COURTESY BLUESHIRTS UNITED
Who: New York Rangers vs. Ottawa Senators
Where: Canadian Tire Centre
When: Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM
Watch: MSG Network beginning at 2:30 PM
Listen: ESPN-98.7 FM and NewYorkRangers.com
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The Skinny:
Having won consecutive games for the first time since November 21-23, the Rangers (26-16-5, 57 pts) try to make it three in a row Sunday afternoon in Ottawa when they face off with the Senators (22-20-6, 48 pts). The Rangers backed up their dominating 3-2 overtime win at The Garden Tuesday against the Canucks with a solid 4-1 road victory over the Hurricanes on Friday, a pair of games where New York used its team speed and solid fore checking ability to its distinct advantage, while defending better in its own end and receiving quality goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist, who says that he feels his game has been rounding back into shape the past few weeks. In addition, after being burned badly on the penalty kill much of December and January, the Rangers have been shorthanded only twice combined in the previous two games. With the team cutting back on its time shorthanded, and having played really well 5-on-5 for the better part of the past month, it can be seen why the Blueshirts are beginning to once again be rewarded more consistently with points in the standings. The strong play of J.T. Miller--four goals in his last four games, two on Friday night, and a career-high 12 on the season--has been a major boost as has been the work of bottom-six forwards like Kevin Hayes and Viktor Stalberg, both of whom were praised extensively by head coach Alain Vigneault following Friday's victory. Daniel Paille played a solid 15 minutes in his Rangers debut on Friday; and now Vigneault will have to figure out who to remove from the lineup if, as expected, Chris Kreider is able to return from neck spasms for Sunday's matinee. There has been no update on Rick Nash, who took a nasty fall and crash into the boards early in the third period Friday only to return and take a slap shot off the knee while killing a penalty later on. Ottawa comes in following Friday's 5-2 home-ice loss to the Islanders in which the Senators let a 2-1 second-period lead evaporate into their second consecutive loss, prompting angry talk from forward Bobby Ryan and head coach Dave Cameron after the game. Thursday night the Senators surrendered five first-period goals in a 6-3 road loss to the Devils, and then on Friday they allowed three in the third to the Islanders. Overall the Senators--who remain three points out of a playoff spot in the East--have lost four of six and eight of their last 12, and their -18 goal differential is second-worst in the Atlantic Division and fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference. The Senators are one of the most penalized teams in the NHL, which is very bad considering they own the league' second-worst penalty kill. Should the Rangers use their speed and fore check as well as they have recently, they could be rewarded with a string of power play opportunities against this Ottawa team.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Senators close out their three-game season series Sunday afternoon with New York looking to finish off a sweep of Ottawa in 2015-16. Back on November 14 the Rangers edged the Senators 2-1 in a shootout up in Ottawa. Hometown boy Dan Boyle netted the game-deciding goal in the shootout, while Chris Kreider scored New York's only goal early in the first period of this tight contest. Both teams scored once on the power play and were shut out at even strength, while Craig Anderson made 33 saves for the Sens and Henrik Lundqvist countered with 22 for the Rangers. Then on December 6 at Madison Square Garden the Rangers went 2-for-2 on the power play en-route to a 4-1 victory over the Senators. Derick Brassard scored twice for New York, including once on the power play, and Ryan McDonagh had a goal and two assists. Jesper Fast also scored into an empty net for the Rangers, who have won four of their last five overall meetings against Ottawa. Lundqvist stopped 23 of 24 shots in that December match up, while Anderson finished with 27 saves.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Ryan McDonagh: The last time these two teams met back in December Ryan McDonagh was a beast, on ice for all four New York goals and finishing with a career-high-tying three points (1-2-3). If that memory isn't bad enough for the Senators, they will now have to face McDonagh playing his best and most consistent two-way hockey of the season when the teams hook up on Sunday. After a slow start to the season, and some up and down play in the Rangers' rough month of December, McDonagh has played markedly better at both ends of the rink in the month of January, and it's no surprise that the team has followed suit and is playing much better, as well. Offensively McDonagh has become much more involved of late, and he enters play with a season-best four-game point-scoring streak (1-3-4). He also has seven points in his last seven games (1-6-7). Friday night in Carolina, McDonagh read things perfectly by intercepting a John-Michael Liles pass at center ice and then flying past the flat-footed Hurricanes before rifling a wicked shot under the cross bar for his sixth goal of the season. It was a terrific individual effort by the Rangers captain, who next week will make his first NHL All Star Game appearance, and it came at the perfect time--opening the scoring and setting the tone in what ultimately would be a 4-1 victory.
Senators-Mika Zibanejad: Coming off his first 20-goal season a year ago, much was expected of 22 year-old Mika Zibanejad this season in Ottawa. However, like the team itself, Zibanejad's season has been largely disappointing so far. The former first round pick (sixth overall in 2011) has scored just ten goals this season and has 29 points--though his 19 assists are fourth-most on the team. After his 20 goal, 46 point campaign last season, though, better numbers were expected from this highly-skilled youngster in 2015-16. Perhaps he is turning a corner now, though. Zibanejad enters play on a four-game point-scoring streak (2-3-5) after picking up an assist against the Islanders on Friday night, and three of his ten goals this season have come in the past seven games. In fact half of his goals this season--five--have been scored since December 27, a span of just 13 games. That's a spark of optimism since he only scored five goals in his first 34 contests this year. Zibanejad admits to getting extra juiced when facing fellow Swede Henrik Lundqvist, so there are many reasons to keep an eye on him Sunday afternoon.
