Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York.
The New York Rangers (7-6-2) will host the Colorado Avalanche (4-8-5) tonight in an East vs West match-up at MSG. The Rangers look to continue rolling after their 5-0 victory over the mighty Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. The Avalanche look to bounce back and snap their two game losing streak after losing to the new and improved New York Islanders in a 6-0 loss Tuesday night at Nassau Coliseum. After winning the Central Division last season, Patrick Roy and the Avs have struggled early on in this season; after falling in the cup final last season the Alain Vigneault and the Rangers have also struggled and both teams are really looking to get on track.
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Reinforcements for the Rangers
One of the biggest problems the Rangers faced early on in this season was injuries, particularly to it’s group of defenseman. Kevin Klein suffered an injury that kept him out of a game, John Moore received a five game suspension for an illegal hit on Minnesota Wild forward Erik Haula but returned on Tuesday night against the Penguins. Derek Stepan, who made his season debut Saturday night in a 5-4 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs has tallied three points in the three games he’s played. Veteran defenseman Dan Boyle returns to the New York Rangers lineup and will be playing in his first game since the season opener against the St. Louis Blues. Boyle is a 15 year veteran of the NHL with tremendous experience and considerable expertise running the power play.
Henrik Lundqvist Returns to Form
It seems to be commonplace now that world-class goaltender and Rangers franchise player Henrik Lundqvist starts off the season with a poor start, but he’s finally started to return to form. Currently he’s 7-4-1 with a 2.55 goals against average and a .914 save percentage; at home Lundqvist is a remarkable 5-1-1 with a 1.39 goals against average and a .953 save percentage. He’s two seasons removed from his Vezina-winning season, and if he hopes to return to that title after this season, he’s certainly headed in the right direction. Lundqvist gets the nod tonight against the Avalanche after posting his 53rd career shutout and third of the season Tuesday against the Penguins.
Offense No Longer a Problem
The Rangers for years have had issues scoring goals while being exceptionally strong on defense and in net, well while their goaltending has gotten better and the defense is finally starting to recover from injury the one thing that’s remained constant is the play of the offense. The Rangers are 10th in the league in goals scored and are averaging almost three goals a game. The Rangers have four players with 10 points or more, Chris Kreider, Martin St. Louis, Derick Brassard, and Rick Nash who is tied for the league lead in goals. Brassard has tallied nine points in his last seven games, Stepan is on a three game point streak and even youngster Kevin Hayes is looking to extend his point streak to three games tonight.
Players to Watch
For the Rangers, I’ll choose Derek Stepan and Dan Boyle. Stepan has been excellent in his return to the Rangers and he should stay hot tonight against the Avs, Boyle is playing in his Madison Square Garden debut and should help out the power play and really impress the home crowd with his talent and leadership tonight.
For the Avs, I’m going to go with Nathan Mackinnon and Jarome Iginla, who are both on completely opposite ends of their career spectrums but are both marvelously gifted players. Mackinnon currently has 10 points and Iginla has nine, hteir both very dangerous players and should pose a challenge for the Rangers defense tonight.