Rangers at Oilers preview

RANGERS (29-30-6) AT OILERS (27-33-4)
10:30 p.m. ET; CBC, SN, SN1, MSG, NHL.TV

Nugent-Hopkins missed 18 games with cracked ribs after a check from Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb on Jan. 13. Nugent-Hopkins has 31 points (16 goals, 15 assists) in 46 games for the Oilers this season.
Edmonton, which has lost two straight after going 4-1-0 in its previous five games, is 18 points behind the Anaheim Ducks for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
The Rangers, winners of two straight after a six-game losing streak, are looking for a sweep of a three-game road trip through western Canada; New York won 6-5 at the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday and won 3-1 at the Calgary Flames on Friday.
The Rangers are five points behind the Carolina Hurricanes and Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference.

Players to watch

Rangers backup goaltender Alexander Georgiev will make his third NHL start; he's 0-2-0 with a 3.05 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage.
Oilers center Connor McDavid has six points (two goals, four assists) in a three-game point streak, and 24 points (14 goals, 10 assists) in his past 16 games.

They said it

"In some of the games we've been outshot, but I think most of those shots are coming from the outside. That's not the worst thing." -- Rangers center Ryan Spooner after a 3-1 win at the Calgary Flames on Friday
"I guy like that, that's been in the league for this long and is such a good two-way guy, he's definitely going to come in here and be an important piece and be a guy that is going to play a lot." -- Oilers forward Jujhar Khaira on center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins

Rangers projected lineup

Chris Kreider -- Mika Zibanejad -- Pavel Buchnevich
Jimmy Vesey -- Vladislav Namestnikov -- Mats Zuccarello
Ryan Spooner -- Kevin Hayes -- Jesper Fast
Paul Carey -- Peter Holland -- Cody McLeod
Brady Skjei -- Neal Pionk
Marc Staal -- Rob O'Gara
John Gilmour -- Tony DeAngelo
Alexandar Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched: David Desharnais
Injured: Ondrej Pavelec (knee), Kevin Shattenkirk (knee), Steven Kampfer (hand)

Oilers projected lineup

Milan Lucic -- Connor McDavid -- Leon Draisaitl
Michael Cammalleri - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- Pontus Aberg
Jesse Puljujarvi -- Ryan Strome -- Anton Slepyshev
Iiro Pakarinen -- Jujhar Khaira -- Zack Kassian
Darnell Nurse -- Kris Russell
Andrej Sekera -- Ethan Bear
Oscar Klefbom -- Matt Benning
Cam Talbot
Al Montoya
Scratched: Yohann Auvitu, Drake Caggiula
Injured: Adam Larsson (personal)

Status report

Lundqvist will sit in the second game of a back-to-back after becoming the first goaltender in Rangers history to win consecutive games with 50 saves in each. … Larsson is away at his father's funeral in Sweden.

Stat pack

Hayes has 12 points (seven goals, five assists) in his past 11 games … Spooner has seven points (one goal, six assists) in his first three games with the Rangers after being traded from the Boston Bruins last Sunday.