Rangers vs. Senators: Lineups, storylines trying to build off big win

When the puck drops Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, the New York Rangers seek to replicate their winning formula from two nights prior. So, they’ll want to play a fast, hard, committed game, and dictate its terms, when they visit the Ottawa Senators.

The Rangers (14-12-2) come off their biggest win of the season, a 3-2 overtime victory against the Dallas Stars at Madison Square Garden. For 61 minutes Tuesday, the Rangers largely outplayed the team with the second best record in the NHL. They deserved the result they got, even if the Rangers had to rally late in the third period to tie the score on Will Cuylle’s 6-on-5 goal, before Vladislav Gavrikov netted the OT winner.

“When you win games like that in the fashion that we won it, I think it’s a big boost of confidence that gives us another level of energy. Winning cures a lot of ills,” coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday after practice.

The Rangers are winners in four of their past five games. The one blemish in that stretch was a non-competitive 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Clearly that lack of will and execution caught everyone’s attention.

“I thought it was a great response to a game we were disappointed in,” Sullivan stated.

One thing the Rangers have going for them trying to build off the big win Tuesday is that they’re on the road in this one. The Rangers lead the NHL with 11 road wins and 23 road points. So, there appears to be less of a chance they have a dip in their play or take anything for granted after knocking off the Stars.

Like the Rangers, the Senators (13-9-4) have 30 points in a largely uneven season to this point. They, too, come off a feel-good victory Tuesday, after the Senators handily defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-2.

Despite being tied in points, the Rangers are one point out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, and the Senators are second in the Atlantic Division. Such is the Rangers burden that the Metropolitan Division is better this season than the Atlantic.

But there’s a chance that the Rangers and Senators may contend with one another for a playoff berth in the East before all is said and done. So, that makes these head-to-head meetings very important.

“It’s another really hard opponent,” Rangers captain J.T. Miller said Wednesday. “Honestly, I just think we prefer that at this point. No reason not to get up for these games. It’s going to be a fun game to play. They’re a great hockey team, they play fast, they play physical. It’s a game we should be ready for, a game we should want to be in.”

3 storylines when Rangers visit Senators

1. Keep shooting

Sullivan said Wednesday it’s not the Rangers intent to be a high-volume team when it comes to shots, despite their season-high 41 shots on goal against the Stars. But they do want to apply relentless pressure to consistently generate prime scoring chances.

If they can do that against the Senators, the Rangers should be in good shape. Ottawa has the ninth worst goals-against average in the NHL (3.31), and goalie Linus Ullmark hasn’t played to his past Vezina Trophy-winning form (3.05 GAA; stunning .876 save percentage). So, getting pucks and bodies to the net should be a recipe for success for the Rangers, who lead the NHL with 54 goals scored on the road.

2. Turn up the power

The Rangers spent much of practice Wednesday working on the power play. Adam Fox is on LTIR with an upper-body injury, so Sullivan now deploys a five-forward look on the top power-play unit. He thought that grouping got better as the game wore on Tuesday. And he’s right. The Rangers whizzed the puck around plenty their first two power plays, but didn’t send enough shot attempts toward the net. That changed during a double-minor four-minute power play in the third period, when they totaled six shots on goal, including a slew of Grade-A chances.

New York finished 0-for-5 on the power play against the Stars, but Sullivan believes that with more reps — especially for Artemi Panarin, who replaced Fox as the quarterback — the power play should be successful.

That success could come as soon as Thursday because Ottawa has the worst penalty kill in the League (68.4 percent), and allowed four power-play goals the past two games combined.

3. Brady’s back

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk missed 20 games with torn ligaments in his thumb, but returned Nov. 28 against the St. Louis Blues. He looked like his usual self against the Canadiens, scoring his first goal of the season, assisting on Artem Zub’s goal, and tying for the team lead with 10 shot attempts.

Perhaps the 26-year-old is not quite full speed just yet, though. He logged around 15 minutes TOI in two of the three games since returning, roughly 3-4 minutes off his norm. But there’s no question he’s a welcome addition to the Senators lineup. Tkachuk is not only a skilled, hard-working two-way player, he’s the emotional focal point of the Senators.

The Rangers tend to get the best from Tkachuk. Just flash back to New York’s most recent visit to Canadian Tire Centre on March 8, when Tkachuk scored in overtime to cap a 4-3 Ottawa victory.

New York Rangers projected lineup

Artemi Panarin — Mika Zibanejad — Alexis Lafreniere

J.T. Miller — Vincent Trocheck — Jonny Brodzinski

Will Cuylle — Noah Laba — Brett Berard

Conor Sheary — Sam Carrick — Taylor Raddysh

Vladislav Gavrikov — Braden Schneider

Carson Soucy — Will Borgen

Matthew Robertson — Scott Morrow

Igor Shesterkin

Spencer Martin

Rangers vs. Senators: When, where, what time, how to watch

Who: New York Rangers vs. Ottawa Senators

When: Thursday Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. ET

Where: Canadian Tire Centre

How to watch: MSG

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