Then there's the Rangers, who are figuring out life after Shesterkin in real time. He went down in a 3-1 loss to Washington and was ruled out for the season. Dylan Garand, a 24-year-old waiver claim, took the net and looked like the answer at first, with 19 saves in a 6-2 win over Vancouver at the Garden the next time out. Then New Jersey scored 4 goals on 13 shots against him and won 7-1, and he got pulled. New York was 6-3 through 9 games as of Thursday.
New York still has a game to play before this one: a trip to Columbus on Saturday. That game answers the biggest question here, which is whether Garand bounces back or whether Mike Sullivan has to go to someone else in net. Adam Fox was already telling Garand to "forget about it" after the Devils game. Sullivan and captain J.T. Miller both talked about not giving opponents easy offense, which tells you how they plan to protect a goalie nobody expected to be starting in October.
The Rangers can score while they sort out the crease. As of Thursday, Alexis Lafrenière had 7 goals, Adam Fox had 9 assists and Mika Zibanejad had 8 points. That's a lot of finish for a Ducks team that has been giving up 3rd-period goals at home. For Anaheim, it comes down to whether the version that won in Winnipeg and Calgary shows up at MSG. A banged-up team with a shaky goalie on the other end shouldn't lose many 2-goal leads. The Ducks have done it twice in a row anyway. Puck drop is 7:00 PM ET.