Rivalry Night: Rangers, Bruins on NBCSN

Jan 23, 2013, 8:36 AM EDT

Mike Rupp #17 of the New York Rangers and Shawn Thornton #22 of the Boston Bruins fights during the season opener game on January 19, 2013 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)

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Throughout the season, NBCSN will feature the NHL’s fiercest rivalries on Wednesday nights. Tonight that coverage will kickoff when the Boston Bruins head to Madison Square Garden for a match against the New York Rangers at 7:30 p.m. ET.

The Rangers will be looking for revenge after the Bruins earned a 3-1 victory against them in the season opener. New York followed that up with a 6-3 defeat to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

“We know their season hasn’t started the way they wanted to, so they’re going to come at us with everything they’ve got,” said Boston Bruins forward Milan Lucic in a CSN New England report. “They’re a proud team and we’ve had some great battles over the last few years.”

The 24-year-old added that this is the first time the Boston Bruins have gotten to a 2-0-0 start since he joined the team and he hopes they can build off of that early momentum.

The Bruins are not a team that can be taken lightly, but it looked like New York had the stronger squad on paper going into the season. The Rangers’ odds of winning the Stanley Cup were second only to the Pittsburgh Penguins, in part because of the off-season acquisition of power forward Rick Nash, 28, to add to an elite core of forwards that already included 32-year-old Brad Richards and 30-year-old Marian Gaborik.

New York initially tried to balance its top two lines by splitting up the big three, but after a 0-2-0 start, coach John Tortorella has decided to unite them on the top line, according to the Bergen Record.

Facing that desperate and skilled trio will be another key test for 25-year-old Tuukka Rask in his first season as the Boston Bruins undisputed starting goaltender.

Probable goaltenders: BOS – Rask (2-0-0, 0.96 GAA, .958 SV%) | NYR – 30-year-old Henrik Lundqvist (0-2-0, 4.77 GAA, .865 SV%)

Top scorers: BOS – Nine-way tie with one point. | NYR – Richards (1-2-3, 2 GP)

Notable Injuries:
Boston – Forwards: 35-year-old Marc Savard (concussion) Defensemen: 31-year-old Dennis Seidenberg (lower body)
New York – Forwards: 34-year-old Arron Asham (groin) Defensemen: 25-year-old Michael Sauer (concussion)