NEW YORK RANGERS NOTES:
LAST GAME
Washington Capitals 4, New York Rangers 0 – December 27, 2022 – Madison Square Garden
NYR Goals: N/A
WSH Goals: M. Johansson (9), E. Gustafsson (5), L. Eller (7), C. Sheary (11)
NYR Goalie: I. Shesterkin (L – 26/29)
WSH Goalie: D. Kuemper (W – 32/32)
NYR Shots: 32
WSH Shots: 30
NYR PP: 0/5
NYR PK: 2/3
RECAP/NOTES: In their final home game of 2022 and return from Holiday Break, the Blueshirts were shutout by the Capitals, 4-0. In the loss, Filip Chytil shared the team-lead with five shots on goal, tying his season-high mark. Chytil went 6-for-11 in the faceoff circle (54.5), his second straight game over 50 percent in the dot
RANGERS RUNDOWN
- The New York Rangers close out 2022 with the a road matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena (7:00 PM ET – TV: MSG 2 – Radio: ESPN 1050 AM).
- The Blueshirts have won eight of their last 10 games and are 9-3-1 over their last 13 games.
- On the road, the Blueshirts are 11-5-1 for 23 points and have earned a point in 11 of its last 14 games (10-3-1) away from home. New York will play four of its next five games on the road.
- Tonight is the fourth of eight-straight the Rangers will play against a team from the Eastern Conference. The next game New York will play from a team in the Western Conference is Minnesota on January 10. The next time the Blueshirts travel to a Western Conference city is February 15 against Vancouver.
- The Rangers have won their last four games against the Lightning and five of their last six against them. New York has never won five-straight games against Tampa Bay.
- Tonight the Rangers will wear their home blue jerseys in Tampa Bay, something the club did twice last season (Dec. 10 at BUF, Mar. 29 at TBL). New York has won its last three games dating back to 2019-20 when wearing their home blues on the road.
- New York has scored five or more goals in three of their last five games. The Rangers have seven occurrences of six or more goals this year, which are tied for the second most in the NHL (BUF – 8). Their three games with seven or more goals this season are tied for the most in the league, also with Buffalo.
- The Rangers defensemen group has collected 85 points, tied for the third most in the NHL. New York’s 64 assists by defensemen are tied for the fourth most in the league.
- New York’s nine comeback victories this year are tied for the eighth most in the NHL.
- The Blueshirts have 11 players with five goals this season, tied for the second most amount in the NHL. Five Rangers have 25 or more points this year (Zibanejad, Fox, Panarin, Kreider, Trocheck), tied for the third most in the NHL.
- New York ranks fourth in the NHL in hits with 987.
- When tied after two periods, the Rangers have a league-high nine wins (9-1-5).
LAST FIVE GAMES
DATE OPPONENT RESULT
Dec. 27 vs. Washington L, 4-0
Dec. 22 vs. NY Islanders W, 5-3
Dec. 20 at Pittsburgh L, 3-2
Dec. 18 at Chicago W, 7-1
Dec. 17 at Philadelphia W, 6-3
ALL-TIME RECORD 53-41-5-8 (119 PTS)
2022-23 1-0-0
2021-22 3-0-0
NYR HOME 29-19-2-5 (65 PTS)
NYR AWAY 24-22-3-3 (54 PTS)
LAST FIVE MEETINGS 4-1-0
LEADING SCORER(S) – CURRENT RANGERS IN CAREER G: Zibanejad (8) – A: Trocheck (9) – Pts: Trocheck (16)
LEADING SCORER(S) – ALL-TIME IN GAMES W/NYR G: Graves (14) – A: Leetch (33) – Pts: Leetch (43)
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING NOTES:
LAST GAME
Lightning 4 vs. Montreal 1
The Tampa Bay Lightning got back in the win column and collected a fifth-straight win at AMALIE Arena with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night…The Bolts improved to 21-11-1 on the season with a home record of 13-4-1…The Lightning have won both games vs. MTL this season with two meetings remaining…The Bolts improved to 13-1-1 in their last 15 games vs. MTL and 11-1-3 in their last 15 home games vs. the Habs…Alex Killorn opened the scoring for Tampa Bay with his 10th goal of the season when he took a pass from Victor Hedman and fired a shot past Jake Allen just 1:55 into the contest…Brayden Point made it 2-0 with a power-play goal when he collected a pass from Nikita Kucherov and fired a shot off the post and into the top left corner with 5:51 remaining in the first…Point gave the Bolts a 3-0 lead at the 16-minute mark of the second period with an unassisted, highlight-reel goal as he danced through four MTL defenders before beating Allen for his team-leading 19th goal of the season…Brandon Hagel made it 4-0 Tampa Bay with 11:29 remaining in regulation when he grabbed a rebound in front off a slap shot from Zach Bogosian and scored his 13th goal of the year…Kaiden Guhle got MTL on the board with 2:39 remaining to make it a 4-1 game…Andrei Vasilevskiy earned his 11th-straight win over MTL with 25 saves on 26 shots against…Bogosian picked up his first point of the season with his assist on Hagel’s goal…Ian Cole skated in his 700th career game in the win.
