Rangers Vs Senators Preview: Rangers Meet Senators For First Time Since Playoffs

The New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators will meet up at Scotiabank Place tonight, for their first meeting since the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Both the Rangers and Senators are dealing with some injury issues at the moment, with the Rangers missing Rick Nash and Darroll Powe, meanwhile the Senators will be without Jason Spezza and Erik Karlsson.

VS.

New York Rangers (8-6-1) vs Ottawa Senators (9-6-2)
Scotiabank Place - Ottawa, ON, Canada - 7:30 PM
Television: MSG | Radio: ESPN NY 98.7
Opponent's Blog: Silver Seven | Tickets: New York Rangers Tickets

The New York Rangers played a very uneventful, and uninspired game against the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night. After a big 2-1 win over the Wasington on Sunday, the Rangers played with no heart, and as a result, lost to a very skilled Canadiens team. Albeit, neither team was very good, but the Canadiens were the better of the two on Tuesday.

The Rangers will also be without Rick Nash for the second straight game as he is nursing some sort of injury or illness. As much as we don't like to make excuses, the Rangers surely missed Rick Nash's presence in both the offensive and defensive zone last game. Nash opens up a ton of space for his line mates, and space was everything but available on Tuesday.

Some Quick Thoughts:

*** With Rick Nash being out the lineup for an unknown period of team, someone needs to step up in his place to help lessen the blow. Notable candidates would be Ryan Callahan, Brad Richards, and Marian Gaborik. Callahan has only scored a single goal since returning from injury, Gaborik has two goals in his last ten, and Richards currently has zero goals in his last ten games. All of these guys are known to be big contributors offensively, so one, if not all of them need to step up in Rick's place.

*** As I stated earlier, the Senators will be without one of their better offensive forces, and their undisputed best defenseman, Erik Karlsson. The Rangers obviously have the upper hand in both of these categories, but cannot underestimate this tough Senators team. Even though they are lacking some firepower, they still have the ability to make their opponent pay if mistakes arise.

Projected Lineup:

Carl Hagelin - Derek Stepan - Marian Gaborik
Chris Kreider - Brad Richards - Ryan Callahan
Taylor Pyatt - Brian Boyle - J.T. Miller
Arron Asham - Jeff Halpern - Brandon Mashinter

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Anton Stralman
Michael Del Zotto - Matt Gilroy

Henrik Lundqvist
Martin Biron

Scratches: Rick Nash (injury/illness), Stu Bickel (healthy), Steve Eminger (AHL assignment).