The Rangers and Islanders meet for the fifth and final time this season Tuesday. If the race for first in the Metro division isn't enough, it will be the final regular season game at the Coliseum between the two squads. Tons of memories exist between the two teams at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, known affectionately by Islanders fans as "The Barn" and to Rangers' fans as the "Nassau Mausoleum", but that is a sidelight to the main event; the game itself.
The Rangers are 53-63-8-2 on the road against the Islanders, including last year's 2-1 win at Yankee Stadium. This season, they are 1-3 but that one win was in the two team's last meeting, a wild 6-5 comeback win by the Rangers. Carp listed a few of the memories for the Rangers at a place that as seen above has not been easy to play at for the Blueshirts. Some of recollections include" Game 5 in the 1979 Stanley Cup semifinal, won on Anders Hedberg’s late third-period goal, putting the Rangers a win away from the Final, which they got in Game 6 at the Garden. There was the decisive Game 5 in 1984, where the Rangers had a chance to end the Islanders’ four-year Cup run and Don Maloney tied it with :39 left only to have Ken Morrow beat Glen Hanlon to eliminate the Rangers." Of course, there are the bad and ugly ones, such as James Wisniewski-Sean Avery memories, similar for Ryan Hollweg-Chris Simon and the return of Bryan Trottier to LI. See more here: http://m.nydailynews.com/sports/hockey/rangers/top-10-rangers-islanders-moments-nassau-coliseum-article-1.2143170
The Islanders come in after rallying from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits on the strength of a pair of John Tavares goals to beat Toronto. The second tally by Tavares was a thing of a beauty, as he seemingly deked out the entire Maple leafs team. That win made the Islanders 43-21-4 and meant that Tuesday's game will not be for first in the division, as the Blue and Orange went up three points on the idle Rangers, who have four games in hand.
The Blueshirts enter the contest 11-2-3 since Henrik Lundqvist went down and 7-1-2 in their last 10. Cam Talbot has been a stalwart, earning Third Star of the Week honors for allowing just three goals in as many games while going 2-0-1 for the week. Those three games against Nashville, Detroit and Chicago may be amongst the best played by the Rangers team as a whole. While the offense failed to score, they generated tons of pressure, especially against Pekka Rinne and Jimmy Howard, but each of them along with Corey Crawford were on top of their game.
For the Rangers, the lineup is pretty consistent to what's been the norm lately, save for one change that has the twitter-sphere up in arms. The team's favorite whipping boy, Tanner Glass, gets back in the lineup after sitting the past two games in place of James Sheppard. Glass had actually started to play better before Sheppard was acquiring, and with AV looking to blunt the possible impact of Matt Martin, Glass gets back in. Don't necessarily agree with this move but AV has been pretty consistent as to not allowing players to sit for long stretches, so not shocked Glass is back in. It would be nice if AV remembered that Sheppard made three stellar defensive plays while backchecking to thwart Chicago chances Sunday, but that mat be too much to ask.
It's a game that needs no hype. So just enjoy it for what it is. A key divisional match up for two teams meeting for the final time during the regular season at an arena that has had some major moments between the squads.
One request, keep it respectable in the blog comments regardless of which side your root for.