville Predators before taking off on a five-game west coast Canadian trip.
There are a couple of different storylines going into tonight's game, one of them being that this is a match-up against one of Peter Laviolette's old teams. Rangers fans will also get to see the return of the captain, Ryan McDonagh, who took them to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals trips in 2014 and 2015.
More importantly, the Rangers are looking to take advantage of what should be a much weaker opponent. The Nashville Predators have lost back-to-back games entering this one, as they were outscored 9-3 by the Boston Bruins and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Predators star goalie, Juuse Saros, hasn't had the greatest start to the season. Saros is 1-3-0 with a .887 SV% and a 3..41 GAA.
Something I've noticed at the Rangers morning skates is Peter Laviolette pulling players aside to chat with them. Prior to today, I hadn't gotten any intel on it, but I got to ask Mika Zibanejad and Laviolette himself about what these conversations entail.
Zibanejad told me "What we talk about kind of stays on the ice obviously, but he’s communicating with guys about a ton of different things and I think that’s good.”
It's evident that Laviolette is a strong communicator, but I was very interested to hear how he picks and chooses these specific 1-on-1 encounters.
Laviolette explained "Some are just conversations, casual. Some are ‘how you feeling’. Some are maybe you’re looking for something more in a player or maybe they’re doing really good things out there. See what they’re having to say. Those conversations I think are important.”
The players seem to respond well to him early on, we'll see how these conversations and relationships continue to progress.
NYR Expected Lineup:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Kakko
Panarin-Chytil-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Trocheck-Wheeler
Goodrow-Bonino-Vesey
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider
Shesterkin
Key To Success:
- The Rangers should dominate in special teams.
Nashville has currently has the second-worst penalty in the entire NHL, they're at a very below average 60%. As bad as they are on the kill, their power play might be even worse as they are only converting on 11.1% of their chances.
- Need a big game from Artemi Panarin.
Panarin is currently on a three-game point streak, but his offense isn't the only thing that's been standing out. I had the chance to ask Peter Laviolette on why he's been double-shifting Panarin early on, and his response was incredibly positive.
Laviolette's thoughts are below:
The Rangers should control the pace of play this evening.