RANGERS VS BRUINS GAME DAY PREVIEW 11/8

RANGERS FACE BRUINS LOOKING FOR 5th STRAIGHT

New York Rangers (7-7-2; 7th Metropolitan) vs Boston Bruins (6-4-3; 5th Atlantic)

TONIGHT 8:00 PM, TV: NBCSN

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY

The Rangers come into tonight’s game against the Bruins looking for their fifth straight win. The four game win streak they are protecting started at MSG defeating the Vegas Golden Knights 6-4, hitting the road in Florida and coming up with two overtime wins, 2-1 in Tampa and 5-4 against the Panthers. Their 4th win of the steak came Monday vs Columbus 5-3 with a third period 3 power play goal rally.

A 3 assist night for points leader Mika Zibanejad (17 pts 8 goals) and 2 goal performance from Michael Grabner helped to fuel the fire for the Rangers win. Zibanejad retook the points lead from JT Miller who has 15 on the season, leading the Rangers in assists with 12.

The Bruins come into tonight’s game at the Garden with a1-2-1 record on the road and will be without the services of leading scorer Brad Marchand (8 goals, 14 points), key players David Krejci, David Backes and Ryan Spooner. Boston has been relying on assists leader Charlie McAvoy (7 assists) and David Pastrnak.

Henrik Lundqvist 6-4-2 is slated to start his 5th straight game against Tuukka Rask 3-4-2.

Tonight’s Rangers lineup should see the return of center Boo Nieves who has been suffering from the flu replacing Paul Carey who saw limited time in Monday’s win on the 4th line between Michael Grabner and Jesper Fast. With the forwards pretty much set in stone right now it comes down to the defense which saw Steven Kampfer play exceptional physical games in the last 3 since replacing Brendan Smith who has been a healthy scratch. Today’s optional morning skate which is usually set for the extras should tell let us know who will be in the lineup at puck drop.

Rangers projected lineup vs Boston

Forwards:
Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich

Rick Nash -- Kevin Hayes -- Mats Zuccarello

Jimmy Vesey -- David Desharnais -- J.T. Miller

Michael Grabner -- Boo Nieves -- Jesper Fast  

Defense:
Ryan McDonagh -- Nick Holden

Brady Skjei -- Kevin Shattenkirk

Marc Staal -- Steven Kampfer

Starter:
Henrik Lundqvist

Backup:
Ondrej Pavelec

Scratched: Brendan Smith, Paul Carey

Injured: None