Oilers at Rangers … It’s Go Time!

Game 11

Rangers vs. Oilers – 7:00 PM MSG

It took five games but we finally have a poll for you to vote for your three Rangers stars.  This is clearly a half-assed venture.

Tonight’s probable lineup for the Rangers (7-3):

Jimmy Vesey-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash

Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Mats Zuccarello

Michael Grabner-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller

Pavel Buchnevich-Brandon Pirri- Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi

Marc Staal-Nick Holden

Brady Skjei-Kevin Klein

Henrik Lundqvist returns to the net for his second consecutive start.  His last time out was his best game of the season, shutting out the Blues and making several great saves in the process, especially on breakaways.  I have a strong suspicion that he will have to make several more breakaway saves tonight.

Oscar Lindberg and Adam Clendening are Prucha’d for their second and sixth straight games, respectively.

For the Oilers (7-2-1), it’s all about Connor McDavid.  He’s the most electric player in the game today, but after starting the season with six points in two games, he has six in his last eight, including none in his last two.  Leon Draisaitl is also ice cold, pointless in his last six.  These players are too good to be held off the score sheet for so long.

As a team, the Oilers are off to an impressive start, leading the Pacific Division, however, have faced questionable competition in accruing their record.  Of the 10 games the Oilers have played this season, only two were playoff teams last year (although they did win both of those games by a combined score of 7-2).  Six of the remaining 8 games came against teams that drafted in the top 8 of last year’s draft, including 5 in the top 6. In other words, let’s see how they’re doing in a couple of months.

Former Rangers backup goaltender Cam Talbot gets the start in goal.  You figure there might be some money on the board in the Edmonton dressing room tonight.

Unfortunately for Sioux, NODAK alum and prized college free agent signing Drake Caggiula is yet to make his season debut for the Oilers as he battles a hip injury suffered just before the start of the season.

I’ll be in attendance tonight so bear with me on the game review tomorrow as I won’t have the benefit of the TV broadcast to help me break plays down.

Once again, a personal note, thank you so much for joining me here. If I can make this blog even half as good as Carp’s, I’ll be pretty damn proud.

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