Table of Content
The Rangers will play five of their first seven games this season, as well as nine of their first 14 contests, at home. New York will play 10 games in October, 14 in November, 13 in December, 12 in January, 11 in February, 16 in March, and six in April. The Blueshirts close out the season with a home game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday, April 13. Having that type of Lundqvist in net will allow the Rangers to stay in almost every game that he appears in this season. Nothing new for Blueshirt fans, but it gives his young team the confidence to go out there and make some mistakes knowing they won’t get hurt every time.
The team began its regular games on October 13, 2016 against the New York Islanders. With the NHL Draft looming and an entire offseason full of free agency and trades on the horizon, we do not know the final makeup of the teams that will match up against each other come October. However, we know it will be Brooklyn vs. Broadway, and that alone is enough to get excited about despite the 115 days before its actualization.
2017 Season Opener Announced: New York Islanders vs. New York Rangers
Gallant said a lot of thought went into the Rangers naming six alternate captains, instead of stitching the “C” on the sweater of just one player. Five of the six players anointed to the Blueshirts’ leadership group are veterans of the team, while Goodrow earned the honor after less than three months with the organization. New York is set to play in 16 sets of back-to-back games, beginning with their first two road games in Minnesota (Oct. 13) and Winnipeg (Oct. 14). The Blueshirts will play 26 games against their seven Metropolitan Division opponents this season; the Rangers play four games apiece against Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, and Washington, and three games apiece against the Islanders and Flyers . The Rangers will also play three games apiece against each of their eight Atlantic Division opponents and two games apiece against each of their 16 Western Conference opponents.
Next we have the line of Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Pavel Buchnevich in tact from the preseason. This is the line that’s most exciting to me, with Kreider’s speed and size, Zibanejad’s one-timer, and Buchnevich’s slick playmaking ability a real killer combination. The Rangers retooled their forward corps this offseason, bringing in a bevy of fast, skilled young forwards.
Igor Shesterkin set to play Rangers’ home opener
The Rangers will look to start their season strong against a rival opponent that gave them trouble last year, with theIslanders winning all four games against the Blueshirts. Both teams will be looking to improve upon seasons which saw them make the playoffs only to be kicked out of the party early. All in all, it's a recipe for an entertaining night at Madison Square Garden on the other end of summer. Finally there’s the fourth line of Michael Grabner, one of the fastest players on the team, Brandon Pirri, whose ability to generate shots knows no bounds, and Jesper Fast, one of the most defensively responsible forwards in the group. All four of these lines should be able to take any one of the Islanders’ lines, which of course brings us to our opponents.
The Rangers qualified for the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season, entering as the Wild Card in the Eastern Conference and being matched up against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round. The Rangers defeated the Canadiens in six games, moving on to round 2 against the Ottawa Senators. The Rangers were then eliminated by the Senators in six games. The 2016–17 New York Rangers season was the franchise's 90th season of play and their 91st season overall.
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All five players are capable of creating plays and finding the back of the net when need be. As much of structure is an important part in winning games, sometimes your skill can make up for structure breakdowns. He word rebuild is always a scary one when you play in New York. A word that some thought would mean the team might not be competitiveat all this year.
Not every player can make that kind of pass, and the Rangers have several players that are capable of doing so. But, after the clubs’ 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators Thursday night, the feeling around this Rangers team changed a bit. It was no longer a feeling of this is going to be a long season, a feeling of hey we might lose some games, but we might be in them till the end.
Brock Nelson holding things down on the second line is important to look out for, but neither Josh Bailey nor newcomer Anthony Beauvillier are particularly formidable as his linemates. I think it’s safe to say here that the Rangers have the edge in terms of offensive firepower, but all of the offensive firepower in the world means little if you don’t have things tied together on your backend. The Islanders, who reached the second round of the playoffs last season for the first time in 23 years, will play their home opener at the Barclays Center on Oct. 16 against the Anaheim Ducks.
What we did learn is that this rebuild doesn’t have to be as bad as we all thought it would be. Lundqvist looked like vintage Lundqvist in the opener stopping 30 shots against a Predators team that was on the attack. He bailed his team out facing a few odd-man rushes coming up with the big save when it mattered most. The only blemishes were two perfectly placed shots that he had no chance of stopping. Arizona previously acquired this pick as the result of a trade on March 1, 2015 that sent Keith Yandle, Chris Summers and a fourth-round pick in 2016 to New York in exchange for John Moore, Anthony Duclair, Tampa Bay's second-round pick in 2015 and this pick . The condition – Arizona will receive a first-round pick in 2016 if New York qualifies for the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs – was converted on April 4, 2016.
Given the abundance of talent in the group the Rangers now have the opportunity to roll four balanced lines, each one of them capable of scoring or playing in the defensive end. The Florida Panthers' sixth-round pick went to the New York Rangers as the result of a trade on June 20, 2016 that sent Keith Yandle to Florida in exchange for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2017 and this pick. The New York Rangers' fourth-round pick went to the San Jose Sharks as the result of a trade on March 1, 2015 that sent James Sheppard to New York in exchange for this pick. Twenty-six games will take place on either a Saturday or Sunday. Lastly we’ve got Brady Skjei and Adam Clendening, which should actually be kind of fun to watch. Although Skjei had a rough preseason the potential is there, and his skating combined with Clendening’s puck moving ability could be a low-key potent force on the ice.
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. The New York Rangers' second-round pick went to the Chicago Blackhawks as the result of a trade on June 15, 2016 that sent Teuvo Teravainen and Bryan Bickell to Carolina in exchange for Chicago's third-round pick in 2017 and this pick.
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