Who: New York Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Where: Amalie Arena
When: Wednesday night at 8:00 PM
Watch: NBCSN with post-game show on MSG Network
Listen: ESPN-98.7 FM and NewYorkRangers.com
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The Skinny:
Wednesday night in Tampa the Rangers (20-13-4, 44 pts) play their final game in the calendar year by taking on the team that knocked them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, the Lightning (18-15-4, 40 pts). 2015 has been an extremely successful year for the Rangers. It featured the team being crowned as President’s Trophy winners, a run to within one victory of a second consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, and a strong start to this current campaign, one that included a nine-game winning streak. All told the Rangers won a total of 64 games—regular season and playoffs combined—the most of any team in the NHL during the 2015 calendar year. Unfortunately the Rangers are riding a rough patch in their season coming into play Wednesday. They were defeated by the Predators in Nashville 5-3 Monday night to start this three-game road trip. The Rangers have lost four of their last five games and are now 4-10-2 in their last 16. In addition they have not won a road game in more than a month, posting an 0-6-2 mark since beating the Florida Panthers in overtime on November 21. Head coach Alain Vigneault has shaken up three of his four line combinations for Wednesday’s contest in Tampa Bay, moving Rick Nash—a goal and nine shots Monday night—to the left of Derek Stepan and Jesper Fast—who also had a goal Monday, while sliding J.T. Miller—playing the best and most consistent hockey of his career of late with three goals and six points in his last seven games—into Nash’s previous spot alongside Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello. The third line will now feature Chris Kreider joining Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem, while the fourth line remains Dom Moore in the middle of Viktor Stalberg and Tanner Glass. The biggest news is that second-year pro Kevin Hayes is the odd man out. Hayes, who has six goals and 17 points while playing in all 37 games to this point, has only two points in his last dozen games and is without a goal in 16 straight. The defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning come in to play Wednesday with issues of their own, not the least of which is that they sit on the outside looking in on the current playoff picture in the East. The Lightning have been treading water recently, posting a 2-2-1 mark over their past five games; and they currently are only two points out of the final playoff seed in the East. Tampa is coming off Monday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, a game in which the Lightning fired 39 shots on goal. Ravaged by injuries to key players much of the season the Lightning got Tyler Johnson and Brian Boyle back in the lineup Monday, though Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin remain out with injuries and will not play Wednesday versus the Rangers. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 16 goals and 28 points, while Nikita Kucherov is right behind him with 12 goals and 26 points. One area the Rangers will need to pay special attention to--especially after giving up a pair of power play goals in Nashville Monday--is the resurgent Lightning power play. They had struggled mightily with the man advantage all year, but have now recorded at least one power play goal in four straight games, netting seven power play goals in that stretch. On the flip side the Lightning have allowed three power play goals in a game on four separate occasions already this season.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Lightning will be playing for the second time this season, with their third and final meeting set for April 5 at Madison Square Garden. In the first get together, down in Tampa on November 19, the Rangers saw their season-high nine-game winning streak come to an end with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Lightning. It was a frustrating loss for the Rangers, not only because it stopped the long winning streak, but moreso because of the fashion in which they lost. After Dominic Moore had tied the game with an unassisted goal at 13:43 of the third period, New York was awarded a power play with less than two minutes to play in regulation. However Lightning forward Valtteri Filppula scored a backbreaking, and ultimately game-deciding, shorthanded goal with just 65 seconds remaining on the clock. Henrik Lundqvist finished the night with 26 saves, while his counterpart Ben Bishop stopped 20 of 21 shots. The Rangers have now lost their last five regular season meetings overall against the Lightning, three times by a single goal.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Chris Kreider: In the first game out of the holiday break Chris Kreider picked up a pair of assists Monday night in Nashville, and he now has three points in his last three games and seven (2-5-7) in his last ten. Though not where he wants to be numbers-wise Kreider has steadily moved up the team’s scoring list recently, and his 18 points (6-12-18) now tie him with J.T. Miller for fifth most on the Rangers. This has been Kreider’s best stretch offensively so far this season, though it is nowhere near the totals projected for him by head coach Alain Vigneault, who envisioned a breakout year for Kreider in 2015-16 after his 21-goal output a year ago. Kreider will be playing with new linemates Wednesday evening as he will skate on the left side of Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem, and away from his usual center Derek Stepan. The former Boston College star will be expected to be the go-to scorer on this new line, even though Lindberg does have four more goals than Kreider this year. In eight career regular season games against the Lightning, Kreider has managed just one point—a goal. In the seven-game Eastern Conference Final last spring against Tampa Bay Kreider scored a pair of goals and totaled four points.
