Who: New York Rangers vs. Nashville Predators
Where: Madison Square Garden
When: Monday night at 7:00 PM
Watch: MSG Plus beginning at 6:30 PM
Listen: ESPN-1050 AM and NewYorkRangers.com
*************************
The Skinny:
In the midst of a hectic schedule in and around the Thanksgiving holiday, the Rangers (15-3-2, 32 pts) host the Nashville Predators (11-5-3, 25 pts) at The Garden on Monday night. Starting last Thursday in Tampa the Rangers will play nine games in 15 nights, a grueling stretch which includes four games in six days this week, with three on home ice. The Rangers are coming off Saturday’s you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 5-4 overtime victory over the Panthers down in Florida, a game in which they never trailed, but came ever so close to losing in the final minutes of play. A seemingly comfortable 4-2 lead dissolved into a 4-4 tie in a span of 39 seconds, and only a clutch Henrik Lundqvist pad save on Reilly Smith’s penalty shot with 1:42 to play averted complete disaster. After the game Lundqvist, who made 39 saves, was adamant that the Rangers needed to learn a valuable lesson from how they almost let a sure two points slip away, especially on the heels of Thursday’s 2-1 defeat in Tampa Bay when a last-minute turnover and shorthanded goal against sabotaged the team. On the positive side, it was New York’s tenth win in the last 11 games, Lundqvist was terrific again in goal Saturday, despite allowing four goals, and Mats Zuccarello sparkled with his third three-point effort in the past five games, as he scored a pretty breakaway goal and added two assists. Then of course there was the breakout night for Rick Nash, who scored three goals including the overtime game-winner on the power play, recorded ten shots on goal, and was a powerfully dominant force throughout. As for Monday’s lineup, since there was no practice on Sunday Vigneault has not addressed making any changes. However he did say earlier in the week that Antti Raanta would get some starts in goal with the team playing such a condensed schedule—though he never indicated which games Raanta would play. Also Vigneault has recently voiced some displeasure with how his third line has been playing, and in fact switched up some of his line combinations during Saturday’s game in Florida. Still third-liner Viktor Stalberg found a way to score an important third period goal against the Panther, assisted by Oscar Lindberg and J.T. Miller—both of whom had been having rough nights—after Kevin Hayes moved up to Derek Stepan’s line. Whether or not this creates an opportunity for Emerson Etem to get back in the lineup is not known. Like the Rangers Nashville got off to a strong start this season, roaring out of the gates by winning its first three games and six of its opening seven. The Predators were 7-1-1 through nine games, but are just 4-4-2 in their last ten, including a pair of shutout defeats at the hands of Minnesota and Columbus heading into Monday’s game at The Garden. In fact the Predators have been blanked in each of Nashville’s last three regulation losses, a shocking statistic especially when considering they are capable of scoring in bunches. Peter Laviolette’s crew scored seven goals on November 10 against Winnipeg and seven more four nights later against Ottawa. Nashville owns a very balanced scoring attack, not unlike New York, with James Neal leading the way with nine goals and 15 points. Defensemen Roman Josi (second on the team with 13 points), Shea Weber (ten points, second in the NHL with five power play goals) and Seth Jones (ten points) all play huge roles in Nashville’s offensive game. The true backbone of the Predators remains goaltender Pekka Rinne who has started 17 of the Preds’ first 19 games this season. His ten wins and two shutouts are both just one shy of the league lead in each category.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Predators are skating in the first of two head-to-head meetings this season on Monday, with the second and final contest taking place in Nashville on December 28. Last year the two teams split their season series, with the home team winning each time. After losing 3-2 in Nashville on February 7, the Rangers beat the Predators on March 2 as Marc Staal, Chris Kreider, Dominic Moore and Rick Nash all scored for New York. Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello both contributed a pair of assists in that home-ice victory. The Rangers have won two of their last three games at The Garden against the Predators, but before that they were winless in six games at home against Nashville, posting an 0-5-1 record dating to the 2000-01 season. Though he did not play against the Predators in either game last season, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has a lifetime 1.71 GAA in seven career starts against Nashville.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Rick Nash: After Rick Nash exploded with a powerhouse three-goals, ten shots, overtime game-winning goal tour-de-force Saturday in Florida, Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault was asked if this one game could kick-start Nash offensively, perhaps setting off one of his patented white-hot runs of production. Vigneault simply stated that he didn’t know and that it was up to Nash to see how he build off of Saturday’s performance. Monday’s game with the Predators is Nash’s first opportunity to follow up his huge game in Florida with more big-time offensive production, and he does have 23 goals and 39 points in 55 career games against Nashville. Somewhat quietly, even before the breakout against the Panthers, Nash’s numbers have started to build. Since October 30 Nash has scored four goals, added six assists and totaled ten points in eight games (he missed two due to a back injury). And even on nights where he didn’t find the score sheet recently he has been more of a force offensively—like in Tampa last Thursday when he recorded four shots on goal and was credited with four hits in just under 20 minutes of ice time. Nash did not score a goal until his eighth game of the season, and he currently sits at five after his seventh career Hat Trick on Saturday, yet you sense that he’s about to take off and begin to carry the team for a stretch. Monday’s game will go a long way to proving if that will be the case or not.
