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Rangers Game Thread: Preseason Game 1, Rangers Vs. Devils

The Rangers open their preseason against the Devils tonight at the Garden.

Note: In Lou We Trust has been re-branded as "All About the Jersey"

Yes, it is finally here, my friends. It's time for some New York Rangers hockey!

Tonight is not only the first game of the Rangers' 2015 preseason, it is also the first game of two back-to-back games for the Rangers against division rivals. Tonight the Blueshirts will be meeting the New Jersey Devils on the ice at the Garden and tomorrow the other half of the roster will be meeting the Philadelphia Flyer's preseason roster at 7:00PM. Obviously the star power in these games will be pretty diminished, but for the players that are battling for a roster position for the 2015-16 regular season these games will be as intense and important as they come.

As Gross reported the Rangers and Alain Vigneault are going to treat the first two games of the preseason as a crucible for a group of about a half dozen players. A few of the safe bets for the players that are going to get a thorough evaluation from the coaching staff in the next two nights are Dylan McIlrath, Oscar Lindberg, and Jarret Stoll. It has also been announced that Mats Zuccarello will not be dressing in either one of the Rangers' first two preseason games. Vigneault has also announced that the first wave of roster cuts will be taking place after the club's first two games this week and that before the last two games of the preseason the Rangers should have their roster trimmed down to 30 players.

As we've discussed for the last month or so on the Banter, the game of musical chairs that starts at the open slot at the Rangers' second line right wing and trickles down through the rest of the lineup is something to keep an eye on.

Enjoy tonight's game, gang. Hopefully everyone stays healthy and we get to enjoy some intense preseason hockey and enjoy our first look at some of the new acquisitions to the roster, some minor leaguers, and players on PTOs that are chasing their dream and hoping to land a spot on the New York Rangers' 2015-16 roster.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Cory Schneider and Yann Danis will split goalie duties in tomorrow night's game vs. Rangers at Garden.</p>— Tom Gulitti (@TGfireandice) <a href="https://twitter.com/TGfireandice/status/645783143409184768">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Hellberg and Raanta are expected to do the same tonight for the Rangers. We have already clearly won the battle of which team has goaltenders with cooler names.

Let's go Rangers.

Drop the puck.

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