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Fans are traveling to Madison Square Garden from all over the Tri-State area for one reason: the New York Rangers home opener against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Rangers are coming off a 3-0 loss in their season opener against the Boston Bruins, while today’s match is the season opener for the Lightning.
The Rangers are going to deploy the same lines as they did against the Bruins; however, goaltender Joonas Korpisalo has been placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury. To replace him, Dylan Garand has been recalled from the Hartford Wolf Pack. John Carlson will make his Lightning debut tonight.
One more smaller note also mentioned below: Rangers games will no longer be streamed on the Gotham Sports app and have been moved to DAZN.
Rangers’ lines and defensive pairings from practice:
Perreault-Zibanejad-Lafrenière
Bjorkstrand-Miller-Dorofeyev
Cuylle-Laba-Tolvanen
Kartye-Veleno-Rempe (Chmelař)Gavrikov-Fox
Pettersson-Durzi
Šmits-Schneider
Robertson-MorrowShesterkin
Korpisalo— Andrew Crane (@CraneAndrew) September 30, 2026
Where to Watch
Cable/Network TV: MSG Network, NHL website, NHL app, and DAZN
National Broadcast: ESPN+
Radio: 880 AM
Player to Watch: Pavel Dorofeyev
Pavel Dorofeyev led the Rangers with five shots on goal against the Bruins on some good opportunities. Unfortunately, he (and the rest of the team) couldn’t put one past Jeremy Swayman and have another tough test between the pipes in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Goal scoring was an issue for the Rangers a season ago, and Dorofeyev was brought in to help fix it. Although he and his linesmates, J.T. Miller and Oliver Bjorkstrand, are still developing chemistry, it would be nice to see some pucks in the back of the net.
Enjoy the game!
