Bruins at Rangers
The Boston Bruins made quite the statement in their season-opening victory over the visiting New York Rangers. The Bruins will look to repeat the feat on Wednesday, when the Original Six rivals meet for the second time in four days - although this time at Madison Square Garden. Milan Lucic celebrated the birth of his daughter Valentina by scoring a goal and Tuukka Rask stopped 20 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Rangers on Saturday.
Boston continued its winning ways with a 2-1 shootout victory over Winnipeg on Monday afternoon. A few short hours later, the Rangers dropped their second straight with a lopsided 6-3 setback to Atlantic Division-rival Pittsburgh. The lone bright spot came late in the contest as Rick Nash netted his 15th career short-handed goal - his first tally with his new team. Coach John Tortorella's club looks to prevent its first 0-3-0 start since the 1998-99 season.
TV: 7:30 p.m., NBCSN
ABOUT THE BRUINS (2-0-0): Boston can credit its perfect penalty kill (9-for-9) for extending Monday's tilt. The Bruins killed off a pair of penalties during overtime before Tyler Seguin and Patrice Bergeron scored in the shootout. Coach Claude Julien knows his team needs a better effort against a hungry Rangers club. "It's not an easy building to play in ... (and) we don't anticipate it being any better (on Wednesday). But nonetheless, this is an opportunity to go into the building and play the best New York team we've played so far, with them being extremely desperate."
ABOUT THE RANGERS (0-2-0): Save for a spectacular stop on Boston's David Krejci in the opener, Henrik Lundqvist hasn't looked too sharp thus far in the abbreviated season. After turning aside 31 shots, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner received an early hook against Pittsburgh after yielding four goals. Lundqvist looks to rebound versus the Bruins, against whom he owns a 19-7-2 career mark with a 1.58 goals-against average.
OVERTIME
1. Julien needs one victory to tie Don Cherry for third place on the Bruins' all-time list. Cherry has 231 victories.
2. New York's Arron Asham missed practice on Tuesday with a mild groin strain. Tortorella admitted he was "not sure" if Asham would play Wednesday.
3. Rangers rookie Chris Kreider said he was "fine" following a brutal hit from Penguins D Brooks Orpik on Sunday. Kreider cited that his "jaw tightened up" following the hit but was not tested for a concussion.