New York Rangers vs Detroit Red Wings: Preview

Time: 8 p.m.

Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York.

Tonight the New York Rangers look to get back into the win column over the Detroit Red Wings. The team dropped the last two games, one to the Winnipeg Jets, and the other to the St. Louis Blues; both of the losses came in a shootout. Last game, the Rangers played without Derek Stepan, Dan Boyle, Ryan McDonagh, Kevin Klein, John Moore and Mats Zuccarello against a powerful Blues team and managed to edge out a point. Tonight, Zuccarello and Klein will return to the line-up in place of Ryan Malone and Dylan McIlrath.

Rangers starting to find their groove:

The Rangers are without a doubt one of the top team’s in the Eastern Conference, but have been ravaged by the injury bug this season, couple that with a slow start and you can see why the Rangers are tied for third in the metropolitan division with only 12 points. After yet another poor start, Henrik Lundqvist has started to find his groove and has started to bring his numbers down to normal, he currently is 5-3-1 with a 2.85 goals against average and a .902 save percentage with two shutouts. Martin St. Louis, who fans say had a slow start, played his best game of the season last game, scoring two goals. Top scorer Rick Nash was placed on a line with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello, and that line looks like it’s starting to figure itself out.

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Red Wings are a good team: 

The Red Wings can also be called one of the top teams in the east, as they currently sit 6-3-3, which has been good enough to get them one win out of first place in the Atlantic Division. They are led by captain Henrik Zetterberg, who has 15 points in 12 games this season, and Pavel Datsyuk, the magic man, who has 10 points in seven games. Jonas Gustavsson will start in goal tonight for the Red Wings, he’s played two games, is 1-1 and has a 1.45 GAA and a .935 save%. The Wings have an almost perfect mix of youth and veteran experience and look to bounce back after their 3-1 loss last night to the Ottawa Senators.

Special teams continue to be a problem:

Even with the improved play of the Rangers, they still struggle on special teams. The penalty kill currently ranks 14th in the league, which is an improvement from what it was a week and a half ago, but definitely not good from the 3rd place ranking it had last season. The power play, which was 15th in the league last season, ranks 27th in the league this season, scoring on only three of their THIRTY-TWO chances. Dan Boyle was supposed to fix the problem, and according to Darren Dreger of TSN, Boyle will be back next week. However, the ranking of the special teams is a problem for the Rangers and head coach Alain Vigneault needs to figure it out.

Players to watch:

Last season the Rangers went 3-0 against the Red Wings in the season series, but it’s a different season and two very different teams. For Detroit, I’m going to go with the obvious in Zetterberg and Datsyuk, these two are fantastic hockey players, especially when placed together and should have no problem with the depleted defense that the Rangers are giving them tonight.

For the Rangers, I’m going to go with Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes. Zuccarello has just had an awful start to the season and needs to eventually turn it around, last season he scored the one and only goal against Jimmy Howard and the Red Wings on Thursday January 16th. Hayes has played well but can play better especially considering his size and skill set so I expect to see something good out of him tonight.