Rangers Vs. Islanders Preview: A Holiday Showdown At MSG

After making a third period comeback against the Pittsburgh Penguins followed by a shootout loss, the New York Rangers will take on their crosstown rivals tonight at Madison Square Garden. This will be just the second meeting between these two teams, with the Rangers edging out a 3-2 win courtesy of Benoit Pouliot. Tonight will have a little bit of a different feel to it as both of these struggling teams will slug it out once again.

Since their last meeting the Islanders have been on a pretty steep decline (1-5-4), meanwhile the Rangers have basically remained status quo by being consistently inconsistent. Alain Vigneault flipped some of his lines around tonight as J.T. Miller will be going right into the lineup after being recalled last night from the Hartford Wolfpack. Carl Hagelin will also being seeing top-six time tonight with Chris Kreider and Derick Brassard.

Henrik Lundqvist will make his eighth consecutive start for the Rangers, while Evgeni Nabokov will make his second straight start since returning from injury. The full lineup for tonight's game can be found below.

VS.

New York Rangers (16-17-2) vs New York Islanders (9-19-7)
Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - 7:00 PM
Television: MSG, MSG PLUS 2 | Radio: ESPN NY 98.7 |
Opponent's Blog: Lighthouse Hockey

Projected Lineup:

Rick Nash - Derek Stepan - Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider - Derick Brassard - Carl Hagelin
Brad Richards - J.T. Miller - Benoit Pouliot
Brian Boyle - Dominic Moore - Derek Dorsett

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
John Moore - Anton Stralman
Michael Del Zotto - Justin Falk

Henrik Lundqvist
Cam Talbot

Scratches/Injuries: Marc Staal (concussion), Ryan Callahan (MCL sprain), Taylor Pyatt (healthy).