The NY Islanders and New York Rangers are playing on the NHL schedule on Tuesday night and the matchup from Madison Square Garden is streaming live on NHL.com and has both teams looking to get off to strong starts this season and it will matchup John Tavares and King Henrik Lundqvist as the top players on their teams in this Metro division eastern conference game.
The Rangers come into the game after a bad loss to the Maple Leafs and now they will try and bounce back after losing two since winning their first game of the season. The team won over the Blues but now has lost to two other Blue teams in the Blue Jackets and Maple Leafs and now they have the Islanders at home. The team will be wearing their blue shirts and they have this matchup before a home game against the Carolina Hurricanes and they will be looking to bounce back from this slow start. The Rangers are 1-2-0 on the season with two points and they would like to turn it around now.
The team got off to a slow start last season and ended up in the Stanley Cup finals and now they are looking to start off a bit better than last year. The Rangers strength is in their defense and goaltending and they need Rick Nash to get going after he started the season with two goals against the Blues. Having Martin St. Louis for a full season will be huge for the team and they come in right in the middle of the pack in goals per game so far. The team has done nothing great in three games to start the season and now they get the chance to rebound.
Nash is leading the Rangers in points and he will try and get another goal against the Islanders, who feel they can be a playoff team this season with Tavares. The team added Johnny Boychuk ahead of the season and that was a huge trade and they come in with the best power play percentage in the league through two games. The team has four points after starting with two wins and they won over the Hurricanes last and now play against the Rangers.
The Islanders have the Sharks next and they come in after scoring a bunch of goals in their first two games and now they are third in the league in scoring. The team likely will not stay that high, but it is a nice start for a team that struggled last year. Nash was not great in the playoffs scoring goals, although he did everything else well and now the Rangers are hoping he can be the 40 goal man they thought he was when he was signed as a free agent. Brad Richards is gone and that means Nash and St. Louis along with Derek Stepan will be looked at as leaders once Step returns.
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