New York Rangers look to take the season series against Tampa Bay
The New York Rangers will be looking to win the season series early this year as they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in a Thursday night match-up from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.
On Tuesday, the New York Rangers defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 in overtime and will try to continue their success as they embark on a two game road trip when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in an Eastern Conference match-up.
It was a very mediocre month of October with the New York Rangers going 4-5-1. Fortunately, they’ve been able to flip the script and show signs of life in the month of November, going 4-1-1. The Blueshirts have outscored their opponents 21-18 during this span and are finally starting to play like a compatible unit. Since the last time these two teams met, the Rangers have jumped into the sixth spot in the Metropolitan Division, while the Lightning have dropped into the sixth spot in the Atlantic Division. This will be Tampa Bay’s fourth game in the month of November, so even though they have dropped a spot in the Atlantic, they still have three games in hand on the the first place Boston Bruins. The Lightning are coming off of a back-to-back against the Buffalo Sabres on November 8th and 9th in Stockholm, Sweden, which saw them take both games 3-2, and 5-3 respectively.
The Rangers are finally starting to put all the pieces together. Artemi Panarin, who was the NHL’s big off-season free agent signing, has finally started to find a groove. He has eight of his 19 points in the last five games and has had at least one point in each of his last nine contests. At the current pace now, Panarin will eclipse his career high of 87 points and could quite possibly hit the 100 point mark.
On the complete opposite side of the rink, Henrik Lundqvist has really started to play like the All-Star caliber goaltender he’s known to be. In his last five games, he has saved 168 of 182 shots, which is good for a .923 save percentage. He’s won three of his last four starts and has been a key piece to the Rangers’ success this past month.
The last time that these two teams met, the Rangers defeated the Lightning 4-1. Kaapo Kakko, Filip Chytil, Adam Fox and Ryan Strome all came away with goals. Nikita Kucherov had the lone goal for the Lightning that evening.