Rangers hope to extinguish sizzling hot Knights

If you asked me on June 21st, 2017, the night of the expansion draft, if I thought the Las Vegas Golden Knights, in their inaugural season, would be competitive, I probably would have said “heck no.” Now, the Vegas Golden Knights sit second in the entire NHL at fifty-eight points.

Yesterday, the Rangers beat the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 in a shootout. And although the Rangers won, this game was not pretty. The sole reason why the Rangers win on most nights, is Henrik Lundqvist and this was the case last night. The Arizona Coyotes are last in the league with only ten wins and twenty-six points. The Arizona Coyotes are also twenty-seventh in the entire NHL in shots per game with thirty shots per game. Last night, Henrik Lundqvist faced thirty-eight shots. The Coyotes also had thirty-four scoring chances. Out of those thirty-four chances, almost half of them were high danger chances (16).

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Keys to Victory

High Danger = Big Problem: As of now, tonight’s goaltender matchup is unknown, but that is unimportant. The Rangers cannot allow as many high danger scoring chances tonight. The Rangers have given up 416 high danger scoring chances to their opponents so far this season. The Knight’s get the majority of their shots to the net and score 67% of the time when they are given a high-danger scoring opportunity.

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Finish Him: The Rangers have gone past regulation five times out of their last seven games. This has to stop, especially when the Blueshirts have a lead in the third period. The Rangers must be able to finish a team in regulation.

Vegas Baby: The Knights know how to win at home, to say the least. Vegas is 17-2-1 at home this season and have won nine of their last ten games.

Players to Watch

New York Rangers

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Jimmy Vesey: Vesey was the Rangers lone goal scorer last night and was dominant with the puck. Jimmy Vesey is sixth on the Rangers team in hits and will look to use his big body to create more opportunities for himself tonight.

 

Vegas Golden Knights

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Jonathan Marchessault: Marchessault has something to prove after recently signing a six-year thirty million dollar extension. Marchessault leads the Knights with thirty-nine points through thirty-seven games.

 

 

Puck drops at 9:30!

LETS GO RANGERS!!

I am a New York Rangers journalist, avid Blueshirt fan, and a long-time hockey player born and raised in... More about Noah Weiss

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