NHL: New York Rangers vs. Boston Bruins Preview

With playoffs just around the corner, this will be a significant matchup, particularly, for the New York Rangers. The Rangers find themselves hanging on to the final playoff spot by a thread as they enter tonight's game, as they sit only two points ahead of the ninth place Carolina Hurricanes. Both New York and Carolina have only three games remaining, so this will be a very important one for the Rangers tonight. 

The Bruins, on the other hand, have more or less secured their division title. Although there might be a slight incentive to finish first in the east, as they sit only four points away with one game in hand on both the preceding division leaders, expect that Boston will take a safe-than-sorry approach rather than chasing down number one. 

In the last six meetings between these two teams, the game totals have not gone over five goals. Expect this game to be even lower scoring, and probably very similar to their most recent (1-0 Rangers win) meeting in late March.

Apart from against the Islanders, the Rangers have been able to limit game totals to three or less goals lately. They have a severe goal scoring problem, but are able to limit their opponents to very few goals. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist has been a beast, and has been the number one reason why the Rangers are currently in playoff position right now. Boston is in the same boat, as five of their last seven games have gone under.

Also, heavily relying on Tim Thomas to keep the puck out of the net, the Bruins will look to him even more tonight as they engage a cautious defensive game like they have in recent games. 

In essence, this will be a battle of the goalies. While Boston can score a bunch of goals on a given random night, it will unlikely come against this consistently defensive Rangers team. Like mentioned earlier, caution will be a theme for both of these teams, and there should not be any daring displays tonight which might jeopardize scoring chances.