The New York Rangers are heading back to the Garden tonight as they square off against the Eastern Conference powerhouse that is the Tampa Bay Lightning. After a tough loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Rangers enter the game coming off an impressive 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils, with Mika Zibanejad recording the hat-trick and Mats Zuccarello assisting on the Rangers final three goals. Look for the Blueshirts to continue their recent strong play against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have been comfortably sitting at the top of the standings for some time now. At 78 points through 51 games, the Lightning have a seven-point lead on the second-place Calgary Flames and 10-point lead on third-place Winnipeg Jets, which should tell you just how much they’ve dominated the competition this season. Buchnevich will be on the left side of Hayes and Fast tomorrow, says David Quinn. And Lundqvist in net. Freddie Claesson skated yesterday and today and is probably a week to 10 days away from returning. — Colin Stephenson (@ColinASteph) February 1, 2019 Projected Lineup: 20 - 93 - 36 89 - 13 - 17 72 - 16 - 90 8 - 24 - 26 76 - 54 18 - 44 42 - 22 30 Use this as the open thread for tonight’s game.<doc-sep>NEW YORK (AP) — The league-best Tampa Bay Lightning are finding different ways to get wins. They needed their goalie to cement their latest victory over the New York Rangers. Steven Stamkos scored in the second period to give Tampa Bay a three-goal lead, Louis Domingue stopped 31 shots and the Lightning held on to beat the Rangers 3-2 Saturday night. “We got in our groove after the first,” said Domingue, who had 15 saves in the third period to improve to 17-4-0 this season. “Our forecheck has been awesome. We get some huge blocked shots and there you have it.” Domingue got the start after Andrei Vasilevskiy blanked the Islanders 1-0 in a shootout win on Friday night. Yanni Gourde and Erik Cernak also scored to help the Lightning get their 39th win and become the first team to reach 80 points this season — 15 points ahead of second-place Toronto in the Atlantic Division. “You want your team to get the lead, extend it and hold onto it,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “For the better part of this year, we’ve been able to do that.” Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes had goals for the Rangers, and Mika Zibanejad had two assists. Henrik Lundqvist finished with 20 saves as New York lost for the second time in three games since the All-Star break. The Rangers had a chance to tie it when former captain Ryan McDonagh took a tripping penalty with 5:51 left in the third, but they were unable to generate any shots on the ensuing power play. They also pulled Lundqvist for an extra skater with just over two minutes left to no avail. Gourde opened the scoring at 6:51 of the first, tapping a loose puck past Lundqvist for his 13th. McDonagh — in his second game back at the Garden since he was traded to the Lightning late last season — had an assist on the goal. Cernak, a 21-year-old defenseman from Slovakia, made it 2-0 with his first career goal at 4:41 of the second, rifling the puck past Lundqvist from the slot. Another former Rangers captain — Ryan Callahan — had an assist. “It was a long time, 30 games, and it was great to score my first goal,” said the 6-foot-4 Cernak, who was drafted by Los Angeles in 2015 and traded to the Lightning two years later. “Hopefully it’s not my last one.” McDonagh and Callahan were among five former Rangers skating for the Lightning. The list also included defensemen Dan Girardi and Anton Stralman, and forward J.T. Miller. Stamkos made it 3-0 with his 28th at 8:33 of the second period with assists to Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov, who leads the Lightning with 80 points. Zuccarello — playing his 500th game for the Rangers and becoming the first player from Norway to reach that milestone — got the Rangers on the scoreboard with 3:43 left in the middle period with his ninth. Hayes narrowed the deficit to 3-2 when he converted a cross-ice pass from Zibanejad at 6:49 of the third on a power play. After Zuccarello’s pass went awry out of the Lightning zone, Lundqvist retrieved the puck and sent it up the ice to Zibanejad. It was the third assist this season for Lundqvist. The Swedish goalie made a dazzling save with six minutes left in the third, denying Callahan on a breakaway with a right pad save. The 31-year-old Zuccarello has points in his last seven games — with five goals and eight assists in the stretch — and the trio of Kreider, Zibanejad and Zuccarello has 35 points