{"id":140553,"date":"2026-01-19T21:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140553\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T21:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T21:36:14","slug":"lineups-storylines-starting-3-game-trip-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/140553\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineups, storylines starting 3-game trip in California"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Rangers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The New York Rangers will see some familiar faces when they take the ice against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center on Monday night, in the opener of a three-game California road trip.<\/p>\n

The Ducks, who\u2019ve won three in a row after losing nine straight games, are a second home for ex-Rangers. Center Ryan Strome and defenseman Jacob Trouba face their former teammates, but forward Frank Vatrano is out with a broken shoulder.<\/p>\n

Forward Chris Kreider, traded by the Rangers<\/a> to the Ducks in June, missed the Anaheim\u2019s two-game weekend sweep of the archrival Los Angeles Kings with an illness, but said before the morning skate that he\u2019s good to go. That means he\u2019ll go up against his best buddy on the Rangers, center Mika Zibanejad<\/a>, for the first time since No. 93 was a member of the Ottawa Senators.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. We\u2019ll see,\u201d was Kreider\u2019s answer when asked what it would feel like.<\/p>\n

\"NHL:Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Ducks are trying to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2017-18. They enter the week with 51 points (24-21-3), even with the Kings and San Jose Sharks in the race for the second wild-card position in the Western Conference<\/a>, though the Sharks have a game in hand on their Southern California rivals.<\/p>\n

The Rangers, who lost 4-1 to the Ducks<\/a> at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 15, won\u2019t have to worry about shutting down Anaheim\u2019s leading scorer, forward Leo Carlsson \u2014 he\u2019s out with a thigh injury.<\/a> New York enters the game last in the Eastern Conference at 21-22-6, nine points behind the Buffalo Sabres for the second wild card.<\/p>\n

3\u00a0storylines when Rangers visit Ducks<\/p>\n

\"NHL:Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Can the offense keep rolling?<\/p>\n

Facing the Ducks could be just what the Rangers need to build on their 6-3 road win against the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> on Saturday. Anaheim is next-to-last in the NHL defensively, allowing an average of 3.58 goals per game.<\/a> New York is 27th in scoring at 2.65 goals per game.<\/p>\n

Artemi Panarin<\/a> and Zibanejad are riding lengthy point streaks as the Rangers begin their trip. Panarin has points in nine straight games, including two goals and an assist against the Flyers. Zibanejad\u2019s point streak reached eight games when he scored three times Saturday. It was his second hat trick this month and ninth with the Rangers, tying him with Bill Cook for the franchise record.<\/p>\n

The Ducks\u2019 penalty-killing struggles could also help Zibanejad extend the team record for power-play goals he set on Saturday, when he passed Camille Henry and Kreider with his 117th. The Ducks are 20th on the PK at 78.3 percent. Zibanejad leads the Rangers<\/a> with nine power-play goals this season.<\/p>\n

Spencer Martin gets call again<\/p>\n

\"NHL:Kyle Ross-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Spencer Martin<\/a>, a journeyman goaltender, was good enough (three goals allowed on 28 shots) to earn the win against the struggling Flyers in his first start for the Rangers. He\u2019ll be in goal against the Ducks, with Jonathan Quick<\/a> likely to play against his old team, the Kings, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old has a 4.16 goals-against average and .852 save percentage in his three appearances with the Rangers. He won his only career start against the Ducks, an 8-5 victory on Nov. 2, 2022, when he was with the Vancouver Canucks.<\/p>\n

Goaltending has not been a Rangers strength since Igor Shesterkin<\/a> went down with a lower-body injury two weeks ago. The Rangers gave up 30 goals in the five full games since Shesterkin\u2019s injury.<\/p>\n

Fallout from \u201cLetter 2.0\u201d continues<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Friday\u2019s \u201cLetter 2.0\u201d from general manager Chris Drury saying that changes are coming and veterans could be on the way out<\/a> is still a hot topic of conversation \u2014 though Kreider did not have much to say, commenting before the morning skate that \u201cmy focus is on this room, this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coach Mike Sullivan said over the weekend that his focus is still on winning, and that he doesn\u2019t plan to bench players who could be traded to keep them from being injured. But he also said developmental decisions going forward are also a factor \u2014 and that the concept of development has changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy outlook on it is that it tends to go hand-in-hand,\u201d he said Sunday. \u201cI think when you look at the nature of the league and how it\u2019s evolved, there was once a time when really development took place in the American League and the NHL was the NHL. I think with the salary cap and things of that nature, younger players are getting forced onto rosters, entry-level contracts, things like that to make the business side of it work. And as a result of that, development has to take place at the NHL level also.\u201d<\/p>\n

New York Rangers projected lineup<\/p>\n

Gabe Perreault \u2014 J.T. Miller \u2014 Mika Zibanejad<\/p>\n

Artemi Panarin \u2014 Vincent Trocheck \u2014 Alexis Lafreniere<\/p>\n

Brennan Othmann \u2014 Noah Laba \u2014 Will Cuylle<\/p>\n

Jonny Brodzinski \u2014 Sam Carrick \u2013Taylor Raddysh<\/p>\n

Vladislav Gavrikov \u2014 Braden Schneider<\/p>\n

Matthew Robertson \u2013 Will Borgen<\/p>\n

Urho Vaakanainen \u2013 Scott Morrow<\/p>\n

Spencer Martin<\/p>\n

Jonathan Quick<\/p>\n

Rangers vs. Ducks: When, where, what time, how to watch<\/p>\n

Who:\u00a0New York Rangers vs. Anaheim Ducks<\/p>\n

When: Monday, Jan. 19 at 10 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

Where: Honda Center<\/p>\n

How to watch:\u00a0MSG<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJohn Kreiser covered his first Rangers game (against the California Golden Seals) in November 1975 and is still going … More about John Kreiser<\/a><\/p>\n

Add Forever Blueshirts as a Preferred Source on Google.\"Add<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Rangers News The New York Rangers will see some familiar faces when they take the ice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-140553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}