Saturday, February 16, 2008

Rangers vs. Sharks Preview


Today the New York Rangers (29-24-7) host the San Jose Sharks (31-18-8) in an afternoon matchup at MSG. The Rangers are looking for their first win over a Western Conference foe in 2007-08 (0-7-2). San Jose, who owns the best road record in the league (17-5-3) will be making its first appearance at MSG since a 2-1 overtime loss on Dec. 16, 2002, and Jonathan Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau at the only players remaining on the Sharks roster from the game. San Jose is just 2-6-1 with a tie in 10 games in New York City. Evengi Nabokov, who is tied with New Jersey's Martin Brodeur for the league lead with 31 wins, won his only career start in New York in 2001. He stopped 31 shots in a 5-1 victory. For a full preview go to ESPN.com.

...tough game against one of the best teams in the league, with one of the better goalies in the league. Hey we chased Miller yesterday, why not Nabokov today.

...as always with the Sharks their top point getter is Joe Thornton (16 goals 50 assists). I'm actually surprised to see his goal total so low. If fact the Sharks have only scored two more goals this season than the Rangers and we all know how much we've struggled to score this year. Look for a low scoring game today.

...according to Sam Weinman at the Rangers Report, Lundqvist will be back in goal today as he should be after yesterday's strong performance.

...I obsolutely loved the way the Rangers drove to the net in yesterday's game. If they play like that for the rest of the season they should have no problem making the playoffs. But from what I've seen all year, I'm not too confident they'll stick to that game plan.

...with the Rangers win yesterday and Philly's loss the Rangers are actually tied with Philly for sixth place. However Philly does have two games in hand.

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