The Rangers once again will be without Mats Zuccarello, who will sit out for the eighth time in 10 games with a groin injury that both Zuccarello and the Rangers had thought would be behind them by now. Zuccarello has made two returns from the injury, on Nov. 15 in Brooklyn and this past Friday in Philadelphia, only to find himself back on the shelf each time.
Tim Gettinger, sent to Hartford following Saturday's game and then recalled less than 24 hours later, will play his second NHL game.
"It just didn't respond the way we had anticipated, so we talked to the trainers and we feel it's better if we just hold him out," David Quinn said of Zuccarello. "Dealing with this type of injury, it's unpredictable, maybe the most unpredictable of any type of injury you could have. Good news is, we don't think it's serious."
DeAngelo checks back in after being a healthy scratch for Saturday's game against Washington. This time Freddy Claesson will be the odd man out - Quinn has repeatedly said he feels confident in all eight defensemen he has (with Adam McQuaid injured, seven of them are healthy); on Saturday, it was DeAngelo who swallowed the tough pill.
"He's told us the same thing, and I think we all know it," DeAngelo said. "There's guys that have good NHL experience, all good players. When you get in there you've got to make the most of it. Everybody's pulling for each other - seven, eight D, whatever it is, when you play you've got to play well."
Strome, meanwhile, picked up his first goal in his fifth game as a Ranger on Saturday, tying the game at 3-3 in the third period. He said he had to watch the video later on to fully appreciate the play that Brett Howden made to him, using his skate blade to steer a pass to Strome with space to make a move on Caps goalie Pheonix Copley.
"I didn't even notice on the bench, I thought it just hit him," Strome said. "I saw it after the game. Pretty impressive play."
Quinn will see a familiar face on the visitors' bench tonight in Brady Tkachuk, Ottawa's star rookie winger, who was Quinn's star freshman at Boston University as recently as seven months ago. Tkachuk is tied for second among NHL rookies with seven goals this season, though he has scored them in only 12 games, having missed a three-week stretch with a torn ligament in his left leg.
"It's going to be strange, it's always strange (opposing) people that you coached in college, especially your first year in the NHL and you see your former players," Quinn said. "College coaching isn't like any other - the relationships are so deep."
Asked whether he was surprised at how well Tkachuk, who turned 19 on Sept. 16, has adjusted to the NHL level, Quinn said, "He's a great player, he's a great kid, he's going to be a big-time player in our league. Everybody talks about his size, his strength, his determination, but he's got a lot of skill too - he's got great hands, passes the puck well, can shoot it. No, I'm not surprised."
The Senators play game three of a four-game road trip on Monday, having lost the first two on the trip as part of a three-game skid. The Sens have allowed 19 goals in losing their last three games. "We're giving up too many goals right now," Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said. "We've got to be better. It's not with complicated things, they're simple things but they've got to become habits."
