Pregame: Rangers and Isles Kick-Off Home and Home at MSG

Tonight will mark the first of a back-to-back, home-and-home with interstate rivals, the New York Islanders, as the Rangers will be hosting John Tavares and the boys from Long Island for the first time this season. As of now, the two clubs are in a dead tie in the standings, both possessing 31 points, and have been quite streaky as a whole. However, the Islanders have been collecting wins at a more frequent rate than the Blueshirts. The Isles hold a 4-6-0 record in their last ten games, but have only managed to capture five victories while on the road this year.

The Rangers recalled defenseman Bobby Sanguinetti from the Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL) earlier this afternoon. While Sangs will not be in the lineup for tonight’s match-up, he will give the Blueshirts some options with four games in the next six days. Heikkinen will play tonight, but I would not be surprised if Sanguinetti was activated tomorrow in Nassau.

Rangers Projected Lineup:

Higgins - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Prospal - Drury - Callahan
Avery - Anisimov - Kotalik
Brashear - Boyle - Lisin

Staal -Rozsival
Del Zotto - Girardi
Redden - Heikkinen

Lundqvist

Scratches: Aaron Voros, Erik Christensen, Bobby Sanguinetti

As reported yesterday, Henrik Lundqvist will be in goal for his seventh consecutive start tonight at Madison Square Garden. Hank has been standing on his head in recent games, and the bottom-line is that he needs more from his offense if he wants to win. As I detailed in my article this morning, two goals just is not going to cut it, and is forcing Lundqvist to play a near perfect game, which always leads to mental errors and soft goals.

There will be no changes in the lineup whatsoever, surprisingly, as coach Tortorella liked what he saw from his squad Monday night against the Atlanta Thrashers. Chris Higgins played very well with Marian Gaborik and Brandon Dubinsky on the first line, and the trio seemed to have some chemistry developing on the ice. Hopefully they can come up big with numerous goals against the Isles because that is the only way they are to come out of this with two points.

Islanders Projected Lineup:

Moulson - Tavares - Comeau
Bailey - Nielsen - Okposo
Joensuu - Schremp - Hunter
Sim - Thompson - Park

Streit - Meyer
Sutton - Hillen
Witt - MacDonald

Roloson

As they learned in their loss to the Isles back in October, this is not a team you can come out flat against and just assume you are going to get the win. If that is the case, you make a disgrace of this half of the rivalry. These players just do not seem to care about everything that goes along with the history of these two foes. If the effort is there, this will be a very entertaining fast-pace contest, if not, expect more of the same.
(Photos courtesy of Getty Images)