Lightning-Ben Bishop: Tampa Bay's 6-foot-7 goaltender is piecing together another solid season between the pipes, his third straight as the Lightning's No. 1 netminder. Bishop has already appeared in 30 games, which is second most among all NHL goalies, and his 2.03 GAA is fourth best in the league while his 15 wins and .926 save percentage both rank eighth best. This strong start comes on the heels of the previous two seasons in which he established himself as a true No. 1 for the first time in his career. He appeared in 125 games and won 77 of them combined in 2013-14 and 2014-15; and last spring he backstopped Tampa Bay's run to the Stanley Cup Final. In his first NHL post-season in 2015 Bishop appeared in 25 games, posted three shutouts and a 2.18 GAA. Two of those shutouts came against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final, including one in the decisive Game Seven at Madison Square Garden. Though he did lose three times to the Rangers in that playoff series, Bishop has never lost a regular season game to the Blueshirts. Monday night against Montreal, Bishop appeared in his 200th career game.
Kevin Hayes has not scored a goal
in 16 games, and he won’t have the chance to break that schneid in the
Rangers next contest either.
As part of a shakeup of the team’s top three forward line combinations, Hayes will be scratched for the first time this season when the Rangers face off with the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Wednesday night. It marks the first time the second-year pro has been a healthy scratch since late October 2014 during his rookie season in the NHL.
“I think Kevin has had an extra-long leash, especially considering (Derek Stepan) was out for quite some time, but there’s just nothing going on,” stated Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault on Tuesday. “At the end of the day we’re at the point now where we have to make some decisions in the best interest of the team. In Kevin’s case we made it all clear about our expectations for him and what we thought he could do, and they were very high. Obviously he has not lived up to that. I know what we are seeing now is not good enough.”
Hayes has just two assists in his last 12 games and he has produced only two multi-point games this entire season. In contrast to 2014-15 when he ranked fifth among all NHL rookies with 45 points and sixth with 17 goals, Hayes has managed only six goals and 17 points through the first 36 games this season. He is currently tied for seventh on the team in scoring.
“Obviously you don’t want to sit out games,” Hayes said. “My game is not nearly where I want it to be. You come into the season with goals and aspirations, and I haven’t come close to mine. I’m struggling right now.”
While Hayes skated as an extra with rookie defenseman Dylan McIlrath during Tuesday’s intense no-nonsense practice at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Vigneault altered the look of three of his four lines.
In response to the team’s 5-3 loss Monday against the Predators, and current 1-4-0 and 2-6-1 rough patches of play, Vigneault moved Rick Nash off of his usual line with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello and placed him alongside Derek Stepan and Jesper Fast. J.T. Miller, who has six points in his last seven games, took Nash’s spot on the Brassard line, while Chris Kreider skated on the left side of Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem.
The fourth line of Viktor Stalberg, Dominic Moore, and Tanner Glass remained intact from Monday night’s game.
“I don’t want to change the way I’m playing because I’m playing with two highly-skilled guys,” Miller said of teaming up with Brassard and Zuccarello. “I want to keep playing physical, keep winning my battles, but make a play if it’s there. I just don’t want to get away from playing hard.”
