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The Matchup: The New York Rangers (19-12-3 ; SBN Blog: Blueshirt Banter) vs the New Jersey Devils (19-9-5)
The Time: 7:00 PM EST
The Broadcast: TV - MSG, MSG+2 ; Digital Audio - The One Jersey Network
Hot Offenses: The Devils have scored 15 goals in their last three home games. A number that highly contrasts their production on the road. New Jersey will want to maintain that strong offensive output on home ice, as the Rangers have only scored under three goals twice in their last 11 games.
Rangers Rising: Our Hated Rivals have picked up the pace since their atrocious start earlier this season. As a Devils fan, it’s been hard to watch, but this Rangers team has been quite impressive of late. They went from a last place team to jumping all of the weaker teams in the division in seemingly no time at all, and now they sit four points out of first place. I don’t know if that says more about the kind of team New York has, or if it’s just a sign of how tight the Metropolitan is, but either way, it’s been an impressive run for the Rags.
The Rangers Last Game: The Rangers previous game came against the Anaheim Ducks, that was a game that they won by a score of 4-1. Paul Carey scored twice, and Henrik Lundqvist made 39 saves. And while I only watched the game in bits and pieces, it seemed to me that the Rangers absolutely smothered the Ducks. It felt like every minute I watched there was a bad defensive zone turnover by the Ducks which led to a shot or shots on John Gibson. So I was naturally curious as to the shot totals, and was astounded to see Anaheim actually out-shot Our Hated Rivals by a total of 40-32. Maybe I only saw spurts of action which made the Rangers appear more dominant than they really were, but if they’re winning games while giving up 40 shots on net, that just doesn’t seem like a sustainable route to victory.
Starting In Net: Andrew Gross reports that it’ll be Cory Schneider in net for the Devils, no word on the Rangers starter yet.
Thoughts and Opinions: I am very sick, so yes, this was a short preview. I’ll be back with a full length preview on Saturday morning. Any thoughts, opinions, what have you, throw them in the comments section below, and enjoy your Thursdays.