Rangers Vs. Avalanche: Keys To The Game
The New York Rangers will look to put a little more distance between themselves and the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight when they take on the Colorado Avalanche.
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Here is how the Rangers can get tonight's vital two points:
Put The Past In The Past: The Rangers just took a tough loss on the chin against the Penguins, but they need to keep that in the back of their minds. Tonight, the Rangers are going up against a dangerous Avalanche team who are 6-3-1 in their past 10 games. The Rangers can't take them lightly and need to focus on Colorado, not the Penguins who are hurtling towards them in the standings.
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Get A Quick Start: The Garden crowd is going to be looking for a reason to get excited, something the Rangers can groom if they manage to score first. The Rangers are a very formidable team this season, but every team -- no matter how talented -- isn't as effective when they're playing catchup. It's what the Rangers had to do against the Penguins, and they only brought the game to 3-2 before Pittsburgh blew it open. If the Rangers can get on the board early tonight they can focus on playing their game from start to finish.
Tighten Up The Defense: It remains to be seen -- as of the writing of this article -- if Tim Erixon will, in fact, play tonight. Regardless of whether or not he plays, the Rangers' defense has to tighten up. Period. The defense was atrocious Thursday night, left Martin Biron out to dry multiple times and simply allowed the Penguins' offense to do what it wanted all night. That can't happen tonight. No, the Avalanche don't boast names like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin or Kris Letang; but they do have names like Paul Stastny and Gabriel Landeskog. The Rangers need to be ready, plain and simple.
