Rangers look to continue offensive barrage vs. Jets
The New York Rangers will go for their fifth straight win and eighth in nine games on Sunday when they host the Winnipeg Jets at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers (9-3-0) will also look to continue a streak that's perhaps even more impressive. They've scored at least five goals in four straight and five of six, something that doesn't happen very often in today's NHL.
Their 5-2 victory in Boston on Saturday night wasn't as easy at the score indicated. The Bruins outshot the Rangers 37-24 but were victimized by uneven goaltending from Tuukka Rask.
"We didn't play our best game but we found a way to make a couple of plays and beat one of the goaltenders that had been one of the hottest so far in the league," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said after the Rangers handed Rask his first loss in seven games.
The Rangers scored their first two shorthanded goals of the season and another on the power play. Backup goaltender Antti Raanta made 35 saves to give starter Henrik Lundqvist the night off before facing the Jets at home Sunday.
"Tonight we were able to capitalize on a few chances," Vigneault said. "If you analyze the game, the difference was our goaltending was better than theirs and our specialty teams got us a goal on the power play and got us a couple shorthanded looks."
The Jets are one of the NHL's youngest teams and, to start the season, one of the busiest. They have played eight games in 13 days as they venture into a stretch of 28 games in 49 days, one that limits practice time for coach Paul Maurice.
For a young team, teaching is important, but the lack of off-days means most of the teaching doesn't happen on the ice.
"The practice time is the thing with a young team," Maurice told the Winnipeg Sun. "The details you'd like to work on instead of showing them video, but that's our schedule and that's not changing.
"The next time we have a practice, I don't know, in December, we will tailor how we practice, the load."
Along with the schedule, the Jets have also been challenged with injuries.
The good news is the Jets have won two straight but their most recent victory - a 5-3 win against the Red Wings in Detroit on Friday - came without seven of their regulars. Right winger Joel Armia and center Mathieu Perreault were the latest to go down and missed that game against the Red Wings.
When they take the ice against the Rangers on Sunday night, they will do so without defenseman Tyler Myers, center Bryan Little and right winger Drew Stafford. That means a chance for 22-year-old Andrew Copp, a third-round pick in 2013 who was recalled by the team Thursday. He has an assist in two games.
"It's important that he gets an opportunity fairly early and we're real happy with what he's doing with the Moose with the role he's in and the opportunity he's been getting," Maurice told the Winnipeg Sun.
"We're trying to, I don't know if we should say change his role, but put him back in a position he was in when he came out of college - he was an important two-way player who could handle the puck and make some plays and do more than just check."
