The Rangers come home carrying a four-game losing streak, and the Blues arrive at Madison Square Garden with a little momentum of their own after back-to-back wins. That sets up a simple question: which team snaps first?
For New York, the answer may hinge on a handful of players who can swing the night in very different ways. Dylan Garand has the heaviest lift of all, while Pavel Dorofeyev, Adam Fox and Alexis Lafrenière each carry a chance to change the tone around a team that badly needs one.
Garand is the one holding the whole thing together in net. With Joonas Korpisalo still recovering from a foot infection and James Reimer functioning more as a backup in name only, Garand has been forced into an emergency workload.
Through 14 appearances, he is 4-6-1 with an .896 save percentage and a 2.73 goals-against average. The Rangers do not need perfection from him, but they do need him to survive the early push, limit second chances and give them a chance to settle in.
Up front, Dorofeyev has started to look like a player who can tilt a game. He has three goals and five assists for eight points, and after a frustrating beginning to the season, the production is finally starting to show up.
He was the lone bright spot in Sunday’s loss to Edmonton, scoring New York’s only goal. The odd part is that he has often looked better in defeats than in victories, and that has to change if the Rangers are going to turn this skid around.
He’ll also be lined up in a top-line battle with St. Louis youngster Jimmy Snuggerud, who has quickly grown into a dangerous scorer in his own right.
Fox remains the Rangers’ stabilizer on the back end. He tried to help slow down Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Sunday, but New York still fell 4-1.
Even so, Fox has been steady all season, with a goal and 16 assists through 15 games. He has also done well against St.
Louis over the years, putting up two goals and 10 assists for 12 points in 11 career meetings. If he controls the pace from the blue line, the rest of New York’s transition game should follow.
Then there is Lafrenière, who is due for a response after being held off the scoresheet against Edmonton and seeing his four-game point streak end. He still leads the Rangers’ attack as their most dynamic offensive threat, with nine goals on the season.
But St. Louis has not been a comfortable matchup for him historically.
In 10 career games against the Blues, he has two goals and three assists for five points.
With a four-game road trip through Western Canada waiting next, this is the kind of night where the Rangers need one of their top pieces to seize control. If Garand steadies the net and one or more of these X-factors delivers, New York has a real chance to stop the bleeding.
In Other News...
Rangers Just Made A Tough Bottom Six Bet On Youth
The Rangers kept tinkering with their bottom six at practice, and the latest adjustment put Will Cuylle in the middle of the third line. To create room, the club sent veteran winger Taylor Raddysh back to the Hartford Wolf Pack and brought up Jaroslav Chmela, a move that signals the staff is still searching for the right mix of size, speed and reliability deeper in the lineup.
Chmelas path back has been a little uneven, with a slow start to the season giving way to better play in the AHL before this recall. For the Rangers, the bet is clear enough: if the third line is going to settle in, it may have to do so with youth taking on a bigger role, even as the team keeps sorting through who belongs where on the wings. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Shake Up Their Lineup Again Searching For A Spark
The Rangers kept tinkering with their lineup on the eve of their game against the St. Louis Blues, recalling Jaroslav Chmelar from Hartford and sending Taylor Raddysh back to the AHL. It was the latest roster adjustment in a stretch of changes that has included several line combinations in practice as the club looks for a better rhythm after recent losses and injuries.
One of the more interesting looks came on the fourth line, where Noah Laba appeared to be in line for center duties with Chmelar and Matt Rempe on the wings. For a team still searching for a spark, the bottom six has become a moving target, and the Rangers now have another chance to see whether a different mix can bring a little more energy and stability. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Season Already Hinges On A Problem This Roster Must Solve
The Rangers were already trying to steady themselves after a rocky start, and the loss of Igor Shesterkin only made the challenge more urgent. With the club dealing with defensive issues and uneven play in front of him, the goaltending picture shifted quickly, forcing the rest of the roster to adjust on the fly as the losses piled up and the playoff outlook grew less certain.
Dylan Garand has been handed the crease in the meantime, giving the Rangers a new variable to manage while they search for answers elsewhere in the lineup. His first start offered a needed lift, but the larger question remains whether New York can tighten up enough defensively to keep this stretch from turning into something much harder to recover from. [Read more 🡒]