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.
Who are the Tampa Bay Lightning?
When people think of the Tampa Bay Lightning, they think of the team that was swept in the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets after winning the President’s Trophy and tying the NHL record with 62 wins in one season. Unfortunately, they haven’t gotten off to the same start as they did this year. The Lightning currently sit at 8-5-2 and have only 18 points, the same as the Rangers in one fewer game. This is way off from there first 15 games last season, in which they went 11-3-1 and totaled 23 points. To say they are having a President’s Cup hangover is precisely correct.
Steven Stamkos leads the Lightning with 15 points on the young season. He has five goals, which is tied with Kucherov and Kevin Shattenkirk for the team lead, as well as 10 assists, which is tops on the team. Unfortunately, Stamkos has a plus/minus of -6, which is the worst on the team.
Last seasons Vezina Trophy winner, goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has not been as successful as last season. He’s allowed three goals a game and has only saved 90% of the shots he’s faced. He has a record of 6-4 and is in the top 20 for all goaltenders this season. However, his play this year has been mediocre and not up to Jon Cooper’s liking.
The Lightning are just trying to get in the same groove that led them to the President’s Cup last season, but have not been able to get their footing down correctly.
About the Rangers
The most recent play of the New York Rangers has been quite swell for their fans and the front office. Lundqvist, who was in a slump and had everyone questioning if he would be benched, turned around his play in a back-to-back performance that saw him allow only three goals on 83 shot attempts. Kakko has finally been given more ice time and he’s made the most of his opportunities, scoring four goals in five games. On top of that, he has become the fourth European-born player in NHL history to score at least six goals in 16 games while still being 18 or younger.
The defensemen on the Rangers have played very well lately. Led by Tony DeAngelo, who has 14 points this season and 12 in his last 10 games, the defense has really come out very strongly and have been a huge focal point for this Rangers team. Jacob Trouba, who was acquired by the Rangers from the Jets, has not been as dominant as everyone has thought. Luckily for him, players like Adam Fox (eight points), Brady Skjei (six points) and DeAngelo, have really picked up the pace and made it more of a team effort overall.
Unless anything changes at game time, it looks like Lundqvist will get the start once again in between the net. Mika Zibanejad will be out for at least two more games as he deals with an upper body injury. Lastly, Marc Staal will continue to recover following surgery he had on his ankle to clear out an infection.
The history between the Lightning and the Rangers
This will be the 103rd meeting between the two teams. The Lightning hold the advantage with an overall record of 48-43-5. They also hold the advantage against the Rangers in the Amalie Arena with a record of 19-16-2.
Most notable, these two teams faced off against each other in the 2014-15 Eastern Conference Finals. The series went seven games and saw the Lightning defeat the Rangers 2-0 at the Garden in the final match. That lost would mark the first time ever that the Rangers lost a playoff Game Seven on their own home ice.
Three keys to the game for the New York Rangers
Come out Strong
: Last time these two teams met, the Rangers came out extremely strong. Not offensively, but physically, as
locked arms with Lightning winger
. Haley set the tone, especially with a punch that left Maroon on the ice, but also, gave the Rangers a momentum boost to help power them through the game against a very tough Lightning team. They should look to do the same thing for this match-up, but maybe, offensively, rather then physically.
Continue scoring on power plays
: Lately, the Rangers have been converting on power plays. During there last five games, they have converted on six of 15 power plays. The Blueshirts are now in a three way tie for 12th place in power play goals with 13 so far this season and are in ninth place overall with a success rate of 23.2%.
Continue to contain Kucherov and Stamkos
: At any given moment Kucherov and Stamkos could go off and have a monster game. They are two of the best players in the NHL right now, and may possibly be the best duo in the NHL. . Kucherov only has 13 points, one year removed after leading the entire NHL in points, while Stamkos has a team high 15 points, but with 10 of those coming on assists rather then goals.
The game is scheduled for 7:00 P.M. and will be televised on the MSG Network. WEPN 98.7 will carry the radio broadcast of the contest. The next game after Tampa Bay will see the Blueshirts taking on the Panthers in Florida, this Saturday, as they continue this two game road trip.
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