Jim Cerny
BlueshirtsUnited.com
Where: Amalie Arena
When: Wednesday night at 8:00 PM
Watch: NBCSN with post-game show on MSG Network
Listen: ESPN-98.7 FM and NewYorkRangers.com
*****************************************
The Skinny:
Wednesday night in Tampa the Rangers (20-13-4, 44 pts) play their final game in the calendar year by taking on the team that knocked them out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last spring, the Lightning (18-15-4, 40 pts). 2015 has been an extremely successful year for the Rangers. It featured the team being crowned as President’s Trophy winners, a run to within one victory of a second consecutive appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, and a strong start to this current campaign, one that included a nine-game winning streak. All told the Rangers won a total of 64 games—regular season and playoffs combined—the most of any team in the NHL during the 2015 calendar year. Unfortunately the Rangers are riding a rough patch in their season coming into play Wednesday. They were defeated by the Predators in Nashville 5-3 Monday night to start this three-game road trip. The Rangers have lost four of their last five games and are now 4-10-2 in their last 16. In addition they have not won a road game in more than a month, posting an 0-6-2 mark since beating the Florida Panthers in overtime on November 21. Head coach Alain Vigneault has shaken up three of his four line combinations for Wednesday’s contest in Tampa Bay, moving Rick Nash—a goal and nine shots Monday night—to the left of Derek Stepan and Jesper Fast—who also had a goal Monday, while sliding J.T. Miller—playing the best and most consistent hockey of his career of late with three goals and six points in his last seven games—into Nash’s previous spot alongside Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello. The third line will now feature Chris Kreider joining Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem, while the fourth line remains Dom Moore in the middle of Viktor Stalberg and Tanner Glass. The biggest news is that second-year pro Kevin Hayes is the odd man out. Hayes, who has six goals and 17 points while playing in all 37 games to this point, has only two points in his last dozen games and is without a goal in 16 straight. The defending Eastern Conference champion Lightning come in to play Wednesday with issues of their own, not the least of which is that they sit on the outside looking in on the current playoff picture in the East. The Lightning have been treading water recently, posting a 2-2-1 mark over their past five games; and they currently are only two points out of the final playoff seed in the East. Tampa is coming off Monday's 4-3 shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, a game in which the Lightning fired 39 shots on goal. Ravaged by injuries to key players much of the season the Lightning got Tyler Johnson and Brian Boyle back in the lineup Monday, though Ondrej Palat and Jonathan Drouin remain out with injuries and will not play Wednesday versus the Rangers. Steven Stamkos leads Tampa Bay with 16 goals and 28 points, while Nikita Kucherov is right behind him with 12 goals and 26 points. One area the Rangers will need to pay special attention to--especially after giving up a pair of power play goals in Nashville Monday--is the resurgent Lightning power play. They had struggled mightily with the man advantage all year, but have now recorded at least one power play goal in four straight games, netting seven power play goals in that stretch. On the flip side the Lightning have allowed three power play goals in a game on four separate occasions already this season.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Lightning will be playing for the second time this season, with their third and final meeting set for April 5 at Madison Square Garden. In the first get together, down in Tampa on November 19, the Rangers saw their season-high nine-game winning streak come to an end with a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Lightning. It was a frustrating loss for the Rangers, not only because it stopped the long winning streak, but moreso because of the fashion in which they lost. After Dominic Moore had tied the game with an unassisted goal at 13:43 of the third period, New York was awarded a power play with less than two minutes to play in regulation. However Lightning forward Valtteri Filppula scored a backbreaking, and ultimately game-deciding, shorthanded goal with just 65 seconds remaining on the clock. Henrik Lundqvist finished the night with 26 saves, while his counterpart Ben Bishop stopped 20 of 21 shots. The Rangers have now lost their last five regular season meetings overall against the Lightning, three times by a single goal.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Chris Kreider: In the first game out of the holiday break Chris Kreider picked up a pair of assists Monday night in Nashville, and he now has three points in his last three games and seven (2-5-7) in his last ten. Though not where he wants to be numbers-wise Kreider has steadily moved up the team’s scoring list recently, and his 18 points (6-12-18) now tie him with J.T. Miller for fifth most on the Rangers. This has been Kreider’s best stretch offensively so far this season, though it is nowhere near the totals projected for him by head coach Alain Vigneault, who envisioned a breakout year for Kreider in 2015-16 after his 21-goal output a year ago. Kreider will be playing with new linemates Wednesday evening as he will skate on the left side of Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem, and away from his usual center Derek Stepan. The former Boston College star will be expected to be the go-to scorer on this new line, even though Lindberg does have four more goals than Kreider this year. In eight career regular season games against the Lightning, Kreider has managed just one point—a goal. In the seven-game Eastern Conference Final last spring against Tampa Bay Kreider scored a pair of goals and totaled four points.
