The Rangers look to extend their season-long win streak Saturday night on the front end of a home-and-home in Carolina. The Hurricanes won their previous game but are 3-7-0 in their last 10 and an Eastern Conference worse 9-19-3 on the year, but are 6-7-1 at home. New York comes in 15-10-4, having played the least amount of games in the Conference and NHL as a whole. Tonight and Sunday are games the Rangers should and must win to keep pace with the others above them and build some possible cushion for later in the year.

The good news is that Derick Brassard, who missed two games with the mumps, will definitely be back in the lineup tonight. On the flip side, Lee Stempniak is in his five-day isolation due to the mumps, so Tanner Glass and Jesper Fast will both be in the lineup. The top-nine is the top-nine we should see moving forward with only the fourth line tweaked when Stempniak is healthy enough to play.

Nash-Brassard-Zuccarello
Kreider-Stepan-St. Louis
Hagelin-Hayes-Miller
Glass-D. Moore-Fast

McDonagh-Girardi
Boyle-Staal
Hunwick-Klein

Lundqvist

I list the power play combinations again below. I had suggested yesterday that for the first pairing, Nash should be in front of the net, creating traffic and diverting attention from the rest of the squad. That brought a few comments saying that Nash is better on the half-boards with Chris Kreider in front of the net. I agree and my suggestion was based on the quintets below. But with the combinations below, I felt Nash's size and strength would work best in front, but Nash will be on the half-boards and maybe Brassard plays in front of the net. If not and the team struggles, then I could see the combinations changing again.

PP1: Nash-Brassard-MSL, Boyle-Stepan
PP2: Kreider-Miller-Zuccarello, McDonagh-Girardi

Hurricanes:
Nathan Gerbe-Eric Staal-Chris Terry
Jeff Skinner-Victor Rask-Elias Lindholm
Zach Boychuk-Riley Nash-Patrick Dwyer
Brad Malone-Jay McClement-Justin Shugg

Andrej Sekera-Justin Faulk
Brett Bellemore-Ron Hainsey
Tim Gleason-Michal Jordan

Cam Ward (9-12-1, 2.47, .909)

Win tonight, then repeat it tomorrow at MSG.

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