Rangers at Maple Leafs preview

RANGERS (28-32-13) at MAPLE LEAFS (44-25-5)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, CBC, SN1, SNO, MSG, NHL.TV

The Maple Leafs, who trail the Bruins by six points with eight regular-season games remaining, are 2-4-0 in their past six after going 6-1-1 in their previous eight. Goalie Frederik Andersen will start for Toronto.
The Bruins play at the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
The Rangers will try to avoid a sixth straight loss, which would mark their longest losing streak this season. Goalie Alexandar Georgiev, who made 55 saves against Toronto in a 4-1 win on Feb. 10, will start for New York, 0-4-1 in its past five games and 1-6-5 in its past 12.

Players to watch

Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past four games.
Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past six games.

They said it

"If you feel their offense, it's going to be a long night. That's going to be key, managing the puck, in particular against a team with this skill set. If you're going to turn it over, you have to make them go 200, 190 feet. You can't let them go 90, 100 feet because that's when you're going to get burnt." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"It's the NHL so they're good, they've got good players, good young guys and they've got good goaltending. Georgiev gave us a lot of trouble last time so we have to do a much better job tonight of trying to take away his eyes. He made some pretty unbelievable saves last time." -- Maple Leafs center Auston Matthews

Rangers projected lineup

Jimmy Vesey -- Mika Zibanejad -- Ryan Strome
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Brett Howden -- Pavel Buchnevich
Jesper Fast -- Lias Andersson -- Brendan Lemieux
Brendan Smith -- Filip Chytil -- Vinni Lettieri
Marc Staal -- Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei -- Neal Pionk
John Gilmour -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Alexandar Georgiev
Henrik Lundqvist
Scratched: Fredrik Claesson, Connor Brickley, Boo Nieves
Injured: Libor Hajek (shoulder), Chris Kreider (lower body)

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Andreas Johnsson -- Auston Matthews -- William Nylander
Zach Hyman -- John Tavares -- Mitchell Marner
Patrick Marleau -- Nazem Kadri -- Kasperi Kapanen
Trevor Moore
-- Frederik Gauthier -- Connor Brown
Morgan Rielly -- Ron Hainsey
Jake Muzzin -- Nikita Zaitsev
Justin Holl -- Igor Ozhiganov
Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks
Scratched: Tyler Ennis, Nic Petan
Injured: Jake Gardiner (back), Travis Dermott (shoulder), Martin Marincin (illness)

Status report

Marincin took part in the optional morning skate but is expected to miss his third straight game.

Stat pack

Zibanejad has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past 10 games after having five points (one goal, four assists) in a three-game point streak. … Nylander has six assists in his past five games. … Tavares has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games.