Rangers Begin Late Season California Road Trip

With the regular season nearing its conclusion, the Blueshirts are beginning a crucial three-game road trip in California where they need to pick up points and quickly. The road trip begins with its toughest task in Los Angeles (10:30PM on MSG).

Rangers	Rankings	Kings
34-31-6	Record	39-21-9
20th	League Rank	10th
14th	Goals For	19th
18th	Goals Against	2nd
25th	Power play	28th
6th	Penalty Kill	8th

Rangers vs Kings

Entering play on Tuesday night, the Rangers find themselves one point behind Montreal for the final playoff spot and they have played two more games
- Montreal is in St. Louis on Tuesday night
- The Rangers are also fighting with the Islanders, Red Wings, and Blue Jackets and only the Red Wings are playing among these teams and they are in Colorado
Following Tuesday night’s game in Los Angeles, The Rangers will play a back-to-back starting on Friday in Anaheim, and finishing in San Jose on Saturday.
With eleven games left, the Blueshirts need to win likely at least eight of them to even have a shot at making the playoffs
The Rangers will face a tough test as they travel to play the Kings. Los Angeles is currently second in the Pacific Division
- The key to the Kings’ success all season is that they do a good job not allowing shots on goal. The Kings are one of two teams in the league that allow less than 25.5 shots on average per game.
- This does not bode well for New York who have had games in recent weeks where they have failed to record even 15 shots on net.
Leading the Kings in points is Adrian Kempe who has 58 points in 68 games. Anze Kopitar is second with 56 points
- The Kings may not have many high point producers but they can keep the puck out of their net and most of their roster are plus players
- Warren Foegele has 39 points and is a plus 29 on the season
Darcy Kuemper is expected to get the start for the Kings. Kuemper was traded from Washington for Pierre-Luc Dubious – a trade that both teams have benefited from.
- Kuemper is 24-9-7 with a .918 save percentage on the season
Expect Igor Shesterkin to start in Los Angeles. Even though Quick was a King for most of his career, expect head coach Peter Laviolette to ride Shesterkin as often as he can as the season dwindles.
Sam Carrick did not practice on Monday for personal reasons. His status is unknown for Tuesday night.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel was recalled from Hartford to start the road trip
Expect Brennan Othmann to get a chance to play with skilled players as he is currently slated to start with Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck
- Othmann has been sheltered on the bottom-six since being recalled from Hartford, but now the former first-round pick will get a chance to make an impact in a significant role.