RANGERS VS BLUE JACKETS GAME DAY PREVIEW 12/23

STRUGGLING RANGERS RETURN FROM HOLIDAY BREAK TO HOST BLUE JACKETS

New York Rangers (15-14-6) vs Cloumbus Blue Jackets (21-12-3)

Madison Square Garden, NYC, NY

Tonight 7:00 PM TV: MSG2, FS-OH

Consistancy is what the Rangers lack and consistancy is what the Rangers are looking for coming off the Holiday break. Another Rangers overtime loss where both a mix of veterans and rookies seem to not be able to put together a full 60 minutes of play, most noteably when carrying a lead it seems as laspes or just plain sitting back on a lead has become the norm far too many times this season.

 The Rangers know the problem but still can't seem to find the answers to fix it. In the last game before the Holiday break the Rangers once again took a first period lead on Chris Kreider's team leading 17th goal of the season only to allow second and third period goals from Philadelphia to take the lead, Boo Nieves luckily was able to score from out in front after Lias Andersson made a nice defensive move behind the net to strip the Flyers defender and send an unobstructed backhand pass to Nieves for the tally.

The Rangers are 1-1-3 in their last five games and are 2-3-5 for the month of December.

Columbus comes into tonight's contest having won four of it's last five games and are 6-3-1 in their last 10. Their previous game befor ethe break they defeated New Jersey in Newark 3-0. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped all 39 shots he faced in the shootout victory. Atkinson, Bjorkstrand and Panarin talled the goals for Columbus. Panarin lead the team with 2 points (goal and an asssist)


RANGERS PROBABLE LINEUP vs COLUMBUS
Forwards:
Chytil-Zibanejad-Zuccarello
Kreider-Hayes-Buchnevich
Vesey-Howden-Namestnikov
Nieves-Andersson-Strome

Defense:
Staal-Pionk
Skjei-DeAngelo
Smith-McQuaid

Goal:
Henrik Lundqvist

Backup:
Ondrej Pavelec

RANGERS TEAM LEADERS

POINTS: Mika Zibanejad, Kevin Hayes 30

GOALS; Chris Kreider 17

ASSISTS: Kevin Hayes 20

BLUE JACKETS TEAM LEADERS

POINTS: Artemi Panarin 39

GOALS: Cam Atkinson 23

ASSISTS: Artemi Panarin 28

The Rangers lead this season's series 1-0, having won their previous game in Columbus 5-4 in a shootout win back on November 10th. Alexandar Georgiev picked up the win, stopping 34 of 38 shots and 3 of 5 in the shootout. The Rangers blew a 1-0 lead in the first, then a 3-1 lead in the second period. Jimmy Vesey scored the game tying goal with less than a minute remaing in the second and scored what would be the game winner in the shootout.

RANGERS ALL-TIME RECORD vs COLUMBUS
Overall. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-14-1-1 (38 pts)
Home Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5-1-1 (18 pts)
Road Record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-9-0-0 (20 pts)
Goals For. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Goals Against. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Shutouts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/17/2017 (0-2 L, Bobrovsky)
Last Ranger win at MSG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/6/2017 (5-3)
Last Ranger win at Columbus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/10/2018 (5-4 SO)
Last Blue Jacket win at MSG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/20/2018 (2-0)
Last Blue Jacket win at Columbus. . . . . . . . . . . . 10/13/2017 (3-1)

HEAD TO HEAD 2018-2019 (Rangers lead series 1-0)
2018-11-10 NYR @ CBJ 5-4 W SO