The New York Rangers and NY Islanders are playing on what should be a crisp and clear night at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx for the next outdoor game on the NHL schedule and the matchup will be live on TV and streaming online from the NBC Sports Network and the Live Extra website and comes after the NYR demolished the New Jersey Devils in their outdoor game last weekend.
The Rangers come into the game after that win over the Devils and they were technically the away team in that game and the same goes here and they won in style 7-3 on Sunday and now they get the chance to play underneath the sky once again at the Stadium. The team has the Islanders at Madison Square Garden after that and then later next week the NHL will go on a break for the winter Olympics. NY has been playing much better as of late after getting off to a rough start this season and now they are in second place in the Metro division and things are tight among the teams.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are well ahead of the Rangers with a 15 point advantage and the rest of the teams in the division are separated by just a few points and that makes this game even more important. The Rangers have a one point lead over the Flyers and are just a few points ahead of the rest of the division and they are looking to make a playoffs push this season and getting these games leading into the Olympics break will be huge for that. The team plays against the Islanders twice and then against the Avalanche, Oilers and Penguins and then they have the two week break for the Olympics before things pick up with the Chicago Blackhawks.
Check here for the New York Rangers vs. New York Islanders live coverage from the NBC Sports Live Extra from Yankee Stadium.
The Islanders come in after losing to the division leading Bruins and now they play the Rangers back to back and one will be a "home" game, while the teams will play at MSG on Friday after that. The Rangers come in ranked 19th in scoring and 12th in goals against and they aren't doing anything exceptional this season, although they are ranked in the top 10 in power play percentage with the team coming in eighth.
Richards is leading the team in scoring this season in points and Nash is tops in goals and Richards has the assists lead and those two players need to come through for the team on Wednesday. The Rangers and the Islanders are playing on Wednesday night from the Stadium at 7:30 pm and the game will be much better weather than on Sunday when the Rangers played the Devils and there was some snow.