combined over the last seven games in which all three have played. “We battled hard. We played a really good game,” Zuccarello said. “But it’s not enough. You’ve got to win hockey games and we didn’t do it.” Domingue made eight saves in the first period, including two stops on Ryan Strome on a breakaway. Domingue stopped the original shot, the blocked Strome’s rebound attempt. He also stopped Kreider from in close in the last minute of the third. “Tonight you could say we deserved to win,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “But it’s a result-driven business. You have to find ways to win.” NOTES: D Marc Staal played his 812th game with the Rangers, passing Jim Neilsen for fourth place on the franchise list for defensemen. Only Harry Howell, Brian Leetch and Ron Greschner played more games on the Rangers blue line. … The Rangers scratched D Tony DeAngelo for the second straight game. … Tampa Bay’s leading goal-scorer Brayden Point was a late scratch with a lower-body injury. … The Lightning also scratched F Danick Martel and D Mikhail Sergachev. … The Lightning won the previous meeting, 6-3 at home on Dec. 10. The teams meet again on Feb. 27 at the Garden. UP NEXT Lightning: Host Vegas on Tuesday night. Rangers: Host Los Angeles on Monday night.<doc-sep>It is premature to call it a plan, for it is more like a concept. Yet the notion of pulling off what would be quite the creative exacta appears to be crystalizing within the Rangers’ front office as the Feb. 25 trade deadline approaches. That is, the Blueshirts are mulling an approach in which they would swap premium rental properties Kevin Hayes and Mats Zuccarello for a combined bundle of picks and prospects before then re-signing the now-pending free agents when they hit the open market on July 1. Now, listen. Nothing would be set in stone. No promises have been made. The idea is germinating as the opportunity presents itself. Indeed, general manager Jeff Gorton and his lieutenants must steer clear of any suggestion of pre-tampering. And this type of approach would be fraught with risk, for there is always the possibility that no matter how often Zuccarello and Hayes pledge their loyalty to Broadway, they could, A) fall in love with their new environs once traded and decide to re-up with their new teams; or, B) be overwhelmed with offers the Rangers might not be able to (or care to) match when they become free agents. This type of scenario rarely happens in the NHL. Antoine Vermette was rented by Chicago from Arizona in 2015 and returned to the desert as a Cup-winning free agent the ensuing summer. Keith Tkachuk did the 360 from the Blues to/from the Thrashers in 2007 after a trade back to St. Louis. It is unclear whether that had been the original intent behind the initial transactions. If this does become the plan and it does come to fruition, it would be tantamount to what the Yankees pulled off in 2016, when they sent Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for a passel of young assets including Gleyber Torres before signing the elite lefty closer as a free agent the following offseason. Thus, ideally, the path to contention would accelerate within the rebuild by “retaining” core pieces Hayes and Zuccarello but reintroducing them into an organization bolstered by their departures. This, of course, is all still to come. And though the Rangers were beaten 3-2 by the first-overall Lightning at the Garden for their second loss in three games after coming off their hiatus, this was still a good week for the franchise because of the way the revived Zuccarello was able to enhance his market value and Hayes was able to maintain his after returning from the pre-break mid-body injury that had sidelined him for nine straight games. Indeed, the sizzling Zuccarello (five goals, eight assists, 13 points in his past seven consecutive) and Hayes accounted for both of their team’s goals in this game after the Rangers carried the play in the first period and decisively so in the third yet fell after a succession of second-period lapses allowed the Lightning to grab a 3-0 lead by the midpoint. “We got too nonchalant in the second period, turned the puck over and gave them odd-man rushes,” Hayes said. “We made some mistakes against some of the best guys in the league and it cost us.” see also Losses haven't kept Rangers from winning on trade pieces Unless you evaluate the Rangers based solely on the proposition... Down 1-0 after one, the margin mounted to 3-0 8:33 of the second on goals 3:52 apart set up by Rangers misfeasance. Zuccarello scored at 16:17 before Hayes got a power play goal at 6:49 of the third, but the Blueshirts could not