No Connor McDavid reprieve this time for Rangers amidst winning streak

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The Rangers shut out a Connor McDavid-less Oilers team less than two months ago in Edmonton, in the midst of what became a season-high six-game winning streak.

On Friday night, when the Oilers venture to Madison Square Garden, the Rangers will not be spared again as McDavid is expected to be in Edmonton’s lineup.

“We’re talking about one of the most dynamic players in the game in the way he attacks open ice,” head coach Peter Laviolette said Thursday after practice in Tarrytown. “I think any time you play a team that has specific players that always presents to be a little more challenging. We’re just going to stick with what we’ve been doing, what we’ve done.

“Try to play good defense. Try to do the right thing through the neutral zone. And when it comes time to defend, we defend the right way.”

In 12 games against the Rangers over his nine NHL seasons, McDavid has scored six goals and dished 12 assists.

No goal is more memorable than the one where he dangled through four Rangers before dekeing out former goalie Alexandar Georgiev on Nov. 5, 2021, in Edmonton.

Braden Schneider noted that the key to containing McDavid will be team defense.

Additionally, the best way to stop his offense, the 22-year-old defenseman said, is to make him play defense.

“Obviously, a lot different,” Ryan Lindgren said of the Oilers with vs. without the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner. “They got other very good players, too, but he’s one of the best — if not the best — player in the NHL. He’s a game changer. Guy that you got to watch out for every time he’s out there. It’s always a challenge playing against him and it will be again [Friday].”

Former Hartford head coach Kris Knoblauch will return to the Garden for the first time since leaving his AHL post and accepting his first NHL head coaching gig with the Oilers.

Knoblauch, who took over as head coach of Hartford in 2019-20, filled in for ex-Rangers coaches David Quinn and Gerard Gallant at different points when each coaching staff tested positive for COVID-19.

He spent six total games behind the Rangers bench in 2020-21 and 2021-22.

Since Knoblauch assumed the job in Edmonton, the Oilers have gone 10-6-0.

The Rangers plus-19 goal differential ranks first in the Eastern Conference and fifth in the NHL.

After back-to-back games this weekend, against the Oilers and the Sabres, the Rangers will begin their three-day holiday break.

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