New York Rangers vs. Montreal Canadiens: Open Game Thread

The New York Rangers (27-26-10, 64 points) are fresh off an overtime loss vs. the Tampa Bay Lightning and will take on the Montreal Canadiens (34-23-7, 75 points) in a Friday night Original Six matchup at Madison Square Garden.

The Blueshirts are 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, and put up a decent fight against the best team in the league on Wednesday. The Canadiens are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games, and are coming off an 8-1 drubbing of the Detroit Red Wings. Montreal currently hold the top wild card spot, and the Carolina Hurricanes (second wild card) and Pittsburgh Penguins (on the outside looking in) both have 74 points with a game in hand.

This is all to say that there will be a lot of motivation for the Habs to pick up two very important points as their playoff future depends on it. With all that said, here are the projected lines for both sides

New York Rangers

Chris Kreider — Mika Zibanejad — Jimmy Vesey

Vlad Namestnikov — Ryan Strome — Jesper Fast

Brendan Lemieux — Lias Andersson — Pavel Buchnevich

Connor Brickley — Boo Nieves — Brendan Smith

Brady Skjei — Kevin Shattenkirk

Marc Staal — Tony DeAngelo

Libor Hajek — Neal Pionk

Henrik Lundqvist

Montreal Canadiens

Tomas Tatar — Phillip Danault — Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin — Max Domi — Andrew Shaw

Paul Byron — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Joel Armia

Artturi Lehkonen — Nate Thompson — Dale Weise

Jordie Benn — Shea Weber

Victor Mete — Jeff Petry

Brett Kulak — Christian Folin

Carey Price

Enjoy the game!