come all the way back despite a 15-4 shot advantage over the final 20 minutes. “I think it was frustration of playing well in the first but coming out of it [trailing] 1-0,” coach David Quinn said of the second period performance. “We played 12 minutes of sloppy, uninspired hockey and it cost us. You can’t play 48 minutes against that team.” After it had ended, both Hayes and Zuccarello talked about the need to pick up victories and points for the team to push back into the playoff race of which the Rangers are now on the fringes of the periphery. Of course, chances are that both will participate in the playoffs in different precincts. But that might not signal the end of either’s story in New York. What’s more, Zuccarello’s resurgence in which he has played his finest and sharpest hockey since 2016-17 has created the very real possibility that the organization could not only bring Zuccarello back as a free agent, but award him the captaincy upon signing him to a multi-year contract. That no longer seems so far-fetched. In fact, it might even be part of an emerging blueprint for the Blueshirts, whose loss Saturday will be long forgotten at the trade deadline and on July 1.<doc-sep>
Following a come-from-behind victory on Thursday night against the New Jersey Devils, the New York Rangers had an opportunity to make it two wins in a row against the Tampa Bay Lightning. However, the Rangers started this game absolutely flat, and despite a strong push at the end of the game, they fell short in regulation time. Mika Zibanejad also put up two more points tonight for the Rangers, which brings his season total to 50 points in 51 games played. 1-0 Tampa Bay Yanni Gourde (13) - Ryan McDonagh (23) & Mathieu Jospeh (6) - 6:51 1st Period The Rangers came out with a pretty quick start during the opening minutes, but it completely died out a short time after. The Lightning were able to right the ship after some early chances against, and Yanni Gourde put the Lightning up 1-0 at the 6:51 mark of the first period. Ryan McDonagh’s shot gave Henrik Lundqvist a bit of trouble, and he wasn’t able to locate the rebound in time before Gourde poked home the loose puck in the crease. 2-0 Tampa Bay Erik Cernak (1) - Ryan Callahan (8) & Cedric Paquette (3) - 4:41 2nd Period The Rangers miserable ending to the first period carried over in the second, and the Lightning were able to double up their lead. Erik Cernak came away with his first career NHL goal as he broke into a shooting lane in the high slot, and ripped a quick wrist shot that beat Lundqvist just under the arm. Lundqvist appeared to be a little deep in his net, and did himself no favors once Cernak got the shot off from in close. 3-0 Tampa Bay Steven Stamkos (28) - Victor Hedman (28) & Nikita Kucherov (58) - 8:33 2nd Period A little under four minutes later, Steven Stamkos gave the Lightning a commanding 3-0 lead with a well placed shot just off to the right of Lundqvist. Victor Hedman and Nikita Kucherov created the entire played with a beautiful zone entry, and Stamkos finished it off with a snap shot just inside the post. Lundqvist got a slight piece of the puck with his shoulder, but it wasn’t enough to keep the puck out of the net. 3-1 Tampa Bay Mats Zuccarello (9) - Mika Zibanejad (29) & Chris Kreider (16) - 16:17 2nd Period The Rangers finally stopped the bleeding late in the second period, as Mats Zuccarello picked up his ninth goal of the season. Chris Kreider found Mika Zibanejad with an excellent breakout pass from the defensive end, and Zibanejad almost immediately passed the puck off to Zuccarello when he crossed the blue line. Zuccarello waited a couple seconds, and after a small head-fake, he snapped the puck under Louis Domingue’s arm to make it a 3-1 game. 3-2 Tampa Bay - PPG Kevin Hayes (11) - Mika Zibanejad (30) & Henrik Lundqvist (3) - 6:49 3rd Period The Rangers kept the comeback hopes alive early in the third period with Kevin Hayes notching a goal on the power play. A heads up play by Henrik Lundqvist caught the Lightning during a change, and he quickly passed the puck up to Zibanejad breaking into the zone. Zibanejad, who has been an absolutely machine as of late, dished a ridiculous cross-ice saucer pass over to Kevin Hayes for the one-timer. Domingue was unable to slide over in time before Hayes got the shot off, and he buried his 11th of the season. Even though the Rangers’ comeback effort fell short tonight, they found a way to fight back after barely showing up during the first half of the game. Following tonight’s loss, the Rangers will have a scheduled off day tomorrow before returning to action on Monday night against the Los Angeles Kings.