#This won’t be a normal Rangers-Islanders preseason match
“#This won’t be a normal Rangers-Islanders preseason match”
July 28, 2020 | 8:16pm
And you do know how memorable exhibition tilts are, correct?
Nevertheless, there is a fair amount of anticipation leading into the match that will provide the only pre-tournament competition for our teams, each of whom will play Game 1 of their respective best-of-five qualifying rounds on Saturday. The Rangers face the Hurricanes while the Islanders meet the Panthers.
“You could sense the energy and excitement in our practice today,” David Quinn said via Zoom. “Guys are looking forward to playing an opponent not on our own team, like we have been in the scrimmages. It’s an exciting time. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
The match promises to be more about muscle memory than the final score. No one wants to look bad, but more than that, no one wants to get hurt, either. The score will be 0-0 when the puck drops on Saturday regardless of what transpires in this exhibition match.
“It is a balancing act for everybody that plays an exhibition game,” Quinn said. “Under these unique circumstances, we’ve all as coaches been pushing our teams as hard as we can without putting them in position to get hurt, and I think [Wednesday] will be a very similar situation.”
“That being said, once you start playing against an opponent, your adrenaline just takes over, and your competitiveness and your drive, so if the guys are playing, they’re going to play. We need to get ready for Saturday and this is part of that process.”
Teams are allowed to dress one extra forward and one extra defenseman for the exhibition matches. Brendan Lemieux, suspended for the first two games against Carolina but eligible for the exhibition tilt, will dress as the 13th forward, while Libor Hajek will dress as the seventh defenseman.
Hajek, who has been practicing regularly with the varsity, was in the lineup for the Rangers’ first 27 matches before suffering a knee injury in Columbus on Dec. 5. The 22-year-old, acquired from Tampa Bay as the integral piece of the 2018 deadline deal in which Ryan McDonagh and J.T. Miller went the other way, missed the next 16 games rehabbing. He played in St. Louis on Jan. 11 before being sent to Hartford, where he spent the remainder of the season.
Quinn declined to discuss the goaltending plan for Wednesday, saying he had not yet spoken to his three netminders. Igor Shesterkin is expected to get the start, with Henrik Lundqvist the backup while Alex Georgiev not dressing. The likelihood is that Shesterkin and Lundqvist will split the game in some manner.
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