Boston Bruins at New York Rangers 10/5/22 - NHL Picks & Predictions

The Boston Bruins visit Madison Square Garden on Wednesday in the Big Apple to take on the New York Rangers in a preseason matchup. Boston is 2-2-0 in its first four games of the regular season. The Bruins have lost to Philadelphia and the New Jersey Devils sandwiched around victories over the Rangers and Flyers. Boston was shutout in its most recent outing 1-0 by the New Jersey Devils as the Bruins could not put any of 24 shots past Devils’ netminder Vitek Vanecek. 

Boston has added centers David Krejci and Pavel Zacha, as well as goalie Keith Kinkaid and defenseman Connor Carrick. The biggest losses during the offseason for Boston were Josh Brown, Anton Blidh and Erik Haula. The new additions will play alongside stars such as Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak but the Bruins will start the season without Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy who are both sidelined with injuries

New York is 2-2-1 in its five preseason games this far with victories over the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders and losses to the Boston Bruins and the Devils. New York returns with Vezina trophy-winning goalie Igor Shesterkin as their key to success. Last season Shesterkin was 36-13-4 with a save percentage of .935 and goals against average of 2.07. New York has added center Vincent Trocheck and goalies Louis Domingue and Jaroslave Halak to back up Shesterkin.

Several players are no longer with the Rangers including Andrew Copp, Ryan Strome, Alexandar Georgiev, Justin Braun, Kevin Rooney and Keith Kinkaid. Expect to see breakout seasons by Kaapo Kakko and Alexis Lafreniere and veterans Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider and Mika Zibanejad will carry the offensive production for the Rangers. New York will go as far as Shesterkin will carry them and that is likely to be deep into the postseason.