Morning Skate: Red Wings at Rangers Preview
Game 64
12:30p ET, Madison Square Garden
New York City, NY
TV: NBC, TSN2, RDS2
Radio: 97.1 The Ticket
Rangers Blog: Blueshirt Banter
It's another match up with the Metropolitan today. Finally done with Newark, the Red Wings are crossing the Hudson and heading to New York to take on the Rangers. The new look New York team features a "little" more offensive fire power nowadays thanks to their trade for Benedict Arnold Martin St. Louis. The former Lightning captain bolted from Tampa to New York, because he's a giant baby he felt snubbed for not making Team Canada for the Sochi games. I guess Tampa's loss is New York's gain. Good for the Rangers, I guess. St. Louis did pretty darn good in his first outing too. With power like that, the Rangers should be a lethal offense moving forward.
As far as the Red Wings go, they'll try to build off their own offensive fire power from Friday night. As long as the first line keeps rolling, they should be okay. It's all about riding the Mule and Goose up the standings because the aforementioned Lightning are within striking distance. If the defense can just tighten up a little bit and Tiberius holds strong between the pipes, well, this Red Wings team just might be okay until the big guns get back.
The Expected Lineup
Forwards
| Johan Franzen | David Legwand | Gustav Nyquist |
| Justin Abdelkader | Luke Glendening | Daniel Alfredsson |
| Tomas Tatar | Riley Sheahan | Tomas Jurco |
| Drew Miller | Joakim Andersson | Todd Bertuzzi |
Defensemen
| Niklas Kronwall | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Kyle Quincey | Danny DeKeyser |
| Jakub Kindl | Brendan Smith |
Goaltenders
| Jimmy Howard (starting) |
| Petr Mrazek |
Scratches: Brian Lashoff
Injuries: Daniel Cleary (knee), Darren Helm (concussion), Pavel Datsyuk (missing zest), Henrik Zetterberg (back), Mikael Samuelsson (something), Jonas Gustavsson (groin) & Stephen Weiss (groin)
| RANGERS | THE MATCH-UP | RED WINGS |
| 34-26-4 (72 pts; 3rd in Metro) | Record | 29-22-13 (71 pts; 5th in Atlantic) |
| 2.56 (19th in NHL) | Goals Per Game | 2.65 (18th in NHL) |
| 2.50 (10th) | Goals Against Per Game | 2.67 (15th) |
| 20.3% (10th) | Power Play % | 18.2% (17th) |
| 83.4% (10th) | Penalty Kill % | 83.8% (7th) |
| Rick Nash (20 goals) | Goal Leader | 2 tied with 16 goals |
| Brad Richards (45 points) | Points Leader | Henrik Zetterberg (48 points) |
Opponent Outlook
Player to Fear: Rick Nash. He's abused the Red Wings in the past. I'm sure he'll do it again in the future.
X-Factor: Henrik Lundqvist. If the Wings get too distracted by his beautiful eyes, they might not score any goals.
Familiar Faces: None.
Thumbs up (One Thing to Like About New York): Original 6.
Thumbs down (One Thing to Dislike About New York): They employ Daniel Carcillo.
Bullets of Knowledge
- The Red Wings are 261-211-103-2 (W-L-T-OTL) all-time against the Rangers./
- Last 10 games: New York 6-3-1. Detroit 6-2-2./
- Howard is 2-1-1 with a 1.73 GAA, .957 SV% in 4 career games against New York./
Prediction: Excelsior.