Rangers at Flames
A home-friendly schedule has the New York Rangers tied with reigning Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh atop the Metropolitan Division. Now the league's highest-scoring team will get a chance to see if it can continue its success away from Madison Square Garden when the Rangers open a four-game road trip at the Calgary Flames on Saturday night.
New York coach Alain Vigneault is eager to see how his team fares on the road after having a five-game winning streak snapped by Vancouver 5-3 on Tuesday night. "We’re still in the phase here of finding out about our group," Vigneault said "There’s no better way than going on the road and being together and preparing and trying to win games.” Calgary has dropped three straight games and has surrendered 20 goals during a 1-4-0 start to November. The defensive woes do not bode well for a matchup with the Rangers, who have poured in 29 goals in their six last contests.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, CBC, MSG-Plus (New York), Sportsnet1 (Calgary)
ABOUT THE RANGERS (10-4-0): While offense has not been an issue for New York, Vigneault was not pleased with the play of his defensemen and tinkered with some of the pairing during practice at Thursday. Among the moves was shifting rookie Brady Skjei, who has nine assists but is still in search of his first goal, to the right side on a pairing with Marc Staal. “I really like his progression and his skating and puck abilities and I definitely want to see them on the right side,” Vigneault said.
ABOUT THE FLAMES (5-9-1): Calgary has been outscored 13-3 during its three-game skid but the one positive to come out of Thursday's 4-2 loss to Dallas was the awakening of Johnny Gaudreau, who scored a pair of goals to double his season total. The Flames' special teams continue to be a nightmare, ranking last in the league on the power play and next-to-last on the penalty kill. "I guess we have to keep working at that, and try to get better because that helps win games,” Gaudreau said.
OVERTIME
1. Rangers F Kevin Hayes, a college teammate of Gaudreau, is riding a career-best six-game point streak.
2. Calgary is 0-for-17 with the man advantage over the last seven games.
3. Rangers G Henrik Lundqvist is 4-3-0 with a 2.81 goals-against average versus the Flames.