Friday, March 7, 4:00 PM on MSG2, SPSO

PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina

The New York to Carolina trek is going to get familiar for Rangers players and coaches as they make their first of two trips over four days Friday to take on the Hurricanes. The conference foes haven't met in over 4 months but will get well acquainted over the next week.

In that previous meeting at Madison Square Garden on November 2nd the Rangers were able to skate away with a relatively easy 5-1 victory. New York's Derek Stepan had a hat trick in that game while Carl Hagelin added the other 2 goals. It should be noted that Rangers LW Mats Zuccarello, who had 2 assists in the previous meeting against the Hurricanes will be sidelined this game while recovering from a hand injury suffered while competing for his home country Norway in the Sochi Olympics.

Andrej Sekera had the only goal for Carolina in the first meeting with New York, although it did enable the total of 5 to go over in that game. New York bettors were rewarded with a -184 moneyline payout  as well. It will be interesting to see if any of the animosity between the two teams has settled down over the course of 4 months as they combined for 9 penalties in the 2nd period of their last meeting.

If Carolina is to be successful at home, they need to limit the 38 shots on goal that Justin Peters faced the last time around. Carolina lost their first four games out of the Olympic break, all but killing their dwindling postseason hopes. They have 19 of their last 24 games remaining against quality opponents. Still two wins in four days over a team 8 points ahead of them in the standings could reverse that trend and be the start of a hot streak...although the Rangers may have something to say about that.