Rangers at Maple Leafs Open Thread
The New York Rangesr are in Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs. The 15-13-5 Rangers are two slots out of the second wild card seed, while the Maple Leafs are second in the Atlantic Division with a 23-10-2 record. The Maple Leafs’ 23 regulation or overtime wins (ROW) puts them second in the league, while the Rangers are last with just 10.
Toronto’s coming into tonight’s game on a two-game win streak, with their last coming over Florida by a score of 6-1. The Rangers are trying to build on their 3-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
The Maple Leafs are a team to watch with their stacked offense. They’re fourth in the league at 5-on-5 with a shot rate of 62.23 per 60. Their play in their own zone could use work though; their 60.91 per 60 shot rate against is actually the fourth-worst in the league, just behind the Rangers’ 60.99 per 60. Still, there’s a lot separating the Rangers and Maple Leafs this season including the quality of their roster and their performance so far this season.
Henrik Lundqvist is getting his second consecutive game off; he hasn’t played since last Sunday when he faced 41 shots against the Vegas Golden Knights. He’ll be in net to take on the Philadelphia Flyers, though. Instead, it’ll be Alexandar Georgiev in goal tonight; he has a .901 save percentage and minus-2.52 goals saved above average through 9 games.
Georgiev in goal, Claesson in for Tony D on D.
— Colin Stephenson (@ColinASteph) December 22, 2018
While there aren’t any changes in goal from their last game, there will be on defense. Fredrik Claesson will draw back into the lineup after spending Tuesday’s game as a healthy scratch, and Tony DeAngelo will come out.
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