Rangers Return Home as they Seek First Home win of Season

After a successful road trip where they won three out of four games, the Rangers are back on home ice where they look to finally get their first win at Madison Square Garden (7:00PM on MSG).

Rangers	Rankings	Hurricanes
6-5-2	Record	7-4-0
18th	League Rank	15th
31st	Goals For	3rd
2nd	Goals Against	13th
30th	Power play	32nd
8th	Penalty Kill	11th

The Blueshirts are coming off a four-game road trip where they won three games
- The first game they were beaten decisively by the Calgary Flames 5-1. They then proceeded to shutout the Canucks 2-0 and get back-to-back overtime wins against the Oilers and Kraken.
The Rangers are 6-1-1 away from home and 0-4-1 on home ice to open the season
A couple of notes about the Rangers since the previous game in Seattle
- Matt Rempe has been placed on the IR and he is not expected back for some time
- Brennan Othmann has been returned to the minors. Othmann was recalled for the west coast trip and played in the first game against Calgary. The former-first round selection was a healthy scratch for the remaining three games
- Jaroslav Chmelar has been recalled from Hartford as he seeks his first career NHL game. Chmelar has five points in nine games with a plus six in Hartford to start the season. The Czech native is 6’4 and weighs 226 pounds. Chmelar will likely have to wait to get into the lineup as he is expected to be a healthy scratch on Tuesday evening
The Hurricanes enter the game with a defensive core that is badly injured. The Hurricanes will be without:
- Former Ranger K’Andre Miller
- American defensive defenseman superstar Jaccob Slavin
- Shayne Gostisbehere who helps run the power play
Hurricanes points leaders are:
- Seth Jarvis and Sebastian Aho with 11 points each.
- Jackson Blake is third with eight points and newcomer Logan Stankoven has seven. Stankoven was acquired in the Mikko Rantanen trade to Dallas
Pyotr Kochetkov will make his season debut on Tuesday night. The Russian netminder had been injured to start the season but is now healthy and ready for his first game of the season. Kochetkov is coming off his worst season where he recorded just an .898 save percentage
Igor Shesterkin will be back in goal for the Rangers. Shesterkin was not busy in Seattle where he only faced 13 shots in the entire game including an overtime session
Urho Vaakanainen will be a healthy scratch and Matthew Robertson will be on a defensive pairing with Braden Schneider