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Rangers complete three-game road trip in Utah tonight |
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The Rangers complete their three game road trip in Utah tonight. It’s the team’s first trip to the Delta Center after playing Arizona on a, now Utah, in Mullet Arena last season. New York heads home to take on a resurgent Columbus team in Saturday followed by a road contest the next day in Montreal.
Rangers lines vs. Utah:
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Zibanejad-Smith
Kreider-Chytil-Kaliyev
Edström-Carrick-Rempe
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Borgen
Vaakanainen-Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Scratches: Vesey, Jones, Brodzinski
The healthy scratches look like they will be the scratches moving forward, barring injury. Vesey and Brodzinski profile as bottom six forwards with those units somewhat set. The fourth line is an energy checking trio while the third line is more of a scoring group.
Will Cuylle has hit a bit of a rough patch, as his offensive production has tailed off mighty. Either correlation or causation applies here, as Cuylle’s output has declined substantially since Kaapo Kakko was dealt to Seattle. If his game continues to plateau, we could see Chris Kreider back with Mika Zibanejad with Cuylle reunited with Filip Chytil.
In addition, as mentioned in the last column, the top line has to get hot. Laf and Bread are scuffling, and while Vincent Trocheck is making a difference all over the ice, including in the face off circle, his offense has hit a wall. If that trio can find their game, New York’s offense gets much deeper.
The blue liner has been better lately. Far from perfect but improved, aided by the return of the 1-3-1 neutral zone system. New York still has gaps and lapses in their own zone, but they have been better in that regard of late.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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