Preview: Rangers Take Their Winning Streak to Detroit

Coming off their most thrilling victory of the season so far, the Rangers finally feel they have some confidence to bring with them on a road trip.
And though they were not able to bring Mats Zuccarello with them - the winger has a groin strain and did not travel with the team - the rest of the Blueshirts will look to make it five wins in a row when they begin a road back-to-back, and a set of three games in four nights, with a visit on Friday night to a Detroit Red Wings team that after getting out to the league's worst start this season has, like the Rangers, recently found its stride.
The Rangers have won their last two games on the road, finishing up their swing through California last week with back-to-back shootout wins in San Jose and Anaheim. They held leads in the final minute of each of those games, only to surrender the tying goals and wind up winning both games after overtime. But following it up with a pair of regulation wins back home at the Garden, including Tuesday's come-from-behind 5-3 win over Montreal, was an enormous confidence-builder for the Rangers - confidence that right now is building upon itself.
"We're on a bit of a roll - with wins comes confidence in finishing games," said Marc Staal. "We've won a few, and that just breeds confidence in your room in closing out games. You've got to ride that as long as you can.

"We still felt confident going into the third period (down a goal on Tuesday), which is a good feeling to have - if we had lost three in a row going into the third, maybe that feeling wouldn't be there. But we've been playing well, working hard, and we're starting to get some results from it."
The biggest play of all came on Tuesday night from Staal's defense partner, Neal Pionk, who took a puck behind his own net and went the length of the rink to score, finishing with a stuff-in past Montreal goaltender Carey Price. Pionk has goals in back-to-back games.

"It was a great play," said Staal, who set up the tying goal and was plus-3 on Tuesday. "I was skating up ahead of him, telling him I'm there if you need me. But he just kept on going, and I watched him finish it off.
"Just a confident play. Shows some courage to put your knee down and your head down and cut towards the net like that, too. Obviously it was a beautiful goal - even a better time. That time in the game, for him to make a play like that was huge."
Brett Howden is set to return to the lineup after sitting out against Montreal. Howden was crunched into the backboards at high speed in the second period of Sunday's game against Buffalo, a frightening crash that appeared to have the potential to be far worse than Howden missing just a single game.
Zuccarello, meanwhile, is considered day-to-day but will not play either in Detroit or on Saturday night in Columbus. Jesper Fast also sat out Thursday's practice but was taking a maintenance day and will be ready to face the Red Wings.

Henrik Lundqvist, winner of three straight starts, will take the nets in Detroit; David Quinn's plan is to give Saturday's game to Alexandar Georgiev.
Also set to face the Red Wings will be Lias Andersson, who was called up from Hartford on Monday, played against Montreal on Tuesday and got in his first practice with the Rangers since Training Camp on Thursday. Quinn gave the 20-year-old center 12:17 of ice between Fast and Jimmy Vesey, and said Andersson had "a good night," adding that he expects the Rangers' No. 7 overall draft pick from 2017 "just to be the player he's capable of being. The consistent effort - he plays with a little bit of an edge, he competes hard, he's got good skill - all the reasons we took him where we did and why he's always been an elite player. He's going to help us for sure - I think he gives us an element that we don't have a lot of.
"He's got a physical element to his game but he's got skills as well."
Andersson said on Thursday that though he was feeling the nerves before his season debut, "I think I played well, and the team, too." He feels the seven NHL games he got into at the end of last season will help him settle in this year.
"I know the guys from last year and Training Camp, and that helps a lot," he said. "They take very good care of me when I'm here. I think that helps the most, to know all the guys, and to feel like you're welcome."

While the Red Wings dug themselves a spectacular hole by losing their first seven games of the season (0-5-2) and nine of their first 10 (1-7-2), lately, like the Rangers, they have finding some confidence in finishing off games. Since the 1-7-2 start, Detroit has won four of its last five games.
The story of their most recent victory is not far off from the Rangers': Hosting Vancouver on Tuesday night, the Red Wings came from two goals down, getting a goal late in the second period and the equalizer in the third before winning it in a shootout.
"We're continuing to find ways to win," Detroit center Dylan Larkin said after the Red Wings practiced on Thursday, "and we're not getting rattled like we were early in the season when we go down by two goals or something bad happens."
Jimmy Howard has been a main reason behind the Red Wings' resurgence: The 34-year-old goaltender has won three consecutive starts, including a 40-save performance against the Canucks. Howard grew up a Rangers fan (he wears 35 in honor of Mike Richter) but has put up better career numbers against the Blueshirts than any other opponent: a 7-3-3 record with a 1.74 goals-against average and .949 save percentage.

PROJECTED LINEUP

90 Namestnikov - 93 Zibanejad - 89 Buchnevich
20 Kreider - 13 Hayes - 23 Spooner
26 Vesey - 21 Howden - 17 Fast
50 Andersson - 72 Chytil - 95 Lettieri/8 McLeod
18 Staal - 44 Pionk
76 Skjei - 77 DeAngelo
42 Smith - 22 Shattenkirk
30 Lundqvist
40 Georgiev

NUMBERS GAME

The Rangers are expected to have three players aged 20 or younger - Howden (20), Andersson (20) and Filip Chytil (19) - in their lineup for the first time since Jan. 25, 2011 vs. Florida (Michael Del Zotto, Evgeny Grachev, Derek Stepan). It would be the first time the Rangers had three forwards aged 20 or younger in the same game since a playoff game in Washington on April 13, 1991 (Tony Amonte, Steven Rice, Doug Weight).
The Red Wings have scored 39 goals and allowed 54, the worst goal differential (minus-15) in the NHL.

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Lundqvist's next victory will be the 437th of his career, tying Jacques Plante for seventh-most all-time. Lundqvist stopped 70 of 74 shots (.946%) in the two wins at the Garden this week. In his last 11 games against Detroit, he is 7-1-3 with a 1.32 GAA, .955 save percentage and four shutouts.
Gustav Nyquist has points in each of his last five games, four of which the Red Wings have won. He leads Detroit with 11 assists, which have come on goals by eight different teammates.
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