Preview: Rangers Go for Second Straight Win Against Oilers

How did David Quinn celebrate his first win as an NHL coach? By watching film of the game on his way home from the rink.
In the hours after reaching the milestone, Quinn wasn't interested in taking the time to let it sink in. "It's the coaching that kicked in, honestly," Quinn said on Friday. "I'm thinking about the last 25 minutes (of Thursday's game) when I felt we did the things we needed to do to have success, and then I was thinking about the first 35 minutes when I wanted to resign and go sell insurance."
The Rangers were back to work the morning after their thrilling overtime win over San Jose, preparing for Saturday's matinee match at the Garden with Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers, the middle game of a three-game homestand against Western Conference opponents.

What Quinn & Co. would like to bottle from Thursday's win is the third period and overtime, in which they overcame a slow start and a 2-1 deficit to draw even late in regulation time and win it early in the extra session. The challenge for the Rangers is applying that level of play over 60 minutes.

"The result is what we wanted," Quinn said, "but how we went about getting it - if we keep playing like that, our success rate isn't going to be high."
"We had a little conversation in the room" at second intermission, said Brendan Smith, who tied the score with 2:39 to play in the third. "We had to clean some things up … and we found a way."
Quinn shook up lines in Friday's practice once again, but one change he had committed to earlier in the week was to reinsert Kevin Shattenkirk in the lineup after the blueliner sat out Thursday's win. Shattenkirk, who skated with Brady Skjei in the practice session, said he wanted to take advantage of watching a game from upstairs.

"It's very fast at game level. You can't get caught up in the fact that when you're watching from up top, it's an easy game," he said. "The mental side of it is just trusting your abilities, trusting your skating. When you've played a full season guarding, and not trusting your gaps, and really your skating in general, you play really passive. That's what I'm getting over now, that's the hump for me."
Two of his fellow blueliners, Smith and Marc Staal, said it was "a pretty cool moment" when the Rangers presented Quinn with the game puck following his first win - a win that included a pretty cool moment for Smith, too, when his first goal of the season evened the score at 2-2.
"More than just the goal, how Freddy and I played - that's more fulfilling to me," Smith said, referring to his blueline partner Freddy Claesson, who made his Rangers debut on Thursday. "I thought we moved pucks well, we were quick. The goal is kind of like a cherry on top, a bonus of how we played."

Those blueliners will have their hands full on Saturday with McDavid, who has won the last two Art Ross Trophies as the league's leading scorer. The Oilers have been outscored 9-3 in dropping their first two games of the season, with McDavid in on all of three of his team's goals (one goal, two assists). The Rangers know what it's like to be a team hungry for its first win of the season and stressed that a fast start at the 1 p.m. faceoff will be imperative.
"We're still trying to build off of that (San Jose) game - they're doing the same thing," Smith said of the Oilers. "So it's going to be a battle. It's going to be fun."

LINEUP AT FRIDAY'S PRACTICE

Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jesper Fast
Pavel Buchnevich-Brett Howden-Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-Ryan Spooner
Vlad Namestnikov-Filip Chytil-Vinni Lettieri
Cody McCleod
Brady Skjei-Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal-Neal Pionk
Freddy Claesson-Brendan Smith
Adam McQuaid-Tony DeAngelo
Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev

NUMBERS GAME

The Rangers have won five straight against the Oilers, three of those at Madison Square Garden. Edmonton is the only remaining winless team in the Western Conference (0-2-0).

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Mats Zuccarello has four multi-point games (and 12 points overall) in 10 career meetings with the Oilers. McDavid has five points in four career games against the Rangers.
2018-19 Rangers Tickets Are on Sale Now. Click Here to Get Tickets »