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Red Wings-Rangers Preview

Dec 6, 2009 - 6:37 AM By ALAN FERGUSON STATS Writer

Detroit (13-10-4) at New York (13-13-1), 7:00 p.m. EDT

After disappointing finishes last season, the New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings entered this season with the goal of returning to the playoffs yet again.

To reach that point, the Original Six franchises will need to shake off slow starts.

The Rangers and Red Wings showed signs of improvement to begin their weekend and will try to finish with a victory Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers reached the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season in 2008-09 but fell in seven games to Washington.

They've started this campaign 14-13-1 and had given up 18 goals in three straight losses before Saturday night's game at Buffalo.

New York snapped that skid as Henrik Lundqvist stopped a season-high 36 shots in a 2-1 victory. It was just the fourth time since Nov. 3 that the Rangers have allowed fewer than three goals in a game.

"I know I have to play better than I've been playing the last couple of weeks. I've been playing OK, but it's not enough a lot of times." said Lundqvist, who gave up eight total goals in two of those previous defeats.

The Red Wings made their 10th consecutive playoff appearance last season but failed to defend their Stanley Cup title with a seven-game loss to Pittsburgh.

Detroit is off to a 13-10-5 start, but its main problem is at the other end of the ice.

After scoring an NHL-leading 295 goals in 2008-09, the Red Wings are in the middle of the league this season with 78. They had tallied one goal or fewer in six of their previous nine contests heading into Saturday night's game at New Jersey.

Detroit, however, rallied from a two-goal deficit and sent it into overtime on Patrick Eaves' score with 10:30 left, but the Red Wings fell 4-3 in a shootout to drop to 3-5-2 in their last 10.

It was only the fourth time since Nov. 18 that they've scored three goals in a game, but Detroit has earned five points in its last four contests (2-1-1).

Injuries haven't helped the Red Wings with Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula, Jason Williams, Niklas Kronwall and Andreas Lilja expected to miss lengthy periods of time. The status of defenseman Brian Rafalski, who has missed two games with a back injury, is unknown for Sunday.

The Red Wings have also struggled with the departures of Marian Hossa, Mikael Samuelsson and Jiri Hudler, who all scored in last season's 5-4 overtime win over the Rangers at Joe Louis Arena. Hossa had two goals, including the winner 23 seconds into the extra period.

Tomas Holmstrom is the only active player who scored in that game.

"We're missing a lot of guys," goaltender Chris Osgood said. "(Saturday) was a wake-up call for us. We've really got to play better the first half of games."

Osgood bested Lundqvist, who made 40 saves, to help the Red Wings improve to 10-1-0 against the Rangers since Feb. 14, 1999.

In their first meeting in New York in three seasons, Detroit might start Jimmy Howard instead of Osgood, who has a 3.16 goals-against average during an 0-3-2 skid.

Osgood, however, is 12-5-0 with a 2.00 GAA all-time against the Rangers, who have never faced Howard.

New York will likely stick with Lundqvist after placing Stephen Valiquette on waivers Wednesday. In danger of going over the salary cap, the Rangers brought up Chad Johnson, who has yet to appear in an NHL game.

Lundqvist, though, is 0-2-1 with a 4.36 GAA against Detroit.