Minnesota Wild vs. New York Rangers Pick & Prediction NOVEMBER 4th 2023

The New York Rangers will try to extend their NHL-best winning streak to seven games in a row when they visit the Minnesota Wild on Saturday evening in St. Paul, Minn.

New York is coming off a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. The Rangers have raced to an 8-2-0 start, which represents their second-best start after 10 games in franchise history.

Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba credited head coach Peter Laviolette and the rest of the team’s coaching staff for setting the players up for success.

“We’re confident in the structure we play,” Trouba said. “Whoever’s on the ice, we know our jobs, we know our role. I think the coaches have put the players in a great position of knowing your job when you’re on the ice, whether we’re in a 1-3-1 (formation) or going hard up the ice.

“Every player knows their job. That’s a nod to the coaching staff that the guys can fill in their spots and continue to play how we play.”

As the Rangers discuss confidence, the Wild are feeling frustration.

Minnesota has lost four games in a row, including a 5-3 setback against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night. The Wild have won only three of their first 10 games.

The slide has prompted Wild coach Dean Evason to shake up his team’s scoring lines multiple times in the young season. Evason hinted that more changes will be coming.

“Certainly, we can’t stick with what’s been going on,” Evason said. “We give people and our group an opportunity to pull out of it and play better and (with) more energy and pace and all that kind of stuff. We haven’t. So, yeah, there’ll be changes, for sure.”

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson is expected to start. He is 2-3-1 with a 4.48 goals-against average and an .882 save percentage this season.

Evason said the team’s skaters could do more to help the goaltending.

“It just seems like every shot is going in the net,” Evason said. “Every opportunity that we have for a clear, we don’t do it. Every chance we have to box a guy out, we don’t do it. Our goaltenders are getting screened.”

For New York, the Rangers will have to play without No. 1 goalie Igor Shesterkin, who is reportedly “banged up” after Thursday’s win and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury.

The Rangers have allowed zero or one goals in six games this season and will look to match those stats with Jonathan Quick in net and Louis Domingue, who was called up from AHL affiliate Hartford on Friday, as back-up.

New York will also be without defenseman Adam Fox and forward Filip Chytil against the Wild. Both players were injured Thursday against the Hurricanes, with Fox sustaining a lower-body injury and Chytil sustaining an upper-body injury.

Fox was placed on long-term injured reserve and Chytil was placed on standard IR on Friday. Defenseman Connor Mackey was recalled from Hartford Friday in an attempt to plug the hole filled by former Norris Trophy winner Fox, who must miss a minimum of 10 games or 24 days on LTIR.

The Rangers also announced that forward Barclay Goodrow will miss Saturday’s game to attend the birth of his son.

Minnesota is 2-2-1 at home this season. New York is 6-1-0 on the road.

–Field Level Media