 |
||
| NEW YORK RANGERS | ||
43-20-10 (96 points; .658%)
|
||
|
|
||
|
7:00 P.M. – TUESDAY, MARCH 28 MADISON SQUARE GARDEN NEW YORK, NY |
||
|
|
||
|
TELEVISION: Bally Sports Ohio ESPN+ (Out of Market) |
||
| PROJECTIONS: | ||
|---|---|---|
| ODDS OF CBJ WIN PER MONEYPUCK: 27% | ||
| ODDS OF CBJ WIN PER THE 538: 23% | ||
| CAESAR'S SPORTSBOOK: NYR -400 | ||
The Columbus Blue Jackets defense has been bad.
Really, really bad.
Those struggles continued Saturday night in Montreal as part of an 8-2 loss to the Canadiens, an 11th straight game in which the Blue Jackets gave up at least four goals.
Columbus will look to stop that streak Tuesday, but it won't be easy as their three-game road trip makes a stop in the Big Apple where they'll face Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, and the New York Rangers.
Here's what to know when the Blue Jackets and Rangers square off from The Garden:
| CBJ | SEASON STATS | NYR |
|---|---|---|
| 2.71 | GOALS FOR | 3.33 |
| 3.94 | GOALS AGAINST | 2.68 |
| -1.23 | GOAL DIFFERENTIAL | +0.65 |
| 19.3% | POWER PLAY | 22.4% |
| 75.8% | PENALTY KILL | 80.9% |
| 29.7 | SHOTS FOR | 31.7 |
| 35.2 | SHOTS AGAINST | 29.4 |
| 45.4% | 5V5 CF% | 50.0% |
| 48.4% | FACE-OFF % | 48.7% |
| RANGERS: LAST THREE GAMES | ||
| TUE, 3/21 | vs. Hurricanes | L, 3-2 |
| THU, 3/23 | @ Hurricanes | W, 2-1 |
| SAT, 3/25 | @ Panthers | W, 4-3 |
| RANGERS: TEAM LEADERS | ||
| GOALS | Mike Zibanejad | 37 |
| ASSISTS | Artemi Panarin | 58 |
| POINTS | Artemi Panarin | 82 |
TALKING POINTS: RANGERS
-
The Rangers are hot, winning eight of their last ten and posting an 8-1-1 record since March 9th. Most recently, they turned a 2-0 deficit into a 4-3 win against the Florida Panthers on Saturday, giving Sergei Bobrovsky's group a third straight loss after they had previously went 6-0-1 to get back into the playoff picture.
-
The acquisition of Patrick Kane last month is already paying off for New York. Kane has four goals and four assists in his first dozen games as a Ranger. He's spent time with both Artemi Panarin and Chris Kreider opposite of him on the wing, but has generally been centered by Vince Trocheck
- Igor Shesterkin probably won't be picking up Vezina Trophy #2 this year (Linus Ullmark has that all but wrapped up in Boston), but the Blueshirts netminder is having another great season between the pipes. In 52 starts, the 27-year-old boasts a 2.55 goals against average and .914 save percentage. The Rangers will go as far into the postseason as Shesterkin will take them.
TALKING POINTS: CBJ
-
Sixty goals in eleven games. That's what the Blue Jackets have allowed, and with defensemen Nick Blankenburg and Erik Gudbranson recently joining a league-leading (by man games lost) injury list, there's no reason to believe that it won't be a 12th straight game that the opposition puts up at least four goals.
-
It's not just the defensemen who are hurtin'. Elvis Merzlikins is day-to-day with an injury, and the Blue Jackets brought up Jon Gillies to serve as a back-up to Michael Hutchinson for at least Tuesday's game. Hutchinson and Gillies, the goaltending tandem we all expected.
- Columbus' power play went scoreless in four attempts in Saturday's loss. It was the first time since February 11th that the Blue Jackets went without a power play goal in a game they had more than two opportunities to convert. Previously, they had a man-advantage goal in nine straight games when given three or more chances.
PROJECTED CBJ LINES
Updated: 7:05 a.m. // Subject to Change
| LW | C | RW | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | Johnny Gaudreau | 38 | Boone Jenner | 86 | Kirill Marchenko |
| 19 | Liam Foudy | 96 | Jack Roslovic | 91 | Kent Johnson |
| 50 | Eric Robinson | 7 | Sean Kuraly | 24 | Mathieu Olivier |
| 18 | Lane Pederson | 41 | Hunter McKown | 52 | Emil Bemstrom |
| LD | RD | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | Adam Boqvist | 2 | Andrew Peeke |
| 75 | Tim Berni | 23 | Jake Christiansen |
| 15 | Gavin Bayreuther | 6 | Billy Sweezey |
| Starting Goalie | Back-Up | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | Michael Hutchinson | 32 | Jon Gillies |
