Rangers at Lightning
The New York Rangers, who finished third in the league in goals-against last season with a similar lineup, have had trouble keeping the puck out of their own net since late November. The Rangers look to tighten up their play in the defensive zone and pull out of a long slump when they visit the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.
New York has allowed 40 goals while losing seven of its last nine games and is just 4-10-2 since Nov. 25. “We have some guys that are battling hard, but we don’t have enough guys bringing their ‘A’ game to the table, and we’re going to need to figure it out real quickly here,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told reporters after a 5-3 loss to Nashville on Monday. The Lightning are 7-4-1 in their last 12 contests but haven’t quite found the form that carried them past New York in the 2015 Eastern Conference final. Ben Bishop is 9-0-0 with a 1.43 goals-against average in the regular season against the Rangers, including a 2-1 win on Nov. 19, and shut them out twice in the playoffs last spring.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCSN
ABOUT THE RANGERS (20-13-4): Veteran defensemen Kevin Klein and Dan Girardi returned to the lineup against Nashville, but New York still gave up 35 shots and a pair of power-play goals. Vigneault told reporters Nashville was “teeing it up from the ladies’ tee” against veteran goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who could not stem the tide and has given up four or more goals in five of his last seven games. Power forward Kevin Hayes, who has notched only three assists in his last 14 contests, is expected to be a healthy scratch.
ABOUT THE LIGHTNING (18-15-4): Captain Steven Stamkos was blanked in the 4-3 shootout loss to Montreal on Monday but has tallied five times in as many games to raise his team-leading total to 16 goals. Nikita Kucherov, who has played on a line with Stamkos for most of December, is riding a six-game point streak (two goals, seven assists). Centers Brian Boyle and Tyler Johnson returned from injuries Monday and wings Jonathan Drouin and Ondrej Palat (lower body) could be back either Wednesday or Saturday against Minnesota.
OVERTIME
1. Tampa Bay D Victor Hedman has registered a team-high 16 assists and owns a plus-9 rating in his last 16 games.
2. The Rangers entered Tuesday ranking 17th in the league in goals-against (2.59) and 25th in shots allowed (30.8) per contest.
3. The Lightning are 7-for-24 on the power play over their last four games after going 2-for-21 in the previous six.