The Rangers travel up to Ottawa for a game against the reeling Senators. The trade for Matt Duchene has not panned out as expected for Ottawa, who may be on the verge of a partial teardown. Several players, including Erik Karlsson and Mike Hoffman, were asked to submit their list of no-trade teams, as Ottawa starts to determine when/if that revampment occurs.

For New York, the focus is two-fold. First, rebounding and putting the bad taste from Momday’s embarrassing performance behind them. Second, the hopefully impending return of Mika Zibanejad from his concussion, which won’t occur tonight but appears to be in line for the near-term.

AV on Tuesday noted that the coaches “put the emphasis on a couple of 5 on 5 things that we needed to do better, back checking harder, tracking back, tightening up the area between the forward and D.” All of those were on display and not in a good way Monday, as Dallas dominated action. In addition, a few learning points from the game, for which AV did not provide specifics, will be discussed with the team during the morning skate today.

Zibanejad got a few turns on the first power play at practice yesterday. The hope is that he will be able to fully return to practice and his spot as the first line center Thursday. If that occurs and he has no setback, we could see Zib on Friday against the Kings or Saturday against Boston. As I wrote the other day, I expect David Desharnais to be the odd-man out due to the solid play of the fourth line, including Paul Carey.

The lineup and combinations will be the same that started the Stars game. If the team plays as it did Monday, especially the first two periods against Dallas, expect the blender to be out early. My main focus tonight is on Ryan McDonagh. The captain hadn’t played badly since coming back from his ab strain but he was brutal Monday. Even if you don’t believe in Corsi, his numbers from that game were so staggeringly bad, they were impossible to ignore. Even worse, the numbers don’t accurately reflect just how bad he was versus Dallas. If McD struggles again, the concern level for me will be raised. Yes, I realize he is paired with Nick Holden and it may be time to switch that up again, but McDonagh’s struggles are in no way, shape or form due solely to Holden and he has to own a good portion of the criticism for his play.

If you haven’t seen it, watch this (http://twitter.com/BradyTrett/status/940782298940575744). Epic Torts. A 14-second post-game press conference.

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