The Rangers face the Blackhawks in Chicago tonight looking for their second straight road win, and defenseman Wade Redden, who has been out since Nov. 25 with an injured shoulder, may be back in the lineup.
“It felt good in practice, that was a good sign,” Redden said yesterday after the team’s skate. “It’s tough to watch [the team play] because you’d like to be out there. But once I get back, I’ll just have to find my way again and hopefully help the team win.”
Redden will try to help out a group that has allowed 22 goals in its past five games.
Pair that up with the sputtering offense, which has scored only nine times over the past five, and it’s not hard to see why the team has struggled to a 1-4 record during that span.
“As you look further, you have to say to yourself as a team, eventually [the scoring] is going to come,” coach John Tortorella said. “The players, the last two games, they have played really well as a team. You just stay positive and fight your way through it.
Just keep doing the good things defensively, and the offense will come.”
It won’t be easy for the Rangers tonight against one of the hottest teams in the league.
Chicago owns the best home record in the NHL at 11-3-1 and is 10-2-1 in its past 13 games.
The Rangers played 55 minutes of good hockey Monday night, but allowed the Red Wings to score the go-ahead goal with two minutes to play.
Detroit added an empty-netter for the 3-1 victory, but there were some positives.
“I thought we played really well,” Tortorella said. “We developed 16 scoring chances, had a couple of breakaways including the penalty shot, and had a couple of open nets. It just didn’t come to fruition there.”
Tortorella said every player was making the flight to Chicago, meaning that in addition to Redden, left winger Donald Brashear (hand), who practiced yesterday, could play tonight.
The Rangers have not lost to the Blackhawks in regulation since the 2002-2003 season.