Rangers Vs. Jets Preview: Still Searching For Consistency

Coming off of two straight losses, the New York Rangers will look to bounce back tonight as they take on the Winnipeg Jets. Since the Olympic break, the Rangers have struggled to find the consistency that they left off with almost five weeks ago. Both the offense and defense appear to be operating out of sync, which is turn, leads to a whole bunch of jumbled play on the ice. Aside from the game against Carolina the other night, the Rangers have been playing well, but they just haven't been converting on their opportunities. Last night was a perfect example of that once again, as the Rangers had a plethora of opportunities that went unanswered in front of Darcy Kuemper.

Couple that with the mistakes that the Rangers are making in their own zone, and you have a recipe for disaster. It's not fair to blame the Olympic break for this hangover, mainly because every single team went through the same layoff. Hopefully the Rangers kick it into another gear tonight, and start to pick up some wins along the way. With the playoff race so close in the Eastern Conference, the Rangers cannot afford to stay in this little slump for much longer.

The Rangers did not skate this morning to due the back-to-back, so our lineup projections are based off of last night's lineup.

VS.

New York Rangers (35-28-4) vs Winnipeg Jets (30-28-9)
MTS Centre - Winnipeg, MB - 8:00 PM
Television: MSG, TSN-JETS Radio: ESPN NY 98.7 |
Opponent's Blog: Arctic Ice Hockey

Projected Lineup:

Carl Hagelin - Derek Stepan - Rick Nash
Chris Kreider - Brad Richards - Martin St. Louis
Benoit Pouliot - Derick Brassard - Mats Zuccarello
Brian Boyle - Dominic Moore - Daniel Carcillo

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Anton Stralman
John Moore - Kevin Klein

Henrik Lundqvist
Cam Talbot

Scratches/Injuries: Justin Falk (healthy), Derek Dorsett (healthy), Raphael Diaz (healthy).