Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the St. Louis Blues (6-3-1, 13 points) and New York Rangers (5-4-1, 11 points) face-off for the second and final time this season live from Madison Square Garden in New York City. The game can be live streamed here. St. Louis fans can hear all of the action on KMOX 1120 while New York fans can do the same on 98.7 ESPN New York.
St. Louis rolls into the Big Apple in search of its fifth straight game while New York has dealt with a plethora of injuries and has lost two of its last three games. The Rangers defeated the Blues 3-2 on Opening Night in St. Louis back on Oct. 9.
The Blues notched their fourth straight win with a 3-2 triumph over the Colorado Avalanche in a shootout Saturday that saw Vladimir Tarasenko score both of the team's regulation goals and Joakim Lindstrom lift it with a tally in the second round of the shootout.
Now, the team will look to defend against the Rangers forwards better than it did on Opening Night.
"I don't think we were ready for the level their forwards played at in Game 1," coach Ken Hitchcock said via NHL.com. "It took us half the game to get up to speed with matching their tenacity so it's more their forwards that we're concerned about."
Tarasenko leads St. Louis with six goals and has added five points for a team-best 11 points thus far this season while Kevin Shattenkirk has one marker and eight tallies for nine points and Jaden Schwartz has lit the lamp five times and added three assists for eight points.
The Rangers were forced to play with four defenseman for over two periods Saturday night in a 1-0 shootout loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
With Dan Boyle (broken hand) and John Moore (suspension) already out, captain Ryan McDonagh (separated shoulder) and fellow blue liner Kevin Klein (foot contusion) each left the game with injuries and will not play tonight.
Adding to the losses for New York, forward Mats Zuccarello (undisclosed) is doubtful for the game as he didn't participate in the morning skate.
New York will hope to overcome the injuries and make the adjustments in order to win tonight's game.
"This game is about finding ways to win and that's what we've gotta do," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told NHL.com. "We're playing against in my book one of the elite teams in the NHL, and we've gotta find ways with our team and that's what we're going to do."
Rick Nash has paced the Rangers in goals (9) and points (11) this season while Derick Brassard has four markers and three helpers for seven points and Chris Kreider has lit the lamp twice and added four assists for six points.
In net, New York will turn to its backup goalie as Cam Talbot will man the crease for just the second time this season. Talbot yielded four goals on 35 shots in a loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets last month.
St. Louis is likely to counter in between the pipes with Brian Elliott, who is 4-2-1 with a 1.96 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage.
The Blues look for their fifth straight win while the Rangers hope for a season sweep of their opponents when the puck drops tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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