Rangers vs. Lightning: 3 things to watch for as busy, crucial week begins with season on brink
If desperation hasn’t kicked in yet, maybe now’s the time for it to happen for the New York Rangers, who are six points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with six games to play.
A brutal weekend has pushed the Rangers (36-33-7) to the brink. They began the weekend two points behind the Montreal Canadiens, who are in the second wild-card spot in the East. The Rangers then were shut out 4-0 by the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon. That was compounded when the Canadiens rallied past the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Saturday night, then rallied again Sunday for a 2-1 road win over the Nashville Predators.
The Rangers are 2-1-1 in their past four and haven’t won three games in a row since Nov. 14-19. Now, they may need to win out or almost assuredly must take five of six. That begins Monday with a home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“We certainly are disappointed to be in this position. We have to win hockey games,” coach Peter Laviolette stated after an optional morning skate.
They’ve struggled to beat playoff-bound teams all season — and the Lightning (44-26-6) have already clinched their eighth consecutive playoff berth. Worse for the Rangers is that the Lightning still have something to play for, so this won’t be an easy one. The Lightning are second in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the first-place Toronto Maple Leafs and two ahead of the third-place Panthers.
Tampa Bay has dropped two straight (0-1-1) after winning four in a row and seven of nine. The Lightning are vulnerable on the road as well — they are just 17-18-4 away from Amalie Arena this season.
No matter the numbers, the only digit that matters to the Rangers on Monday is two. As in two points earned in the standings to close the gap on the idle Canadiens.
Related: Rangers week ahead includes biggest 4-game stretch of season
3 things to watch for when Rangers host Lightning
1. Special effort
Can’t harp enough on how terrible the Rangers’ special teams have been lately, especially after a two-minute special-teams meltdown Saturday cost them the first two goals in the loss to the Devils. They allowed a power-play goal and a short-handed goal 1:27 apart in the second period and that was that.
Their power play is in a miserable 2-for-43 funk and has been outscored 3-2 since March 3. The penalty kill had been really good most of the season but has dropped to eighth in the League (81.4 percent).
That won’t do against the Lightning, who are tied for eighth on the power play (24.8 percent) and fifth on the PK (81.9 percent). At worst the Rangers need to hold serve here because they were better 5v5 than the Devils for most of the game Saturday.
2. Contain Kucherov
Nikita Kucherov had a goal and two assists when the Lightning defeated the Rangers 6-2 back on Dec. 28 at Amalie Arena. The explosive wing has 34 points in 28 career games against the Rangers.
Moreover, the 31-year-old is second in the NHL with 112 points (33 goals, 79 assists) this season, the fifth time he’s had 100+ and third straight season doing so. He led the NHL with 144 points and 100 assists a year ago.
Kucherov has points in 10 of his past 11 games, totaling 20 points (five goals, 15 assists) in that span.
3. Rempe return
Matt Rempe will return to the lineup after the towering forward missed four games with an upper-body injury. The Rangers were 2-1-1 in his absence, but perhaps he can provide an extra jolt to shake this team up. Certainly his presence in the lineup will juice the depressed fan base at MSG.
Brett Berard, who’s had little impact on the fourth line lately, likely will come out of the lineup. Laviolette did say the Rangers are working through some things with the lineup for Monday.
One of those things is the availability of defenseman K’Andre Miller. The wildly inconsistent yet still important 25-year-old missed practice Sunday because he was sick and didn’t take part in the optional skate Monday.
New York Rangers projected lineup
Panarin – Trocheck – Othmann
Perreault – J.T. Miller – Lafreniere
Cuylle – Zibanejad – Brodzinski
Kreider – Carrick – Rempe
Soucy – Fox
K. Miller – Borgen
Vaakanainen – Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
Rangers vs. Lightning: When, where, what time, how to watch
Who: New York Rangers at Tampa Bay Lightning
When: Monday, April 7 at 7 p.m. ET
Where: Madison Square Garden
How to watch: MSG
More About:New York Rangers News