The New York Rangers are coming off two impressive wins against the St. Louis Blues and Vegas Golden Knights.
It only gets tougher from here though. Friday night finds the Rangers in a primetime matchup against the Colorado Avalanche with much at stake in early December. Because of New York’s difficult November stretch that saw them win two games in a row just once, the Rangers sit in fifth in the Metro division standings.
The Blueshirts do get a bit of luck on their side though for Friday’s game. After beating the Golden Knights without Alex Pietrangelo and Jack Eichel, New York is set to face the defending champs without Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, and a plethora of other key pieces.
Colorado has lost three straight contests due to the overwhelming amount of injuries.
That doesn’t mean the Avalanche will roll over Friday night though. Alexander Georgiev will be expected to face his former team for the second time this season. Georgiev tallied 44 saves in a shootout win over Igor Shesterkin and his former team back in October.
New York did make one small roster move days before the game when they placed Ryan Carpenter on waivers. The 31-year-old forward signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Blueshirts this past offseason. He appeared in 21 games for the Rangers and totaled one goal with two assists.
With the emergence of Julien Gauthier on the fourth line, and with Filip Chytil back to full strength, the Rangers wanted to get back to 22 players on the roster which left Carpenter the odd-man out.
According to reports, Carpenter cleared waivers and has been assigned to the Hartford Wolfpack of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate.
A win for the Rangers would be their second three-game winning streak of the season with the first coming at the end of October. Head coach Gerard Gallant has already confirmed that the same lineup that won in Vegas would be out there tonight against the defending cup champions.
Puck drop from Ball Arena is scheduled for 9:00 pm – ET.
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