The Rangers head to the Motor City on Saturday to play the Red Wings. New York has been off since Monday, a disappointing 6-3 loss to Tampa, in which they were mentally soft after blowing a 3-2 lead. Detroit on the other hand comes in red-hot, winning seven of their last 10 games, including a 5-2 victory over Dallas on Thursday. In addition, they are 10-3-2 at Joe Lious Arena. Following tonight's contest, the Rangers play Pittsburgh at home Monday while Detroit heads to Carolina for a Sunday afternoon contest.
Other than Cam Talbot playing instead of Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers' lineup tonight pretty much has all those who we thought would be active when the year started. Granted, Matt Hunwick is in for John Moore and Jesper Fast for Anthony Duclair, but the Rangers areas healthy as they have been all season. To date, Derek Stepan, Ryan McDonagh and Dan Boyle all were sidelined with injuries, forcing the team to mix and match combinations. While that is no real excuse for a large number of the losses, what we see on the ice tonight is what we should get for a while, save for some minor tweaks and Lundqvist between the pipes.
The year is 24 games old, and despite some subpar and uneven play, New York is still right in the thick of the playoff hunt. The Penguins and Islanders are 12 points ahead of the Rangers; Pittsburgh with two more and the Islanders with three more contests played. The battle for third in the division is very tight, and while it is less than a-third into the year, it's never too early to scoreboard watch.
Tonight's game will be a major test. As started above, Detroit comes in on a roll and sits just four points from the division lead. Bob Duff in his preview blog, spelled out a major reason for Detroit's success lately. It's that balance that means New York can't just focus on one line, but need to be responsible throughout the game.
If you are looking for something to pin the recent run of success of the Detroit Red Wings on, look no further than the club’s balanced attack that has produced 27 goals over the past six games as they head into Saturday’s game at Joe Louis Arena against the New York Rangers.“I looked at it today, we’ve got 11 guys who have three points or more in their last five (games),… Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. “In the early going when we were winning, we were lucky to have three guys (scoring)....
Among those sniping for Detroit are forwards Pavel Datsyuk (6-4-10 in five games), Tomas Tatar (1-3-4 in three games), Henrik Zetterberg (1-6-7 in six games), Stephen Weiss (4-5-9 in six games) and Tomas Jurco (1-3-4 in five games).
One reason we wanted J.T. Miller and Fast in the lineup is that they help balance out the lineup, making the fourth line a true weapon and one that can counter-attack. That also is the advantage of the third line having Carl Hagelin and Lee Stempniak alongside Kevin Hayes, who I think has been one of the better Rangers lately. However, for New York to ready progress to the next level, Chris Kreider has to regain his early season form and Hagelin has to provide more offensively than he has lately. The benefit of the recent lull in the schedule is that it hopefully allowed Ryan McDonagh time to regain his form after struggling his first few contests following his return. Hopefully, we see the Mack Truck of old tonight against Detroit. In addition, Lundqvist will have had a week to work in practice on working out the warts and problems in his game. Though of course, time off could allow for analysis paralysis, which would be the worst thing for a goalie, especially one who relies on quick reactions.
RANGERS:
Nash - Brassard - Zuccarello Kreider - Stepan - MSL Hagelin - Hayes - Stempniak Miller - Moore - Fast
McDonagh - Girardi Staal - Boyle Hunwick - Klein
Talbot Lundqvist
RED WINGS:
Gustav Nyquist-Henrik Zetterberg-Johan Franzen Tomas Tatar-Pavel Datsyuk-Darren Helm Tomas Jurco-Riley Sheahan-Stephen Weiss Drew Miller-Luke Glendening-Joakim Andersson
Jonathan Ericsson-Niklas Kronwall Danny DeKeyser-Kyle Quincey Brendan Smith-Jakub Kindl
Jimmy Howard (12-5-4, 2.22, .916)
As mentioned above, the Rangers play Monday against the Penguins but are then off until Saturday against Vancouver. This month in general is somewhat light, as after after Vancouver, the Rangers play Edmonton the next night and then Calgary on that Tuesday. After that contest, New York is off until Saturday against Carolina who hey play again the following evening. To close the year, New York plays Washington on the 23rd, but then are off until Saturday the 27th against NJ, and close the month with games Monday, the 29th against Dallas before playing the Panthers in Florida on New Year's Eve.