rangers hurricanes 2015

After three straight poor games and back-to-back losses, the New York Rangers take on the Carolina Hurricanes in an attempt to get back on track. The Canes are a bottom feeder this year, sitting in last place in the Metropolitan Division. That doesn’t mean the team lacks skill though, they aren’t the Sabres. The Canes have a loaded group of forwards with 2/3 of the Staals, Skinner, and Tlusty leading the way. On defense, they have skilled guys in Faulk, Sekera, and Murphy.

This is a good time to have this game, as the Rangers have shown that they can handle top-heavy lineups relatively easily this year. However, the Rangers have mostly played down to this opponent, needing the shootout twice to beat them. That said, they are still 3-0 against them, and a win tonight would give them the sweep.

What have they done lately?

The Canes are pretty hot right now at 6-2-2 in their last ten games. So this team isn’t going to be a pushover tonight, as their crop of forwards is finally healthy. At the writing of this post, I can’t access war-on-ice, so I don’t have rolling CF/PDO averages for the teams. Sorry about that.

Canes Systems

The Canes play a passive 1-2-2 on the forecheck and look to trap up the neutral zone. In their own end they run your standard low zone collapse. Not the most exciting of systems. On special teams, they run an umbrella powerplay, and a diamond/box hybrid PK. For more on the systems, click here.

Canes Lines

Eric Staal-Jordan Staal-Jiri Tlusty
Nathan Gerbe-Victor Rask-Elias Lindholm
Jeff Skinner-Riley Nash-Chris Terry
Brad Malone-Jay McClement-Patrick Dwyer

Andrej Sereka-Justin Faulk
Ryan Murphy-Tim Gleason
Ron Hainsey-Brett Bellemore

PP1: Tlusty-Gerbe-Lindholm-Rask-Faulk
PP2: Nash-Staal-Staal-Skinner-Murphy

PK: McClement, Dwyer, Gleason, Hainsey, Gerbe, Nash, Sekera, Faulk, Bellemore, Terry

Anton Khubodin gets the start.

Rangers Lines

J.T. Miller-Derick Brassard-Rick Nash
Chris KreiderDerek StepanMartin St. Louis
Carl Hagelin-Kevin Hayes-Mats Zuccarello
Tanner Glass-Dominic Moore-Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonaghDan Girardi
Marc StaalDan Boyle
John MOoreKevin Klein

PP1: MSL-Brassard-Stepan-Nash-Boyle
PP2: Miller-Kreider-Zucc-Girardi-McDonagh

PK: Stepan, Nash, Girardi, Staal, Moore, Fast, Hunwick, Boyle, Hagelin, Klein, McDonagh, MSL

Henrik Lundqvist is in net.

Scratches/Injuries: Lee Stempniak (healthy), Matt Hunwick (healthy)

Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 7pm on MSG.

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