New York Rangers host Los Angeles Kings in the only encounter of the season
The second game of Thursday will be hosted by the New York Rangers at the Madison Square Garden as they play the Los Angeles Kings. This is the only scheduled meeting between the two sides. The last time out these two met was the 2nd of February
2010 where Kings emerged as 2-1 winners of the game.
Kings have recently come across a lot of success and achieved something they haven’t been able to do for the past three decades. The Kings have successfully scored at least a point in each of their last ten games. Out of the ten games eight games have been
won by the Kings in regulation time. The most recent game against the Columbus Blue Jackets this Wednesday saw them winning 4-3 after shootout.
This last win out them in the play-off position and a win against the Rangers would be their seventh road game on which they would score at least a point. This will be another milestone that the franchise has never come across. "It's a real tight conference
right now and we have to battle every night," goalie Jonathan Quick said.
Kings have emerged as a decent team in the season so far and with their constant hard work they have been able to come across a lot of success. During the course of the season Kings have taken eight of their games into shootouts. Amazingly, the shootout
has been very kind to them as they have won seven games on shootouts.
Kings are seeing contributions coming from everywhere with Jonathan Quick guarding the goal very well while players are scoring goal regularly. Ahead of the game, it has been announced that Coach Murray will be starting with Jonathan Bernier taking the goal
keeping responsibilities.
"It was back and forth and we are going to need to be more focused as we move through the rest of this trip," Murray said.
Kings have played 57 games in the season so far out of which they have won 32 games in regulation time, three games in overtime and scored 67 points. However, their counterparts are not far behind as they have scored 64 points out of the 58 games played.
Out of the 58 games played, they have won 30 games in regulation time and four games in overtime.
Rangers were facing some problems as they couldn’t come up with a regulation time win in the last six games. However, their fortunes turned around as they won 5-3 against the Pittsburgh Penguins this Sunday.
Ryan Callahan was the star for the Rangers scoring three points. Rangers are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference which is just four points ahead of the ninth placed Buffalo Sabres. If they want to keep themselves in the running for the play-offs
then they need to step up their game.
"The games we were losing, I think special teams were a big reason why we were losing them," Callahan said. "This is the NHL now, where if you win the special teams battle, you're going to win the game more often than not. And I thought we did that (Sunday)."
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