NY Rangers Game 8: Rangers vs Ducks

The Rangers suffered their first regulation loss of the season on Thursday night, and the reactions were as expected. A lot of cliff jumping, and a lot of overreacting. The Blueshirts, who have responded well under Peter Laviolette following a loss, get a soft landing spot against a very bad Anaheim Ducks team. The Vatrano/Henrique non-trade probably sits fresh in everyone’s minds, but that’s not the issue with the Rangers this year.

The issue is, as expected, puck moving defensemen. Zac Jones is back in the lineup, and while he’s not perfect, he adds a needed element to the Blueshirts that they simply don’t have outside the top pair. I’m sure injuries will start piling up, meaning Jones doesn’t get healthy scratched as much, but he needs to cement his spot in the lineup for the Rangers to truly be better.

Still, it’s the Ducks. It’s a nice landing spot after a tough loss.

Ducks Lines

Cutter Gauther-Leo Carlsson-Robby Fabbri
Frank Vatrano-Ryan Strome-Troy Terry
Trevor Zegras-Isac Lundestrom-Alex Killorn
Brock McGinn-Mason McTavish-Brett Leason

Cam Fowler-Olen Zellweger
Jackson Lacombe-Radko Gudas
Pavel Mintyukov-Brian Dumoulin

Lukas Dostal gets the start.

Rangers Lines

Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle-Filip Chytil-Kaapo Kakko
Adam Edstrom-Sam Carrick-Jonny Brodzinski

K’Andre Miller-Adam Fox
Ryan Lindgren-Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones-Braden Schneider

Jonathan Quick gets the start.

Crazy Prediction: Quick gets a point.

Game time is 7pm.