The New York Rangers will host the New York Islanders Monday night at MSG with renowned confidence in their game.
Rangers: 4-4-2 (10 pts)
Islanders: 4-4-2 (10 pts)
Madison Square Garden
7:00 p.m., MSG Network, Radio: ESPN 98.7 FM
The Rangers will pay the Islanders for the third time this season as the two teams swapped shutouts in their first two games against one another at the start of the 2020-’21 season in January.
The Rangers have are 3-1-1 in their last five games including a win over the Washington Capitals last Thursday by a score of 4-2. The Blueshirts have been off for the past three days as their game against the New Jersey Devils was postponed Saturday night due to COVID protocols.
Starting In Net
Igor Shesterkin has won the last two games the club has played, yet head coach David Quinn has not announced who will be in goal Monday night.
Alexandar Georgiev has played the Islanders eight times in his career and has a 6-2-0 record, 1.80 GAA, .941 SV%, with two shutouts. –Georgiev has allowed two goals or fewer in six of his eight career appearances against the Islanders, including one goal or fewer in four of those appearances, and he has stopped 207 of 220 shots in the eight contests. He stopped all 29 shots he faced to earn his first career NHL shutout on Nov. 21, 2018, against the Islanders at MSG, and he stopped all 23 shots he faced to earn a shutout in his last appearance against the Islanders on Jan. 16, 2021, at MSG. Georgiev has earned more wins and shutouts and has made more appearances against the Islanders than against any other opponent in his NHL career.
Projected Lineup
At Sunday’s practice, the coaching staff rotated the same lineup that was used on Thursday’s win.
Kreider – Zibanejad – Buchnevich
Panarin – Strome – Kakko
Lafreniere – Howden – Di Giuseppe
Lemieux – Rooney – Gauthier
Lindgren-Fox
Trouba-Miller
Hajek-Bitetto
(Via Vince Z. Mercogliano)
Special Teams
The Rangers are ranked 22nd in the NHL on the power-play (14.1%, 6 goals on 41 attempts) and are ranked 10th in the NHL in penalty Killing(7 goals against on 38 attempts).
Monday night’s game will be the fourth game of a scheduled eight-game homestand.