Hurricanes at Rangers preview

HURRICANES (22-18-5) at RANGERS (18-20-7)
7 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-CR, NHL.TV

Williams has seven points (six goals, one assist) during his seven-game point streak, including goals in five in a row. He's the sixth player in NHL history to have a goal streak of five games or longer after his 37th birthday, joining Brett Hull, Johnny Bucyk, Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito and Daniel Sedin.
The Hurricanes are within five points of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. They have lost 15 straight games (0-12-3) at Madison Square Garden since Jan. 5, 2011 while being outscored 52-20.
The Rangers have lost six of their past seven games (1-6-0). They've also lost four straight at home, where they are 1-2-5 since Dec. 2.

Players to watch

Hurricanes forward Sebastian Aho has scored five goals in his past two games, including a hat trick against the Nashville Predators on Sunday.
Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello has scored three goals in his past two games.

They said it

"The leadership to me is the key. The guys are doing it right. Our guys, the veteran guys, are doing it right and there's really no excuse for everyone else not to." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour
"You've got to compete and that was what was so disappointing about what went on in Columbus [a 7-5 loss Sunday]. … To go on the Island and play the way we did [Saturday] and win that game [2-1 against the New York Islanders] was certainly a great sign of some of the things we were doing. And then we just took a big step back against Columbus." -- Rangers coach David Quinn

Hurricanes projected lineup

Brock McGinn -- Sebastian Aho -- Teuvo Teravainen
Micheal Ferland -- Lucas Wallmark -- Jordan Martinook
Andrei Svechnikov -- Greg McKegg -- Justin Williams
Warren Foegele -- Victor Rask -- Saku Maenalanen
Jaccob Slavin -- Brett Pesce
Calvin de Haan -- Justin Faulk
Trevor van Riemsdyk -- Dougie Hamilton
Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney
Scratched:None
Injured:Jordan Staal (upper body), Clark Bishop (lower body)

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Mats Zuccarello
Filip Chytil -- Ryan Strome -- Jesper Fast
Jimmy Vesey -- Boo Nieves -- Vladislav Namestnikov
Cody McLeod -- Brett Howden -- Pavel Buchnevich
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei -- Adam McQuaid
Ryan Lindgren -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev
Scratched:Brendan Smith
Injured:Kevin Hayes (upper body), Neal Pionk (lower body), Fredrik Claesson (shoulder)

Status report

Lindgren will make his NHL debut after getting called up from Hartford of the American Hockey League on Monday. … Quinn said Claesson will be out 2-3 weeks and Pionk is not expected to play until after the All-Star break. … Hayes will miss his sixth consecutive game.

Stat pack

Faulk is two points from passing Dave Babych (240) for most by a defenseman in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. … Lundqvist has allowed 15 goals on 70 shots (.786 save percentage) in his past three starts.