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Catching up with the Rangers playing in the 2019 Men’s World Championship

Several New York Rangers are representing their countries in Slovakia in the 2019 IIHF Men’s World Championship. Each team will play seven games in the group stage before the seeding is determined for the playoff round. All 16 teams have played three games each before today’s games begin. That gives us a small, but still insightful, sample of how the Rangers’ representatives are performing at this year’s Worlds.

USA

Chris Kreider

Through the first three games of the tournament, Kreider has one goal and three shots on net. It’s great to see him get on the board, especially after his production petered out after he got hurt this season, but it’s worth noting that he has skated under 14:00 in his last two games. He scored his lone goal thus far in USA’s 7-1 deconstruction of Team France.

Kreider scored four goals and notched six assists in 10 games in the 2018 Men’s World Championship. He and the rest of Team USA took home bronze last year.

Brady Skjei

Through the first three games of the tournament Skjei has spent a lot of time on a pair with Noah Hanifin of the Calgary Flames. As the third-oldest defender on USA’s blue line, Skjei has been playing a lot of important minutes, although his workload may decrease with Zach Werenski joining the national team.

Skjei scored USA’s first goal of the game against Finland on May 13 and finished that contest with 21:48 time on ice. Thus far, he’s put four shots on net and has taken one minor penalty. It’s still early, but Skjei has looked very good in the tournament which is a great sign for the Rangers.

Adam Fox

Fox, the newest New York Ranger, has one assist in three games thus far for Team USA. So far, Fox has not seen a lot of ice time in the tournament which is not surprising considering the fact that this is his first time playing with the senior national team. It looks like head coach Jeff Blashill has paired him with Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks for the majority of his ice time.

The Harvard alumni’s best showing of the tournament so far came against France. In that game, Fox picked up a secondary assist and put three shots on net in 16:58 TOI. He also looked solid in USA’s pre-tournament action. There is definitely a lot to like about how he moves the puck.

Sweden

Henrik Lundqvist

Lundqvist has started in two games for Sweden in Slovakia and has posted a .909 save percentage through over 117 minutes of hockey. After making 27 saves in Sweden’s 5-2 loss against the Czech Republic, Hank posted a 13-save shutout against Italy on May 12.

Lundqvist is the oldest goaltender in this year’s tournament and is competing for his fourth World Championship medal. He and Sweden took home gold in 2017.

Czech Republic

Filip Chytil

Chytil is the youngest player on the Czech Republic’s roster at this year’s Worlds. He’s also the first player to represent his home country in two World Championships before turning 20. That, in and of itself, is something special.

Through the first three games of the tournament Chytil has scored a goal and has put six shots on net despite never eclipsing 15:00 TOI in a single game. Chytil scored his goal on May 11 in the Czech Republic’s 7-2 rout over Norway.

Russia

Alexandar Georgiev

Georgiev added another impressive feat to his resume with his 15-save shutout over Austria on May 12. Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy has started in one more game thus far than Georgiev, which makes plenty of sense, but it was still great to see Georgiev turn in a clean sheet in his lone performance thus far in the tournament.

All data courtesy of IIHF.com.

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