Raw Charge
Summary
Time: 7:15 PM EST Location: Madison Square Garden TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN+, MSG, 102.5 The Bones Odds: Lightning Know the Opponents: Blueshirt Banter Previous Meetings: Rangers 5, Lightning 1 For the second time in less than two weeks the Tampa Bay Lightning are skating under the lights of the World’s Most Famous Arena. Hopefully, the outcome is just a little different. An 0-for-7 performance on the power play and a lack of pushback doomed the Lightning to a 5-1 loss in their first game of the season. Things have gotten a little better for the Bolts as they’ve won the next four games, and while the Rangers have won four of five since their meeting things aren’t exactly champagne and caviar in their locker room. On October 1 the Rangers placed their back-up netminder Joonas Korpisalo to a lower-body injury that will sideline him for a few weeks. The injury required a recall of Dylan Garland, who had just cleared waivers. With Igor Shesterkin in net, and scoring goals, there wasn’t much concern. Unfortunately, a bit more than a week after that, Shesterkin left their game against the Washington Capitals with his own lower-body injury. A few days after the injury, they received the worst possible news as Shesterkin was ruled out for the entire season. Garland went from third on the depth chart to starter just like that. Garland made his first start as the Rangers number one netminder on Sunday and picked up the 6-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks. He stopped 19 of 21 shots to claim his second victory of the season. On the year he is 2-1 with a 1.20 GAA and .945 SV%. His other win came against the Detroit Red Wings, so the Lightning should present the toughest competition he’s faced on the season. While the Rangers are currently sitting just a point out of first place in their division, there are some issues that might rear their head at some point. Their 5v5 numbers aren’t exactly stellar as they are at 45% in expected goals for, 46.71% in scoring chances, and 48.46% in high-danger chances. Yet they have outscored opponents 13-8 with a 7-2 edge in high-danger goals. A 26.3% power play and 90% penalty kill have helped carry those even-strength numbers. The Lightning are coming off their fourth win in a row, but it wasn’t a great performance. After a solid first period, they were chasing the game a little. Thankfully, they started the second period with a two-goal lead, something they have been doing on a regular basis, and were able to hold on until Brandon Hagel worked his third-period magic. As opposed to the Rangers, the Lightning have struggled a little on special teams, but are dominating the 5v5 portion of the game. They have an expected goals for of 57.73%, are generating 60.47% of the scoring chances, and 61.11% of the high-danger chances. If they can keep their even-strength numbers at that level, it will be a really good season for them. The Bolts will have to keep an eye out for Alexis Lafreniere as the 25-year-old has five goals and three assists in seven games. After a couple of 57-point seasons, it looks like Lafreniere is primed to exceed those numbers and justify the first overall selection that the Rangers used on him back in 2020. Right now, the loss to the Rangers is the only blemish on the Lightning’s record. They’ll be looking to exact a little revenge and show them that the first games wasn’t indicative of the talent on their roster. If they can get back to possessing the puck and getting shots off of their sticks (the 50 shot attempts against the Islanders was their season low) and make Garland work, it will go a long way to picking up a victory. Forwards: Gage Goncalves Brayden Point Nikita Kucherov Brandon Hagel Anthony Cirelli Jake Guentzel Pontus Holmberg Zemgus Girgensons Ilya Mikheyev Jeff Viel Conor Geekie Defense: J.J. Moser John Carlson Ryan McDonagh Erik Cernak Charle-Edouard D’Astous Max Crozier Victor Hedman Goaltenders: Andrei Vasilevskiy Dennis Hildeby New York Rangers Forwards: Gabe Perreault Mika Zibanajad Pavel Dorofeyev Tye Kartye J.T. Miller Alexis Lafreniere Will Cuylle Noah Laba Eeli Tolvanen Oliver Bjorkstrand Cole Beaudoin Jaroslav Chmelar Defense: Vladislav Gavrikov Adam Fox Marcus Pettersson Sean Durzi Alberts Smits Braden Schneider Goaltenders: Dylan Garand Callum Tung