Sharks at Rangers preview

SHARKS (3-4-0) at RANGERS (2-5-2)
7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, MSG, NBCSCA, NHL.TV

The Game

The New York Rangers will try to extend their point streak to four games when they play the San Jose Sharks at Madison Square Garden on Monday.
The Rangers, who are 1-0-2 in their past three games, won 4-2 against the Nashville Predators on Saturday. They lost in overtime 5-4 to the Pittsburgh Penguins and in a shootout 4-3 to the New York Islanders last week.
San Jose lost 5-3 against the Islanders at Barclays Center on Saturday. Fifteen of the Sharks' 19 goals this season have come from its top-six group of forwards, six from center Logan Couture. They haven't gotten any goals from defensemen.
The lack of secondary scoring is enough of a concern that Sharks coach Peter DeBoer is making changes, scratching forwards Jannik Hansen and Timo Meier for Joel Ward and Barclay Goodrow.
Ward has been scratched the past five games. Goodrow has been a healthy scratch in each game this season. Hansen and Meier played in the first seven games and combined for three points (one goal, two assists).

Players to watch

Couture scored on all three of his shots on goal against the Islanders for his second NHL hat trick. He has five goals on seven shots in the past three games.
Rangers center Kevin Hayes has scored goals in back-to-back games and has looked faster centering a line with Jimmy Vesey and Jesper Fast.

They said it

"We're not getting enough of it [secondary scoring]. It's a concern. We're starting to healthy scratch guys so it's obviously to the point where we're looking at other options. We'll keep doing that until we get it." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer
"We've gotten points in our last three games. If we start a little something here, in 10 games they're going to be going back to that loss against Pittsburgh and turning that into a positive in the media. We have to look at it the same way." -- Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk

Sharks projected lineup

Kevin Labanc -- Joe Thornton -- Joe Pavelski
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Melker Karlsson
Joonas Donskoi -- Chris Tierney -- Mikkel Boedker
Barclay Goodrow -- Ryan Carpenter -- Joel Ward
Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon -- Tim Heed
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Timo Meier, Jannik Hansen, Dylan DeMelo
Injured: Paul Martin (ankle)

Rangers projected lineup

Rick Nash -- Mika Zibanejad -- Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey -- Kevin Hayes -- Jesper Fast
Chris Kreider -- David Desharnais -- J.T. Miller
Michael Grabner -- Pavel Buchnevich
Ryan McDonagh -- Brendan Smith
Marc Staal -- Kevin Shattenkirk
Brady Skjei -- Nick Holden
Tony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist
Ondrej Pavelec
Scratched:Adam Cracknell, Steven Kampfer, Paul Carey
Injured: none

Status report

The Rangers will use seven defensemen for the second consecutive game and for the third time in the past five games. … Shattenkirk will play in his 500th NHL game.

Stat pack

Burns has no goals on 31 shots. The only player in the NHL who has more shots without a goal is Washington Capitals defenseman John Carlson (34).