Fairytale of New York: Blackhawks on Rangers Preview

On By Littum

A pair of teams without many positive aspects to their current situation meet Monday night at Madison Square Garden when the Blackhawks visit the New York Rangers.

The Rangers are in a bit of a spiral: despite sitting in a wild card spot for the playoffs, they have won just three of their last 10 games and lost seven of their last nine. Their latest loss is fresh: a 7-5 defeat at the hands of the Seattle Kraken. It was a back-and-forth until the halfway mark, when the Kraken scored five straight goals between the second and third periods to take a 6-3 lead. The Rangers rallied late, but the Kraken held on and added an empty netter for insurance. Vincent Trocheck and K’Andre Miller each had a goal and an assist, while Reilly Smith, Filip Chytil and Alexis Lefreniere added the other goals. Jonathan Quick had a surprisingly poor game from him this season, allowing six goals on 21 shots. Yikes.

That type of play is not new for the Rangers this season, as they are quite weak defensively, placing them in the bottom half of the league in several categories such as shot attempt rate (48.72 percent, 22nd) and expected goal rate. (49.55 percent, 20th). The latter is high because Rangers are good at creating quality (2.79 expected goals per 60, 4th) but terrible at suppressing it (2.84 per 60, 28th).

The struggles on the ice for the Rangers are part of why they recently relieved their former captain, Jacob Trouba, on Friday. New York had tried to move Trouba since last offseason for salary cap reasons and create an opening for their younger defensemen, but he had a no-movement clause in his contract until July that he exercised to prevent the trade. Well, the NMC turned into a 15-team no-trade clause and a deal was finally struck with Anaheim — though it continued to be a mess, with threats of being sent on waivers being held over the former captain’s head .

As for the Ranger players still on the team, the roster isn’t without talent — at least offensively. Our old friend Artemi Panarin is still a stud, scoring 15 goals and 19 assists in 26 games already this season. There are a quarter of players 25 and under who are also doing well this season, at least offensively: Will Cuylle with 21 points (9 G, 12 A), Lafrenière with 20 points (9 G, 11 A) and Kaapo Kakko with 14 points (4 G, 10 A), all in 26 games, while Chytil has 10 (5 G, 5 A) in 19 games. Veterans Mika Zibanejad, Trocheck, Smith and Krieder round out the top nine with at or better than 0.5 points per. match.

At the back, Adam Fox is also contributing at a torrid pace with 22 assists in 26 games, but he is the only defenseman to do so. Fox, along with Miller, Ryan Lindgren and Braden Schneider, still make up an impressive top-4, but the other three aren’t as point-prone as No. 1.

When the Rangers played Sunday night, they didn’t have a morning skate on Monday. Their lines from the Kraken game were as follows:

The only known change is that new father Igor Shesterkin will be in net against Chicago. He has just a .908 save percentage this season in 19 starts, but recently signed a contract that will make him the highest-paid goaltender in the NHL next season.

As for the Blackhawks, the team’s first game under interim head coach Anders Sørensen on Saturday was unfortunately a 4-2 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, extending their losing streak to five games. It was a pretty close game until the Jets scored the tiebreaking goal midway through the third period. Alex Vlasic and Alec Martinez scored Chicago’s goals, while Connor Bedard picked up a point, bringing his total to four points (1 G, 3 A) in his last five games. Still, that last point was a secondary assist on the power play, so 5-on-5 production still alludes to him.

Petr Mrazek made four saves before leaving the game with a groin injury midway through the first period, and Arvid Soderblom made 21 saves on 24 shots in substitution. It’s not surprising that the Blackhawks lost considering the team only had a single practice under the new coach and the Jets are a top team in the league, but there is hope that something positive can grow — even if it’s just that individual player level – with another voice in the room.

Mrazek wasn’t the only player injured in the Jets game, as Alec Martinez tweaked something in his neck. Sorsensen gave the following timelines on both players:

With those injuries, the Blackhawks recalled Drew Commesso and Kevin Korchinski from the Rockford IceHogs on Sunday and will face the team in New York:

This comes at a good time for Korchinski, who started the AHL season a bit slow but has been playing some pretty excellent hockey for the IceHogs recently. The Blackhawks probably would have liked to see a longer period of improved play before the call-up, but it’s a nice reward and will allow them to gauge his true progress. However, it is unknown if he will play against Rangers.

(UPDATED): Korchinski is expected to play tonight in New York:

The other player transaction on Sunday was the Blackhawks placing Joey Anderson on waivers:

Anderson cleared waivers Monday afternoon, giving the Blackhawks a 30-day window to send him down to the AHL without having to go through the waiver process again. This news is consistent with the buzz building that a Frank Nazar sighting with Chicago is imminent. As of the writing of this preview, there has been no move to bring Nazar up ahead of the Rangers game, but that could still change.

Ignoring the Nazar-shaped elephant in the room, the lines the Blackhawks will likely roll out are the same as they did at Sunday’s practice. Bedard’s linemates have been reshuffled a bit, replacing Teuvo Teravainen with Ilya Mikheyev.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of the merry-go-round for Bedard’s wingers, and while Mikheyev has been much better offensively in games of late in terms of underlying metrics, he hasn’t consistently delivered. Sorensen seems to think Mikheyev’s skating in transition and improved offensive play could help Bedard, so we’ll see if he’s right or not.

Story of the tape

Blackhawks — Statistics — Rangers
44.40% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.72% (22nd)
44.08% (30th) — 5-on-5 Expected Goals for — 49.55% (20th)
2.41 (31.) — Goal per match — 3.27 (t-9.)
3.19 (t-24.) — Goal against per match — 3.04 (t-17.)
44.2% (30th) — Faceoffs — 54.1% (3rd)
23.9% (10th) — Power play — 23.2% (11th)
82.1% (8th) — Penalty killing — 85.5% (2nd)

That’s how you see

When: 6 p.m. CT
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
TV: NHLN, CHSN (That’s how you see)
Webstream: REACH
Radio: WGN 720