Panthers at Rangers
The New York Rangers overcame an early-season slump to position themselves on the cusp of a winning record. The Rangers vie for their sixth victory in seven contests on Sunday, when they host the reeling Florida Panthers. Carl Hagelin recorded his second two-goal performance of the season and captain Ryan Callahan netted his fifth tally in as many contests as visiting New York skated to a 4-2 triumph over Columbus on Thursday.
While their offense finally has kicked in, the Rangers' defense has been quite steady with just two goals or fewer allowed in nine consecutive contests. That's bad news for the Panthers, who suffered their eighth straight setback (0-4-4) on Saturday, a 3-2 loss to Ottawa. The game was the first at the helm for interim coach Peter Horachek, who took over after Kevin Dineen and assistants Gord Murphy and Craig Ramsay were fired on Friday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN (Florida), MSG (New York)
ABOUT THE PANTHERS (3-10-4): Florida's ailing power play isn't doing it any favors during the winless streak. The Panthers failed to score on all five opportunities against the Senators to drop to 1-for-25 during the run of futility. "It needs obviously a lot of work, and every part of the game on the power play needs to improve," Horachek said. "That's something we're clearly going to have to work on."
ABOUT THE RANGERS (8-8-0): Rick Nash skated in practice Saturday for the first time since suffering a head injury against San Jose on Oct. 8. "He's on the road to recovery, he's skating," general manager Glen Sather said. "But he's got a ways to go with his conditioning." Hagelin seems to have adjusted to that just fine, collecting four goals and three assists in his six games since being activated from long-term injured reserve following shoulder surgery.
OVERTIME
1. New York LW Mats Zuccarello has responded well since being a healthy scratch on Oct. 24. The Norwegian collected one goal and seven assists in the eight-game stretch.
2. With veteran G Tim Thomas returning from a lower-body injury on Saturday, Scott Clemmensen could be in line to start versus the Rangers.
3. New York coach Alain Vigneault confirmed LW Taylor Pyatt suffered a concussion versus Columbus.