The New York Rangers return home for their first game of a three-game home stand. Tonight is an Original Six matchup, as the Rangers will face-off against the Detroit Red Wings for the first time this season.
The New York Rangers haven't lost much this season, but they would quickly like to move on from Saturday night's defeat against the Minnesota Wild. The team is going through some adversity right now with Adam Fox, Filip Chytil and Igor Shesterkin all being unavailable to play, but this group isn't trying to make excuses.
Tonight, they welcome in a Detroit Red Wings team that has a fiery offense, but can doesn't generate chances all that easily.
Matchup History:
The Detroit Red Wings won two out of the three contests between the two teams last season (won both games at MSG), but what's funny about that is that the Rangers outscored them in the three games combined by an 11-9 count.
In the game that the Rangers won last season, they went into Little Ceasars Arena and scored seven unanswered goals, including six in the third period alone.
Red Wings Hot Start Has Gotten A Bit Cold:
The Red Wings enter this contest going 6-3-1 in their last ten games while skating to the league's sixth-best offense scoring 3.75 goals per game. Similar to the Rangers, they get a big offensive boost from their man-advantage which is currently ranked fifth as they're converting at a 28% rate.
Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat were on fire through the teams first ten or so games, but have slowed down a bit in the last five.
On the season, Larkin has five goals and 12 assists for 17 points in a total of 12 games, but in his last five games he has only tallied one goal and two assists. DeBrincat has nine goals of his own, along with five helpers for 14 points in 12 games, but he hasn't found the back of the net in his last five games, only tallying one assist in that span.
The Rangers need to take away time and space from these two players.
Both Teams Lacking 5-on-5 Production:
Detroit hasn't been as good as one may think at even-strength this season. Entering tonight, they're only generating 10.18 high-danger chances per 60 minutes, which is just a little bit more than the Rangers who are at 9.01 per 60. The Rangers are actually the second-worst team in this category right now, while the Red Wings are the seventh from the bottom.
The Red Wings are skating to a 48.59% expected goals for at 5-on-5. The Rangers are at a 46.88%.
New York is the better team defensively at even-strength, but again, they'll be without their most important blue liner in Fox.
Considering the fact that the Rangers are without their power play quarterback I'd give the man-advantage edge to the Red Wings tonight.
The difference in tonight's game will be whichever team can break through at even-strength.
I will have updated lineups and goalie matchups with some player quotes after today's morning skate.