Predators-James Neal: Nashville's leading scorer this season is a familiar name to the Rangers. James Neal, who spent four years in the middle of New York's rivalry with Pittsburgh as a 40-goal scorer for the Penguins, has a team-high nine goals and 15 points through 19 games so far this year, his second season in Nashville following a trade out of Pittsburgh in the summer of 2014. A seven-time 20+-goal scorer, who began his career with the Dallas Stars, Neal will be playing in his 500th NHL game Monday night; and he enters play with 197 career goals--60 of which have come on the power play--and 367 points as one of the top power forwards in recent years. A streaky scorer so far this season, Neal had one stretch where he scored five goals and totaled seven points in a three-game stretch in October and had a four-game point streak prior to the past two games in which both he and his entire team failed to score in back to back shutouts. Expect Neal to see a heavy does of the Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi defense pair on Monday.
Where: Madison Square Garden
When: Monday night at 7:00 PM
Watch: MSG Plus beginning at 6:30 PM
Listen: ESPN-1050 AM and NewYorkRangers.com
*************************
The Skinny:
In the midst of a hectic schedule in and around the Thanksgiving holiday, the Rangers (15-3-2, 32 pts) host the Nashville Predators (11-5-3, 25 pts) at The Garden on Monday night. Starting last Thursday in Tampa the Rangers will play nine games in 15 nights, a grueling stretch which includes four games in six days this week, with three on home ice. The Rangers are coming off Saturday’s you-had-to-see-it-to-believe-it 5-4 overtime victory over the Panthers down in Florida, a game in which they never trailed, but came ever so close to losing in the final minutes of play. A seemingly comfortable 4-2 lead dissolved into a 4-4 tie in a span of 39 seconds, and only a clutch Henrik Lundqvist pad save on Reilly Smith’s penalty shot with 1:42 to play averted complete disaster. After the game Lundqvist, who made 39 saves, was adamant that the Rangers needed to learn a valuable lesson from how they almost let a sure two points slip away, especially on the heels of Thursday’s 2-1 defeat in Tampa Bay when a last-minute turnover and shorthanded goal against sabotaged the team. On the positive side, it was New York’s tenth win in the last 11 games, Lundqvist was terrific again in goal Saturday, despite allowing four goals, and Mats Zuccarello sparkled with his third three-point effort in the past five games, as he scored a pretty breakaway goal and added two assists. Then of course there was the breakout night for Rick Nash, who scored three goals including the overtime game-winner on the power play, recorded ten shots on goal, and was a powerfully dominant force throughout. As for Monday’s lineup, since there was no practice on Sunday Vigneault has not addressed making any changes. However he did say earlier in the week that Antti Raanta would get some starts in goal with the team playing such a condensed schedule—though he never indicated which games Raanta would play. Also Vigneault has recently voiced some displeasure with how his third line has been playing, and in fact switched up some of his line combinations during Saturday’s game in Florida. Still third-liner Viktor Stalberg found a way to score an important third period goal against the Panther, assisted by Oscar Lindberg and J.T. Miller—both of whom had been having rough nights—after Kevin Hayes moved up to Derek Stepan’s line. Whether or not this creates an opportunity for Emerson Etem to get back in the lineup is not known. Like the Rangers Nashville got off to a strong start this season, roaring out of the gates by winning its first three games and six of its opening seven. The Predators were 7-1-1 through nine games, but are just 4-4-2 in their last ten, including a pair of shutout defeats at the hands of Minnesota and Columbus heading into Monday’s game at The Garden. In fact the Predators have been blanked in each of Nashville’s last three regulation losses, a shocking statistic especially when considering they are capable of scoring in bunches. Peter Laviolette’s crew scored seven goals on November 10 against Winnipeg and seven more four nights later against Ottawa. Nashville owns a very balanced scoring attack, not unlike New York, with James Neal leading the way with nine goals and 15 points. Defensemen Roman Josi (second on the team with 13 points), Shea Weber (ten points, second in the NHL with five power play goals) and Seth Jones (ten points) all play huge roles in Nashville’s offensive game. The true backbone of the Predators remains goaltender Pekka Rinne who has started 17 of the Preds’ first 19 games this season. His ten wins and two shutouts are both just one shy of the league lead in each category.