Time to cane that Carolina ass boys. Especially, since they are crying about Trouba flying thru the air at Necas. They have now exposed themselves as bitches to the Rangers.
Just like I said after game 2, the Canes will have a different goalie tonight, Andersen benched and Kochetkov starting. While I figured this would happen, it could backfire and come across as a panic move, or maybe he plays great, and it is a winning move. New goalie who hasn't played since April 14th means even more the Rangers should get pucks on net and see if he is up to the task, or if he is rusty. "He's got a different demeanor," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Freddie's really calm and cool and 'Kooch' is a little more passionate and wears his emotions on his sleeve. But they are both pretty good goalies." Kochetkov started one game in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs and has made four other appearances in relief, including one last season. The 24-year-old has a 4.31 GAA and .858 save percentage in the postseason.
They are going to rally around Kotchetkov defensively is my expectation so getting shots on net is prob going to be tough. Hopefully the Rangers are decisive when they have the puck on their stick and are not passing up open shots even if it is a low percentage opportunity.
Past Ranger teams would make the backup look like a star. With this team rolling like the way they are there are no excuses why they should not sweep this team now
One thing I will say about the change, the Canes rotated goalies pretty strictly once Andersen came back from injury, so while Andersen was the starter with more experience, it was almost like a 1 and 1A, so this isn't like us playing Quick over Igor for example. Either way the point holds true, he hasn't played in almost a month, and we need to get pucks on him to see how he handles it. The crowd in Carolina should be rocking, so the first 6-8 minutes will be big IMO, can the Rangers withstand and get through that emotion early and then get to their game. I did read they expect maybe 20% Rangers fans. In general, I like the Rangers game on the road and have for a while.
Like I said on that, if you are going to pull Rempe, which I am not a huge fan of fixing what isn't broken, you go Chytil over Brod. Playing Brod made little sense to me as I don't see what value he adds. And while I don't expect much out of Chytil after missing months, maybe you get lucky and catch lightning in a bottle and big picture he can take this team to even another level if he gets his legs under him after a couple of games. Lav taking a risk there, I think. The Rangers also need to be more disciplined I would say. Giving the Canes many PP chances is a recipe for disaster at some point as their PP is too good to be held down forever and will get an extra boost at home you'd think.
Lines in warmups (bumping Cuylle to the 4th line it appears): Kreider-Zibanejad-Roslovic Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere Chytil-Wennberg-Kakko Cuylle-Goodrow-Vesey Lindgren-Fox Miller-Schneider Gustafsson-Trouba Shesterkin Quick
