Preview: Rangers Open Homestand Against the Wild

WILD at RANGERS, 7 p.m.MSG, 98.7 FM
There is one last extended stay at home for the Rangers: On Thursday night they begin a stretch in which they will play five of their next six games on Garden ice, when a Minnesota team with all kinds of struggles comes into Madison Square Garden. It comes at a rink where the Rangers have felt comfortable and earned points all season long: The Rangers are 15-9-6 at home this season, and over their last 17 home games dating to Jan. 12, they have lost in regulation only five times. The visitors on Thursday night, meanwhile, have won just one game in the last month.
"We've played well, and we want to take advantage of playing at home for sure - we've had success here, we certainly enjoy playing in front of our crowd, we've got a lot of support, and guys feel comfortable," David Quinn said following his team's morning skate on Thursday. "We've just got to continue to build on the way we've played I think over the last five weeks. I think we've played some pretty good hockey over the last five weeks and we've just got to keep moving in that direction."
Moving in to rejoin the Rangers will be Lias Andersson, called up from Hartford just hours before faceoff against the Wild. The 20-year-old, No. 7 draft pick in 2017 has played in 21 games with the Rangers already this season, most recently on Dec. 27, picking up a goal and three assists. He has 20 points (6-14-20) in 36 games covering two stints in Hartford this season.

He'll join a Ranger team looking to build off of how they finished off their most recent road trip: Locked in a 1-1 game after 40 minutes in Raleigh on Tuesday, the Rangers raised their level in the third and got a goal from Vlad Namestnikov - his third in three games - that held up over the last 14 minutes as the game-winner as the Rangers picked up their second victory out of the last three road games.
"That was huge," Brady Skjei said of the trip finale. "Winning two out of three on the road, obviously that's a recipe for success. We've just got to carry that here and take care of business at home."

Namestnikov's goal held up, of course, in large part because of Henrik Lundqvist, who will go right back in for another start on Thursday night at the Garden. Lundqvist stopped 43 of 44 Carolina shots on Tuesday in Raleigh, including all 18 he faced in the third period, to win a game in which it had been a full week since his previous start.
Lundqvist had spoken on Monday about how "when you adjust small, small things here and there the end result will be better," adding that he was feeling confident in the small adjustments he had made. He then went out and looked that way on Tuesday.
"He has such a tendency to put so much pressure on himself, he thinks he needs to be great every night," Quinn said of his goaltender. "And I think when he feels that way, it might affect his play a little bit. I thought he was in a good spot mentally (on Tuesday), I thought he looked relaxed and confident, and obviously a big piece of why we won that game."

As for Skjei, he is one of a handful of Ranger to have dealt with various injuries or ailments recently - another one of them is Brett Howden, the rookie center who has been out since suffering an MCL sprain in a Jan. 29 game against the Flyers at the Garden. On Thursday, Howden joined his teammates on the ice for the first time since the injury, wearing a red no-contact sweater during the team's morning skate.
"Means we're getting close," Quinn said. "He feels good, he's looked good, he's made a lot of progress. So he's obviously closer to coming back than not."
Skjei was held out of Sunday's game in Pittsburgh with a lower-body injury suffered two night before, but returned to face the Hurricanes on Tuesday. He said he was feeling the injury early on, "but once I got into the flow of the game it kind of went away. Rammer (Jim Ramsay) did a great job. After a while I felt like I didn't slow down at all."
He played 21:47 in the game on Tuesday, and on Thursday will take on the team he grew up rooting for - the Wild played its first game in October of 2000, when Skjei was 6 years old. "Playing against the Wild is always fun for me," he said.
Playing against anybody hasn't been a lot of fun for the Wild lately: Minnesota comes into the Garden with just one win since Jan. 23, and five consecutive losses - the last two of them by shutout. A 1-6-3 run in the 10 games since the All-Star break has caused the Wild to plummet to last place in the Central Division and beneath the playoff cut line in the West, though they still remain only two points back of second Wild Card Colorado with 22 games left to play.
Still, the Wild made a move on Wednesday, trading Charlie Coyle, after seven season with the club, to Boston in exchange for 22-year-old Ryan Donato and a fifth-round draft pick. Donato was a freshman at Harvard when Jimmy Vesey was a senior there, on the 2015-16 Crimson. Donato joined his new team in New York and is expected to play on Thursday.
"Very similar to the Carolina team we played the other night - comes down to this time of year, every point is that much more important," Skjei said. "They'll be a hungry team, and we'll be just as hungry."

NUMBERS GAME

The Rangers and Wild are meeting for the first time this season. After Thursday night, the Blueshirts will have faced all 30 NHL opponents at least once.
Connor Brickley's second-period goal on Tuesday in Raleigh was his first as a Blueshirt and made him the 25th player to score for the Rangers this season.
The Rangers are 3-1-1 at the Garden against Central Division opponents this season, with the only regulation loss coming on Opening Night against Nashville.
The Wild have been shut out in each of their last two games and have not scored a goal in their last 177:12 of game time.
Minnesota leads the NHL in goals scored by defensemen (38), and percentage of team goals scored by defensemen (23.3%). Matt Dumba is sixth in the league among blueliners with 12 goals despite not having played since Dec. 15 due to a ruptured pec muscle (missed 28 games).

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Kevin Shattenkirk had four assists and a plus-4 rating during the Rangers' four-game road swing. He has 17 points (4-13-17) in his 28 games vs. Minnesota.
Zach Parise leads Minnesota with 23 goals and 49 points this season. The former Devil has 39 points (16-23-39) in 52 career games against the Rangers.