The Rangers return to Madison Square Garden to host the New Jersey Devils in The Battle of the Hudson (7:00 P.M. ET, MSG).
Despite getting 43 saves from Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers fell to the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in a shootout. With this most recent defeat, the Rangers have now dropped their past six games (0-2-4). Pavel Buchnevich scored both goals for the Rangers, and Brendan Lemieux registered two assists. The only scorer in the shootout was Detroit’s Andreas Athanasiou to secure the extra point.
“We’ve got to just continue to battle, said Lundqvist. “I think going down the stretch, creating good habits — we’ve got to continue with the positives.”
“These games are important for a lot of reasons,” said head coach David Quinn. “We obviously want to finish strong here. Proud of our guys, the way we battled to get the one point, but disappointed we weren’t able to get the two.”
Tonight, the Rangers return home where they hope to snap their six-game losing streak. Since defeating the Devils 5-2 on February 23rd, the Blueshirts have gone winless. After tonight’s game, the Rangers will begin a four-game road trip starting in western Canada. Before heading home, the Rangers will make a stop in Minnesota.
The Devils enter this game with a depleted lineup. They will be without Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier, Pavel Zacha, Miles Wood, Mirco Mueller and Nathan Bastian. In addition, Sami Vatanen is a game-time decision due to illness.
Henrik Lundqvist will start his second straight game following a 43-save performance. Lundqvist sits on 17 wins this season. If Lundqvist can secure three more wins this season, he will record his 14th straight 20-win season. Last season, Lundqvist became the first goalie in NHL history to record 13 straight 20-win seasons.
Quinn has elected to make slight changes to the lineup for tonight’s game. Marc Staal will sit for the first time this season. “He’s a guy who’s played a lot of minutes,” Quinn said. “He’s been a warrior. Battling the flu, probably shouldn’t have played him the other night, so told him to take the complete day off and he’ll be back in on Monday.” Kevin Shattenkirk will take Staal’s place in the lineup tonight.
In addition, Vlad Namestnikov will join Mika Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey on the top line. Chris Kreider will play on the second line with Ryan Strome and Jesper Fast.
Projected lineup
Namestnikov-Zibanejad-Vesey
Kreider-Strome-Fast
Lemieux-Howden-Buchnevich
Nieves-Andersson-Chytil
Skjei-Shattenkirk
Smith-DeAngelo
Hajek-Pionk
Lundqvist
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