Rangers at Blues preview

RANGERS (32-32-7) at BLUES (37-28-5)
8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, MSG, NHL.TV

The Blues trail the Dallas Stars by five points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the West and have two games in hand. St. Louis also trails the Colorado Avalanche by five points for the first wild card. The Avalanche are the first wild card because they have a game in hand on the Stars and have three more regulation/overtime wins.
The Rangers trail the New Jersey Devils by nine points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference. New York is 5-2-1 in its past eight games after going 0-6-1 the previous seven.

Players to watch

Rangers left wing Ryan Spooner has 13 points (two goals, 11 assists) in nine games with New York since he was acquired in a trade from the Boston Bruins on Feb. 25.
Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz has seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past seven games and has five points (two goals, three assists) in his past six games against the Rangers.

They said it

"When you analyze the game, a big part of those wins has been our goaltending. But there's certain parts to our game that we're working on and we're getting better (at). ... There are some strides here and we need to continue as a group." -- Rangers coach Alain Vigneault on winning five of eight games
"I think if you look at the standings, we know where we are. We know the situation. We got a little bit of help last night so it's an opportunity for us to continue to play well, continue to build this thing and get some wins." -- Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo

Rangers projected lineup

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

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Patrik Berglund -- Kyle Brodziak -- Alexander Steen
Dmitrij Jaskin -- Vladimir Sobotka -- Tage Thompson
Nikita Soshnikov -- Ivan Barbashev -- Chris Thorburn
Carl Gunnarsson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Vince Dunn -- Colton Parayko
Joel Edmundson -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jake Allen
Ville Husso
Scratched:Jordan Schmaltz, Oskar Sundqvist
Injured: Carter Hutton (neck), Scottie Upshall (knee)

Status report

Georgiev will make his third straight start for the first time in his NHL career. ... Hutton is day to day.

Stat pack

Zibanejad has six points (three goals, three assists) during a three-game point streak and eight points (four goals, four assists) the past five games. ... Barbashev (two goals, two assists) and Pietrangelo (one goal, three assists) each have four points in the past three games.