Where: Canadian Tire Centre
When: Sunday afternoon at 3:00 PM
Watch: MSG Network beginning at 2:30 PM
Listen: ESPN-98.7 FM and NewYorkRangers.com
*************************************
The Skinny:
Having won consecutive games for the first time since November 21-23, the Rangers (26-16-5, 57 pts) try to make it three in a row Sunday afternoon in Ottawa when they face off with the Senators (22-20-6, 48 pts). The Rangers backed up their dominating 3-2 overtime win at The Garden Tuesday against the Canucks with a solid 4-1 road victory over the Hurricanes on Friday, a pair of games where New York used its team speed and solid fore checking ability to its distinct advantage, while defending better in its own end and receiving quality goaltending from Henrik Lundqvist, who says that he feels his game has been rounding back into shape the past few weeks. In addition, after being burned badly on the penalty kill much of December and January, the Rangers have been shorthanded only twice combined in the previous two games. With the team cutting back on its time shorthanded, and having played really well 5-on-5 for the better part of the past month, it can be seen why the Blueshirts are beginning to once again be rewarded more consistently with points in the standings. The strong play of J.T. Miller--four goals in his last four games, two on Friday night, and a career-high 12 on the season--has been a major boost as has been the work of bottom-six forwards like Kevin Hayes and Viktor Stalberg, both of whom were praised extensively by head coach Alain Vigneault following Friday's victory. Daniel Paille played a solid 15 minutes in his Rangers debut on Friday; and now Vigneault will have to figure out who to remove from the lineup if, as expected, Chris Kreider is able to return from neck spasms for Sunday's matinee. There has been no update on Rick Nash, who took a nasty fall and crash into the boards early in the third period Friday only to return and take a slap shot off the knee while killing a penalty later on. Ottawa comes in following Friday's 5-2 home-ice loss to the Islanders in which the Senators let a 2-1 second-period lead evaporate into their second consecutive loss, prompting angry talk from forward Bobby Ryan and head coach Dave Cameron after the game. Thursday night the Senators surrendered five first-period goals in a 6-3 road loss to the Devils, and then on Friday they allowed three in the third to the Islanders. Overall the Senators--who remain three points out of a playoff spot in the East--have lost four of six and eight of their last 12, and their -18 goal differential is second-worst in the Atlantic Division and fourth-worst in the Eastern Conference. The Senators are one of the most penalized teams in the NHL, which is very bad considering they own the league' second-worst penalty kill. Should the Rangers use their speed and fore check as well as they have recently, they could be rewarded with a string of power play opportunities against this Ottawa team.
Head To Head:
The Rangers and Senators close out their three-game season series Sunday afternoon with New York looking to finish off a sweep of Ottawa in 2015-16. Back on November 14 the Rangers edged the Senators 2-1 in a shootout up in Ottawa. Hometown boy Dan Boyle netted the game-deciding goal in the shootout, while Chris Kreider scored New York's only goal early in the first period of this tight contest. Both teams scored once on the power play and were shut out at even strength, while Craig Anderson made 33 saves for the Sens and Henrik Lundqvist countered with 22 for the Rangers. Then on December 6 at Madison Square Garden the Rangers went 2-for-2 on the power play en-route to a 4-1 victory over the Senators. Derick Brassard scored twice for New York, including once on the power play, and Ryan McDonagh had a goal and two assists. Jesper Fast also scored into an empty net for the Rangers, who have won four of their last five overall meetings against Ottawa. Lundqvist stopped 23 of 24 shots in that December match up, while Anderson finished with 27 saves.
Players To Watch:
Rangers-Ryan McDonagh: The last time these two teams met back in December Ryan McDonagh was a beast, on ice for all four New York goals and finishing with a career-high-tying three points (1-2-3). If that memory isn't bad enough for the Senators, they will now have to face McDonagh playing his best and most consistent two-way hockey of the season when the teams hook up on Sunday. After a slow start to the season, and some up and down play in the Rangers' rough month of December, McDonagh has played markedly better at both ends of the rink in the month of January, and it's no surprise that the team has followed suit and is playing much better, as well. Offensively McDonagh has become much more involved of late, and he enters play with a season-best four-game point-scoring streak (1-3-4). He also has seven points in his last seven games (1-6-7). Friday night in Carolina, McDonagh read things perfectly by intercepting a John-Michael Liles pass at center ice and then flying past the flat-footed Hurricanes before rifling a wicked shot under the cross bar for his sixth goal of the season. It was a terrific individual effort by the Rangers captain, who next week will make his first NHL All Star Game appearance, and it came at the perfect time--opening the scoring and setting the tone in what ultimately would be a 4-1 victory.
Senators-Mika Zibanejad: Coming off his first 20-goal season a year ago, much was expected of 22 year-old Mika Zibanejad this season in Ottawa. However, like the team itself, Zibanejad's season has been largely disappointing so far. The former first round pick (sixth overall in 2011) has scored just ten goals this season and has 29 points--though his 19 assists are fourth-most on the team. After his 20 goal, 46 point campaign last season, though, better numbers were expected from this highly-skilled youngster in 2015-16. Perhaps he is turning a corner now, though. Zibanejad enters play on a four-game point-scoring streak (2-3-5) after picking up an assist against the Islanders on Friday night, and three of his ten goals this season have come in the past seven games. In fact half of his goals this season--five--have been scored since December 27, a span of just 13 games. That's a spark of optimism since he only scored five goals in his first 34 contests this year. Zibanejad admits to getting extra juiced when facing fellow Swede Henrik Lundqvist, so there are many reasons to keep an eye on him Sunday afternoon.
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