NY Rangers (28-30-8) vs LA Kings (27-24-15)
• 16 March 2026 19:00 EDT
• MSG, NYC
• TV: MSG, FDSNW •
The Rangers are back in town riding a four game winning streak to take on the LA Kings and former NYR star Panarin. Will he recognize this Rangers team? Maybe not! Certainly he won’t recognize the NHL #1 star of the past week, Lafreniere 😉
The Kings have been struggling a bit of late, 4-5-1 their last ten compared to the Rangers 6-2-2. Much of the King’s season has revolved around Bettman points – are they resilient or just not good enough?
Jason (22-12-6, 2.49 GAA, 0.914 SV%) will be in goal tonight for the Rangers against, per NHL sources, Forsberg (11-10-5, 2.83 GAA, 0.900 SV%) – though I won’t be surprised to see Kuemper (16-13-10, 2.68 GAA, 0.897 SV%) out there either. There are no planned line up changes for the Rangers and Kempe is expected to play for the Kings.
The refs today are Jake Brenk (647 GP) and…oh no Tokyo! Wes (1501 GP) 😱. The good news is Brenk tends to give more PP’s to the home team as does Wes, unless it is the Rangers.
On this date in history: In 1974, Ed Giacomin became the first NYR goalie to collect 250 wins, this one a 3-1 victory over the hated Icelanders.
Speculative NYR lineup:
Forwards
1st line ⊳ Perreault ⋄ Zibanejad ⋄ Lafreniere
2nd line ⊳ Cuylle ⋄ Trocheck ⋄ Miller
3rd line ⊳ Kartye ⋄ Laba ⋄ Sheary
4th line ⊳ Raddysh ⋄ Edstrom ⋄ Chmelar
Defensemen
1st pair ⊳ Gavrikov ⋄ Fox
2nd pair ⊳ Robertson ⋄ Schneider
3rd pair ⊳ Vaakanainen ⋄ Borgen
Goalies
Starter ⊳ Shesterkin
Backup ⊳ Quick
Healthy scratch: D Iorio F Pärssinen F Brodzinski
Injured:
In the Cooler: none
Long-term IR: F Rempe (thumb)
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