Rangers live in past before hosting Red Wings

NEW YORK -- For a brief time Sunday, the New York Rangers can forget about their woes and roster uncertainty by honoring part of their history.

Then the Rangers will attempt to snap a six-game losing streak by beating the Detroit Red Wings in the final contest before the trade deadline.

New York did not wait for the deadline to reshape its roster, continuing the overhaul by shipping All-Star forward Rick Nash to Boston on Sunday morning in exchange for three players and a pair of draft picks.

It marked the third trade by the Rangers, who already had sent defenseman Nick Holden to the Bruins and dealt leading goal scorer Michael Grabner to the New Jersey Devils.

In return for Nash, who scored 18 goals this season and has 434 for his career, New York acquired forwards Ryan Spooner and Matt Beleskey, prospect defenseman Ryan Lindgren, a 2018 first-round draft pick and a 2019 seventh-round selection.

It's unclear if any of the new additions will be in the lineup against Detroit.

Before the Rangers take the ice, Hall of Fame center Jean Ratelle will get his jersey retired. Ratelle scored 336 of his 491 goals in 862 regular-season games for the Rangers from 1960-1976.

Ratelle ranks second in team history in goals behind former linemate and Hall of Famer Rod Gilbert. He is third in points (817) behind Gilbert and Brian Leetch.

Ratelle will become the ninth Ranger to get his jersey retired and then the Rangers will skate not knowing which players will be on the team after the game.

New York traded defenseman Nick Holden on Wednesday and Michael Grabner the following day. Nash sat out the previous two games in anticipation of a trade and other players could be former Rangers shortly.

The Rangers lost their sixth straight regulation game Friday, 4-1 to the Minnesota Wild. It is the first time they lost six straight in regulation since going 0-7-0 from Dec. 16-29, 2006.

"We're in a results-orientated business," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told reporters. "Everybody here wants to win. We came out tonight and guys were ready. In my mind, we worked hard, and we had some good time. We just weren't able to make the plays that we needed to make to get something out of that."

Since getting a 3-1 victory at Winnipeg on Feb. 11, the Rangers have been outscored 26-11. This skid is part of a 3-13 slide since Jan. 18 that has the organization committed to rebuilding a team that has missed the postseason once since the start of the 2005-06 season.

"The biggest difference is normally there is one agenda and that's the team agenda," Vigneault said. "Right now, because of the situation and because of how things unfolded, there are a few agendas out there which are the circumstances we've decided to put ourselves into."

One player expected to play for the Rangers is Henrik Lundqvist, who did not start the last two games.

Lundqvist owns a career-worst 2.89 goals-against average after allowing 12 goals in his last two appearances last weekend against Ottawa and Philadelphia. He has lost four straight regulation games and is 2-8-1 with a 4.24 GAA and a .881 save percentage in his last 10 games.

Like the Rangers, the Red Wings are sellers heading into the deadline.

They dealt goaltender Petr Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday and defenseman Mike Green could be moved as well.

The one snag might be an injury.

Green (neck) missed his fifth straight game Saturday when the Red Wings posted a 3-1 home victory over the Carolina Hurricanes and is expected to sit out Sunday, assuming he's still on the roster.

"This time of the year, this is the free agent rental market for the most part," Detroit general manager Ken Holland told reporters. "We're going to entertain anything that we think that will help us be better in the future."

Henrik Zetterberg scored the go-ahead goal in the second period Saturday and it was his 335th career goal, tying Hall of Famer Ted Lindsey for fifth on Detroit's all-time list. Zetterberg only trails Gordie Howe, Steve Yzerman, Alex Delvecchio and Sergei Fedorov.

Jimmy Howard made 28 saves as the Red Wings stopped a three-game losing streak. Detroit is seven points out of the last wild-card spot and is 8-10-3 in its last 21 games since a four-game winning streak from Dec. 29-Jan. 5.

"We need to get on a roll," Howard told reporters. "We've been searching for that all season."

The teams split a pair of one-goal games decided past regulation. New York's Mats Zuccarello scored the game-winner in overtime in a 2-1 home victory Nov. 24 while Frans Nielsen scored the only goal of the shootout in Detroit's 3-2 home win Dec. 29.