The New York Rangers will take on the Carolina Hurricanes this afternoon for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers. The Rangers started the first game extremely slow, and were never able to get their feet under them until it was too late.
David Quinn will have some lineup decisions to make this afternoon as Jesper Fast was ruled out for today’s game with an injury. Fast left Saturday’s game just a few minutes into regulation after he took a high hit from Brady Skjei through the neutral zone. The two potential replacements for Fast are either Steven Fogarty or Vitali Kravtsov, who took line rushes with the varsity squad yesterday during practice.
Fast is out for tomorrow, Shesterkin questionable, probably coach’s decision…Fogarty and Kravtsov practiced with varsity, one will go in for Game 2.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) August 2, 2020
Igor Shesterkin also practiced yesterday, but David Quinn did not name a starting goaltender for this afternoon.
Projected Lineups
Rangers
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Pavel Buchnevich
Artemiy Panarin – Ryan Strome – Jesper Fast
Phillip Di Giuseppe – Filip Chytil – Kaapo Kakko
Brett Howden – Greg McKegg – Julien Gauthier
Brendan Smith – Jacob Trouba
Ryan Lindgren – Adam Fox
Marc Staal – Tony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist/Igor Shesterkin
Update: Igor Shesterkin remains unfit to play, and Steven Fogarty replaces Jesper Fast in the lineup.
Hurricanes
Andrei Svechnikov – Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Dzingel – Jordan Staal – Justin Williams
Nino Niederreiter – Vincent Trocheck – Martin Necas
Warren Foegele – Jordan Martinook – Brock McGinn
Jaccob Slavin – Sami Vatanen
Brady Skjei – Joel Edmundson
Jake Gardiner – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Petr Mrazek
Player to Watch: Artemiy Panarin
One of the more surprising storylines on Saturday was Artemiy Panarin, who had a pretty rough outing from an offensive standpoint. With the first game in the past, the Rangers will need a big game from the Breadman if they want to jump back into this series.
Enjoy the game!