Rangers Carry Their Road Woes Into Columbus
Perfect at the Garden but shaky everywhere else, New York visits a Blue Jackets side trying to stop a two-game slide.
Written before the game
The New York Rangers have been two different teams this season: unbeaten at home, unreliable on the road. Tonight they visit Columbus with a chance to fix that.
The chance quality favours New York. Across nine games, the Rangers have generated 3.29 expected goals per night (expected goals measure how many goals a team's chances were worth) while allowing chances worth fewer. Columbus has the opposite problem through five games, giving up chances worth 3.24 goals per night while creating less than that at the other end.
The records match. New York is 6-3-0 with 12 points, second in the Metropolitan and fourth in the East, but just 1-3-0 away from home and coming off a lopsided loss in New Jersey. Columbus sits 2-3-0, seventh in the division and 15th in the conference, carrying a -5 goal differential and a two-game losing streak.
The Blue Jackets are 2-2-0 at Nationwide Arena. The Rangers have the better chances on paper. The question is whether they can win with them away from Madison Square Garden.