Red Wings at Rangers preview

RED WINGS (10-9-3) at RANGERS (11-9-2)
7 p.m. ET; MSG2, FS-D, NHL.TV

The Rangers, who have won three straight, will be without defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who will miss his second game in a row with an abdominal strain. The New York captain will be re-evaluated by team doctors on Sunday, coach Alain Vigneault said.
The Rangers haven't lost at the Garden since a 4-1 loss to the San Jose Sharks on Oct. 23. New York is 9-3-0 overall since.
The Red Wings have lost their past two games (0-1-1) and four of their past six (2-2-2).

Players to watch

Detroit forward Anthony Mantha has no points in his past three games after having 11 points (six goals, five assists) in his previous eight games.
Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith had an assist and played a season-high 19:56 in a 6-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. He will face his former team for the second time; Detroit traded him to New York on Feb. 28.

They said it

"The one thing with Anthony is, I've told him this, that for us to be great, I think he's got to be great. That comes with lots of responsibility. That comes with pressure. If I didn't think he was good enough to be a great player, I wouldn't do it." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on forward Anthony Mantha
"There's a lot of really good players on our back end and we filled that role and I thought we did a good job. It's just one game. Hopefully we get [McDonagh] back as soon as possible, but if not, I think we have a lot back there to fill that role." -- Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith on playing without defenseman Ryan McDonagh

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Red Wings projected lineup

Anthony Mantha -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Justin Abdelkader -- Dylan Larkin -- Tomas Tatar
Luke Glendening -- Frans Nielsen -- Darren Helm
Scott Wilson -- Andreas Athanasiou
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Danny DeKeyser -- Mike Green
Niklas Kronwall -- Nick Jensen
Xavier Ouellet
Jimmy Howard
Petr Mrazek
Scratched: David Booth
Injured: Martin Frk (groin)
Suspended:Luke Witkowski

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Michael Grabner -- J.T. Miller -- Mats Zuccarello
Rick Nash -- Kevin Hayes -- Jesper Fast
Jimmy Vesey -- Boo Nieves -- Paul Carey
Brady Skjei -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal -- Steven Kampfer
Brendan Smith -- Nick Holden
Henrik Lundqvist
Ondrej Pavelec
Scratched: David Desharnais
Injured: Ryan McDonagh (abdominal strain)

Status report

Neither team had a morning skate so the lineups are to be determined.

Stat pack

Howard has a .952 save percentage in six career starts at New York, though he's 2-3-1. … Kreider, Zibanejad and Buchnevich have combined for 30 points (15 goals, 15 assists) in the past 11 games. Lundqvist is 8-2-0 in his past 10 starts and has held opponents to three goals or fewer in six of his past seven starts (5-2-0, 14 goals allowed, one shutout).