5 BOROUGH SPORTS

VS. 

When: 7 pm on MSG

Where: Madison Square Garden

Thoughts: Tonight the Rangers will be battling the Carolina Hurricanes.  This is the first time the Rangers are facing the Hurricanes since Eric Staal concussed his brother and New York Ranger Marc Staal.  Marc has not played this season and has been nursing post concussion syndrome for the last few months.  A side note to this game is that since the injury Eric leads the NHL in a minus rating this season.  Look for the Rangers to lay a few hits on Eric.  This game has the chance to be very physical.  The rangers denied the Hurricanes a playoff berth last year.

The GAS line: Since the emergence of Anisomov-Stepan-Gaborik have collaborated on line one the Rangers offense has exploded.  All three players have collected points in the teams last few games and look to continue that tonight.  Anisomov has 6 assists in the last three games played.

Gameplan: The rangers are coming into form.  They have won five straight and are looking to make it six tonight.  The only problem is the Rangers have many off days between games right now.  The team has to make sure to play the way that brings them the most success.  Forecheck and strong defense.  These two aspects of the Rangers style opens up the offense for them later in the game.  With a win tonight the Rangers can join Pittsburgh on top of the Atlantic division.  Lundqvist is getting the start and he desperatly has to improve on his 4-3-3 record.  He has been playing well but the consistency needs to come before december starts.  The biggest concern I have is that in the last game the Rangers had a few days off and started playing Ottawa very flat.  They did not hit their stride until the second period.  The rangers only had 4 shots in the game until halfway through the second.  This can not become a regular routine or the Rangers will start losing.  Luckily, the Rangers are playing at Home tonight and the Garden faithful this year has sparked this teams play.

Prediction: This is going to be a close one.  As much as i would like the Rangers to win I think they’ll end up losing this one 3-2 .  If Gaborik has a strong game and Lundqvist is solid in net the Rangers can pull out the win.

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