Hurricanes at Rangers preview

HURRICANES (22-13-2) at RANGERS (17-15-4)
7 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-CR, NHL.TV

The Hurricanes were 6-0-1 in seven games prior to losing 4-2 to the Florida Panthers on Dec. 21 and 8-6 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 23.
The Rangers have won each game against the Hurricanes this season, including 3-2 at home on Nov. 27. New York lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 5-1 on Monday and is 1-3-1 in its past five games.
Henrik Lundqvist will make his third consecutive start. It's the first time the Rangers goalie has started as many as three games in a row since Nov. 25-29. He has allowed four goals on 90 shots (.956 save percentage) in two starts against Carolina this season.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen has six assists in a five-game point streak.
Rangers center Mika Zibanejad has nine points (five goals, four assists) in the past six games.

They said it

"I think the strength of their team is that they've had good goaltending. They've got some high-end defensive and offensive players and it allows them to play their game. We're going to have to find a way to get a few by [Lundqvist]." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"We're in games and that's a good thing. You want to win, and we've shown that we can win games in different ways. I think we have to just keep being on that stuff that we have to do and really stick to the way we play and the way we do things when we win and play well. If we keep progressing, I think we're going to see good results." -- Rangers center Mika Zibanejad

Hurricanes projected lineup

Andrei Svechnikov -- Jordan Staal -- Warren Foegele
Nino Niederreiter -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Ryan Dzingel -- Erik Haula -- Martin Necas
Brock McGinn -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Jaccob Slavin -- Dougie Hamilton
Joel Edmundson -- Brett Pesce
Jake Gardiner -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
James Reimer
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: Haydn Fleury
Injured: None

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Artemi Panarin -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Brendan Lemieux -- Filip Chytil -- Kaapo Kakko
Brendan Smith -- Greg McKegg -- Brett Howden
Brady Skjei -- Jacob Trouba
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Ryan Lindgren -- Adam Fox
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched: Micheal Haley
Injured: Libor Hajek (knee)

Status report

The Hurricanes had a morning skate at home before traveling to New York. McGinn and Foegele weren't there because of travel issues returning from the holiday break, but Brind'Amour said they're expected to meet the team in New York. … Kaako should play after missing the past two games with a lower-body injury.

Stat pack

Jordan Staal will play in his 500th game with the Hurricanes. … Aho leads the League since Nov. 1 with 18 goals. … Svechnikov has 37 points (16 goals, 21 assists) in 37 games. He had 37 points (20 goals, 17 assists) in 82 games as a rookie last season. … Panarin has 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in the past eight games. … Lundqvist is 32-12-1 with a 1.98 goals-against average and .935 save percentage in 45 games against Carolina.