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Predators are skating in the first of two head-to-head meetings this season on Monday, with the second and final contest taking place in Nashville on December 28. Last year the two teams split their season series, with the home team winning each time. After losing 3-2 in Nashville on February 7, the Rangers beat the Predators on March 2 as Marc Staal, Chris Kreider, Dominic Moore and Rick Nash all scored for New York. Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello both contributed a pair of assists in that home-ice victory. The Rangers have won two of their last three games at The Garden against the Predators, but before that they were winless in six games at home against Nashville, posting an 0-5-1 record dating to the 2000-01 season. Though he did not play against the Predators in either game last season, goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has a lifetime 1.71 GAA in seven career starts against Nashville.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Rick Nash: After Rick Nash exploded with a powerhouse three-goals, ten shots, overtime game-winning goal tour-de-force Saturday in Florida, Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault was asked if this one game could kick-start Nash offensively, perhaps setting off one of his patented white-hot runs of production. Vigneault simply stated that he didn’t know and that it was up to Nash to see how he build off of Saturday’s performance. Monday’s game with the Predators is Nash’s first opportunity to follow up his huge game in Florida with more big-time offensive production, and he does have 23 goals and 39 points in 55 career games against Nashville. Somewhat quietly, even before the breakout against the Panthers, Nash’s numbers have started to build. Since October 30 Nash has scored four goals, added six assists and totaled ten points in eight games (he missed two due to a back injury). And even on nights where he didn’t find the score sheet recently he has been more of a force offensively—like in Tampa last Thursday when he recorded four shots on goal and was credited with four hits in just under 20 minutes of ice time. Nash did not score a goal until his eighth game of the season, and he currently sits at five after his seventh career Hat Trick on Saturday, yet you sense that he’s about to take off and begin to carry the team for a stretch. Monday’s game will go a long way to proving if that will be the case or not.
Predators-James Neal: Nashville's leading scorer this season is a familiar name to the Rangers. James Neal, who spent four years in the middle of New York's rivalry with Pittsburgh as a 40-goal scorer for the Penguins, has a team-high nine goals and 15 points through 19 games so far this year, his second season in Nashville following a trade out of Pittsburgh in the summer of 2014. A seven-time 20+-goal scorer, who began his career with the Dallas Stars, Neal will be playing in his 500th NHL game Monday night; and he enters play with 197 career goals--60 of which have come on the power play--and 367 points as one of the top power forwards in recent years. A streaky scorer so far this season, Neal had one stretch where he scored five goals and totaled seven points in a three-game stretch in October and had a four-game point streak prior to the past two games in which both he and his entire team failed to score in back to back shutouts. Expect Neal to see a heavy does of the Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi defense pair on Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment