Inconsistent Rangers face tough task vs. Predators

The New York Rangers endured their worst loss of the season on Sunday, allowing seven goals in a non-competitive home loss against the Boston Bruins.

The follow-up was an impressive third-period performance on Tuesday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Rangers hope to produce another similar showing Saturday afternoon when they visit the Nashville Predators.

New York is 2-5-1 in its last eight contests since scoring 10 times in its first two games. During that stretch, there have some ugly showings such as the first periods against Vancouver on Oct. 20 and Arizona on Oct. 22.

The Rangers have sandwiched impressive wins over Buffalo and Tampa Bay around their ugly 7-4 loss to Boston when they allowed four goals in the second period. After that game, New York coach David Quinn ripped his team's competitiveness but two nights later, his mood was significantly different because of what unfolded in the third.

After allowing the first goal, the Rangers tied the game in the second on a power-play goal by rookie Kaapo Kakko and received the tiebreaking tally from Filip Chytil, who was making his season debut after failing to make the roster out of training camp. Adam Fox and Ryan Strome also scored for the Rangers, who have recorded at least four goals in their wins this season.

"I think throughout this homestand we got a little bit of an eye-opener of what it's going to take for us to be successful," Quinn said after practice Thursday. "The good news is, two of the last three games we've put together two good performances and won hockey games, and in between, we showed how we certainly weren't going to be able to have success."

The Rangers were without Mika Zibanejad, who took a punishing hit from Boston's Patrice Bergeron on Sunday. Zibanejad has yet to skate and will miss Saturday's game. The Rangers said he is day-to-day.

Zibanejad leads the Rangers with 11 points (four goals, seven assists), but has just three since the first two games of the season.

Nashville's 53 goals lead the Western Conference entering play on Friday and the Predators have scored 23 times while getting a point in six straight games (4-0-2).

The Predators saw their season-high four-game winning streak halted Thursday when they squandered a three-goal lead in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames. Nashville also squandered a late lead by allowing the tying goal with 39 seconds left in regulation and gave up the game-winner with two seconds left in overtime.

"It's a game that we put ourselves in a great position to win," Predators captain Ryan Ellis said. "The last three or four games that we've really started to play the brand of hockey we wanted, and tonight was a step back, but we'll address the issues and move on."

Nashville saw its winning streak get snapped on a night in which Austin Watson scored twice and had a career-high four points while the team announced his new three-year contract extension during the second period.

The Predators also got back Filip Forsberg from missing six games due to a lower-body injury. He played nearly 17 1/2 minutes.

The Rangers have won four of the last six meetings with three of those wins coming by one goal. Last season, the Rangers claimed a 4-3 win in Nashville on Dec. 29 when Jesper Fast scored twice, including the tiebreaking goal in the third period.

--Field Level Media