Rangers at Blackhawks preview

RANGERS (3-5-1) at BLACKHAWKS (5-2-2)
8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, MSG, NHL.TV

The Rangers are 0-2-1 away from Madison Square Garden entering the opener of a four-game trip. Their last road game was a 4-3 overtime loss at the Washington Capitals on Oct. 17.
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist is expected to start for the Rangers after backing up Alexandar Georgiev in a 5-2 win against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane is eighth in the NHL with 13 points (eight goals, five assists). Five of Kane's goals have come in the third period and he's earned a point in all but one game this season.

Players to watch

Rangers center Mika Zibanejad has seven points (four goals, three assists) during a three-game point streak.
Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford has a 1.69 goals-against average, second in the NHL among goalies with at least three starts behind Semyon Varlamov of the Colorado Avalanche (1.56).

They said it

"I think it's good to get on the road, especially early in the season. I think it gives our guys a chance to spend more time with each other. You can kind of feel that we've got a good thing going in the locker room and there's certainly a camaraderie that you want. You need to have it to have success." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"Over those 10 years I don't know that there's been a better, [more] consistent player or performer in the game. I think game in, game out he gives us a lot of offense, has the puck as much as anybody does in the course of a game, so that helps." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville on Patrick Kane

Rangers projected lineup

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

Blackhawks projected lineup

Alex DeBrincat -- Jonathan Toews -- Dominik Kahun
Brandon Saad -- Artem Anisimov -- Patrick Kane
Alexandre Fortin --
Luke Johnson
-- Nick Schmaltz
Chris Kunitz -- Marcus Kruger -- John Hayden
Duncan Keith -- Henri Jokiharju
Erik Gustafsson -- Brent Seabrook
Brandon Manning -- Jan Rutta
Corey Crawford
Cam Ward
Scratched:Andreas Martinsen, Brandon Davidson
Injured: Connor Murphy (back)

Status report

The Rangers assigned forward Matt Beleskey to Hartford of the American Hockey League.

Stat pack

Lundqvist needs four wins to tie Jacques Plante (437) for seventh place on the NHL all-time list. ... Pionk has six assists in a three-game point streak. .... ... Toews ranks third in the NHL with 112 face-offs won.