Rangers at Canucks
The Vancouver Canucks are in desperation mode with six games left as they host former coach Alain Vigneault and the surging New York Rangers on Tuesday night. The Canucks are five points behind Phoenix for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference with five games to go on home ice – four against teams currently in playoff position – after going 3-1-1 in their last five. The Rangers have won six of their last seven and hold a two-point advantage on Philadelphia for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
New York can’t take its foot off the gas with the Flyers owning two games in hand and having only a seven-point lead on ninth place Washington in the Eastern Conference. Vancouver plays Los Angeles, Anaheim and Colorado before finishing the season against Edmonton and Calgary, the bottom two teams in the West. John Tortorella's Canucks had given up seven goals during a four-game point streak before losing 5-1 to Anaheim on Saturday.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, TSN, RDS2, MSG (New York)
ABOUT THE RANGERS (42-30-4): While they wait for Martin St. Louis to get going, the Rangers have posted 28 goals during a seven-game stretch - receiving two each from Mats Zuccarello and Rick Nash in a 5-0 win at Edmonton on Sunday. St. Louis has no goals and three assists in 14 games since being acquired from Tampa Bay where he tallied 29 times. Henrik Lundqvist got Sunday off in favor of Cam Talbot and should be back in net after losing at Calgary 4-3 two days earlier to snap a five-game winning streak
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (34-31-11): Vancouver can’t afford any more losses this season and will need plenty of help to reach the playoffs for the sixth straight season, with Phoenix holding one game in hand. The Canucks must get a strong finish from their two active leading scorers Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler to make any kind of run. Sedin has two points in three games after going 13 games without one and Kesler has two goals in the last 10 contests for Vancouver, which stands 28th in the league in scoring.
OVERTIME
1. Nash reached 25 goals for the ninth time in 10 seasons after scoring 21 in a shortened 2012-13 campaign.
2. Vancouver D Dan Hamhuis boasts a plus-8 rating and four points over the last nine contests.
3. The Rangers beat Vancouver 5-2 on Nov. 30 in New York for their third straight victory over the Canucks.