Lightning-Ben Bishop: Tampa Bay's 6-foot-7 goaltender is piecing together another solid season between the pipes, his third straight as the Lightning's No. 1 netminder. Bishop has already appeared in 30 games, which is second most among all NHL goalies, and his 2.03 GAA is fourth best in the league while his 15 wins and .926 save percentage both rank eighth best. This strong start comes on the heels of the previous two seasons in which he established himself as a true No. 1 for the first time in his career. He appeared in 125 games and won 77 of them combined in 2013-14 and 2014-15; and last spring he backstopped Tampa Bay's run to the Stanley Cup Final. In his first NHL post-season in 2015 Bishop appeared in 25 games, posted three shutouts and a 2.18 GAA. Two of those shutouts came against the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final, including one in the decisive Game Seven at Madison Square Garden. Though he did lose three times to the Rangers in that playoff series, Bishop has never lost a regular season game to the Blueshirts. Monday night against Montreal, Bishop appeared in his 200th career game.
Hayes To Sit As Vigneault Shakes Up Lines
As part of a shakeup of the team’s top three forward line combinations, Hayes will be scratched for the first time this season when the Rangers face off with the Lightning in Tampa Bay on Wednesday night. It marks the first time the second-year pro has been a healthy scratch since late October 2014 during his rookie season in the NHL.
“I think Kevin has had an extra-long leash, especially considering (Derek Stepan) was out for quite some time, but there’s just nothing going on,” stated Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault on Tuesday. “At the end of the day we’re at the point now where we have to make some decisions in the best interest of the team. In Kevin’s case we made it all clear about our expectations for him and what we thought he could do, and they were very high. Obviously he has not lived up to that. I know what we are seeing now is not good enough.”
Hayes has just two assists in his last 12 games and he has produced only two multi-point games this entire season. In contrast to 2014-15 when he ranked fifth among all NHL rookies with 45 points and sixth with 17 goals, Hayes has managed only six goals and 17 points through the first 36 games this season. He is currently tied for seventh on the team in scoring.
“Obviously you don’t want to sit out games,” Hayes said. “My game is not nearly where I want it to be. You come into the season with goals and aspirations, and I haven’t come close to mine. I’m struggling right now.”
While Hayes skated as an extra with rookie defenseman Dylan McIlrath during Tuesday’s intense no-nonsense practice at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Vigneault altered the look of three of his four lines.
In response to the team’s 5-3 loss Monday against the Predators, and current 1-4-0 and 2-6-1 rough patches of play, Vigneault moved Rick Nash off of his usual line with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello and placed him alongside Derek Stepan and Jesper Fast. J.T. Miller, who has six points in his last seven games, took Nash’s spot on the Brassard line, while Chris Kreider skated on the left side of Oscar Lindberg and Emerson Etem.
The fourth line of Viktor Stalberg, Dominic Moore, and Tanner Glass remained intact from Monday night’s game.
“I don’t want to change the way I’m playing because I’m playing with two highly-skilled guys,” Miller said of teaming up with Brassard and Zuccarello. “I want to keep playing physical, keep winning my battles, but make a play if it’s there. I just don’t want to get away from playing hard.”
Jim CernyBlueshirtsUnited.com
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