PP: TBL – 1-1 MTL – 0-5
SOG: TBL – 38 MTL – 26
Attendance: 19,092
TONIGHT’S MATCHUP
The Lightning and the Rangers are playing the second of three matchups this season and the only meeting at AMALIE Arena…The Bolts dropped the first contest of the season with a 3-1 loss in the season opener Oct. 11 at Madison Square Garden…After a scoreless first period, Mika Zibanejad opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal 3:25 into the middle frame…Steven Stamkos got Tampa Bay on the board 5:44 later with a power-play goal off assists from Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point…Zibanejad and Barclay Goodrow scored the only two goals of the third period to seal the 3-1 win for NYR…Andrei Vasilevskiy got the start for Tampa Bay and made 36 saves on 39 shots against…The Bolts are 5-2-3 in their last 10 home games vs. NYR and 5-4-1 in the last 10 meetings overall…Tampa Bay is 49-46-7 with five ties all-time vs. NYR, including a home record of 25-19-5 with three ties…Stamkos has picked up points in seven of his last nine games vs. NYR (7-6—13)…Kucherov has also recorded points in seven of his last nine games vs. NYR (2-10—12)…Kucherov has six points in his last four home contests vs. NYR (1-5—6)…Point has recorded points in 10 of his 14 career games vs. NYR (5-8—13)…Point has found the scoresheet in four straight home games vs. NYR (1-4—5)…Victor Hedman has pointed in seven of his last 10 games vs. NYR (1-11—12)…Hedman has picked up points in four straight home games vs. NYR (0-7—7)…Martin St. Louis (20-26—46) holds the Lightning franchise record for career goals, assists and points vs. NYR.
TBL ALL-TIME POINT LEADERS VS. NYR
- Martin St. Louis – 46 pts. (20-26—46, 46 GP)
- Steven Stamkos – 38 pts. (18-20—38, 37 GP)
- Vincent Lecavalier – 32 pts. (16-16—32, 52 GP)
- Chris Gratton – 27 pts. (10-17—27, 31 GP)
TONIGHT’S STORYLINES
Tampa Bay is playing the second game of a three-game homestand tonight…The Bolts will play nine of their 13 games in December on home ice…The Lightning are 5-4-1 against Metropolitan Division opponents this season…Tampa Bay is 13-4-1 at home this season and have won five straight games at AMALIE Arena…The Bolts are playing the second game of a back-to-back set and are 2-3-0 in the second half of back-to-backs this season.
INJURIES
2022-23 Regular Season Man Games Lost: 78
Current Injuries:
Rudolfs Balcers (Upper-body injury; Out indefinitely) 13 Games
TRANSACTIONS
Dec. 3 – Re-assigned D Philippe Myers to AHL Syracuse
Dec. 3 – Assigned F Cole Koepke to AHL Syracuse
GAME POINT
Bolts forward Brayden Point scored his 17th and 18th goals of the season Dec. 28 vs. MTL…Point’s first goal was the 199th power-play point of his career, tying him with Brian Bradley for the ninth-most power-play points in Lightning franchise history…Point has goals in two consecutive games and seven of his last nine contests (9-1—10)…Point has scored a goal in six straight home games, just one game shy of tying the Tampa Bay franchise record held by Nikita Kucherov (7 GP, 2021-22)…Since Nov. 25, only Connor McDavid (15) has scored more goals than Point’s 13…Point (19-15—34) leads all Lightning skaters in goals and game-winning goals (6), while ranking third in points and fifth in assists…Point has recorded a shot on goal in every game this season…Point recorded his 400th career point with a goal Dec. 21 at DET…Point became the first member of the 2014 NHL Draft Class drafted outside of the first round to record 400 career points…Only Leon Draisaitl (8) has scored more game-winning goals than Point this season…Point is tied with Kucherov for the fourth-most game-winning goals in Tampa Bay franchise history.
