Rangers Hope Scoring Troubles Follow Devils from Garden State to the Garden

Mike Rappaport by Analyst Written on December 26, 2008
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In 10 games in the month of December, the New York Rangers have given up 34 goals. After winning three games in a row, the New Jersey Devils have been shut out in each of their last two games, both in New Jersey.

Something will give on Saturday as the Rangers will host the Devils, who were defeated on Friday by the Pittsburgh Penguins, 1-0. While the Devils have struggled offensively as of late, the Rangers have struggled in giving up goals for the duration of December. 

The Rangers, who are now in 3rd place after the Capitals victory on Friday, will need to provide better defense in front of Henrik Lundqvist in order to have success. The "King" has struggled in December, mainly because of a game in New Jersey, where Lundqvist allowed eight goals on 34 shots in a 8-5 loss.

However head coach Tom Renney has refused to place blame on the Rangers goaltender. After the Rangers last game, where they blew a 4-0 lead to the Capitals and lost 5-4 in overtime, Renney said that "I thought Henrik played well. He was not a concern tonight at all.”

That has been Renney's line for most of this month, but the bottom line is that the Rangers need Lundqvist to be better, whether it means him playing like he is superhuman, or simply the defense doing a better job.

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written on December 26, 2008 Preview/Prediction

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