The Rangers kick off back-to-back contests on the road against the Capitals on Saturday. They head home following the game to face the Kings at MSG on Sunday. Both matches are evening contests, so the turnaround is a little difficult but not as bad as if Saturday was a night game and Sunday was an afternoon contest.

Friday's practice lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Brodzinski
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafrenière
Cuylle-Bonino-Wheeler
Vesey-Nash-Pitlick

Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider

Shesterkin
Quick

Scratches: Jones, Goodrow?
LTIR: Chytil, Kakko

The lines above are not set in stone. Barclay Goodrow took a K'Andre Miller shot off his face Tuesday, likely costing him a few chiclets. The concern has to also be a concussion and Goodrow sat out yesterday's practice, as did Chris Kreider (lower body). If either player sits, more likely Goodrow, who missed practice today while Kreider dressed, then Riley Nash, who was called up yesterday as a precaution, will dress in his stead. Nash skated with Jimmy Vesey and Tyler Pitlick on the fourth line Friday.

Igor Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick, each who have been struggling to stop the puck lately, will split the two games. The logical call would be Igor vs. the Caps, since it's a divisional game, and Quick against the Kings, his former team. But, we likely are seeing Quick tonight and Igor tomorrow, presuming the pictures of Shesterkin breaking in net pads in practice that match the third jersey are for their first usage Sunday.

The two keys for me this weekend relate to the issues I discussed in the blog the other day. First, remediating the defensive weaknesses Vince Mercogliano summarized in his mailbag that I mentioned Wednesday. "Their forechecking and backchecking pressure has been touch-and-go, D-zone breakouts haven't been as crisp, turnovers have increased and the key areas of the ice − middle of the neutral zone, slot and net front − haven't been protected as well as they were early on."

If you have watched their games lately, especially Tuesday's loss, all those elements were on display. Since Nov. 10, the Blueshirts rank dead last in xGA/60 off the rush at 5v5. They're allowing an average of 4.2 high-danger scoring chances in those situations per game in that span, with no other team higher than 3.7. The Rangers have generated chances, but look to have sold out to do so rather than using their D to generate O, which was the case during the early part of the hot streak

Second, come out fast. Recently, slow starts have been the unfortunate hallmark of this team: Three times in the last four games they have fallen behind, rallying to beat Nashville and San Jose before falling to Ottawa. It's been a while since New York came out of the locker room distating pace and forcing their opponent to react to their play rather than the inverse. Making the other team play from behind or on their heels might also help with the defensive structure issues noted above, since it is easier to play with that structure when ahead rather than behind.

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