Perhaps no NHL team needs the three-day Christmas break more than the New York Rangers.
They ended a week that featured five games in seven days with a 2-1 loss to the Predators in Nashville on Sunday night. Their visit to the Washington Capitals on Tuesday, the last day before the break, will be their seventh game in 11 days – a stretch that would wear down almost any team.
New York looked like a weary team in Nashville. The Rangers were outplayed all night and had a chance to win only because goaltender Jonathan Quick was brilliant, stopping 30 of 31 shots – the lone one to beat him was a perfect wrister by Filip Forsberg midway through the second period.