Rangers at Oilers … It’s Go Time! *UPDATED*

Game 16

Rangers at OilersFlames -9:30 PM MSG

First, I want to thank E3 for his awesome review of last night’s game. No volunteers for tonight, so I’ll do what I can for a review tomorrow. Clearly, this is an HAV.

Tonight is the second game of this four game road trip, three of which are in Western Canada, all in four nights. They started tremendously with their first two periods in Calgary, albeit the third was a bit of a let down.  They will need to be strong for three periods against Connor McDavid and the Oilers.

Tonight’s probable lineup for the Rangers (11-4):

Michael Grabner-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash

Pavel Buchnevich-Mika Zibanejad-Mats Zuccarello

Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-J.T. Miller

Brandon Pirri-Oscar Lindberg-Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi

Marc Staal-Brady Skjei

Nick Holden-Kevin Klein

The big news of course is Chris Kreider was sent home to New York this afternoon with what is being described as an “upper body injury.”  AV said it was unclear whether it was related to his neck spasms.  Red hot Michael Grabner moves up to the first line and Oscar Lindberg gets back into the lineup on the fourth line.

Antti Raanta gets the start in the second night of a back to back with travel in between. Adam Clendening remains Prucha’d, which is a mild surprise given AV’s earlier resting of Girardi. Pavel Buchnevich is a late scratch after warmups. Adam Clendening is in.  Going to be an interesting night.

For the Oilers, (9-5-1), Connor McDavid has gone 7 games without a goal, including the prior meeting with the Rangers in which he had a goal disallowed.  Cam Talbot gets the start.  Their lineup is pretty similar to when they played the Rangers, except Milan Lucic and Patrick Maroon have switched places.

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