The NHL season is getting ready to start later on next month and with the preseason going on, teams are looking for players to step up and after the Chicago Blackhawks won the Cup last year, everyone will be gunning for them.
The New York Rangers are coming back after a disappointing season and they were beat badly in the playoffs and on Tuesday they will play against the Edmonton Oilers on the road at 9 pm. The team is coming back with a new head coach and they are also looking to try and make it to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since back in 1994 when they hoisted the Cup themselves.
The Rangers went 26-18-4 last season and washed out of the playoffs and now they come back with Henrik Lundqvist in tow and the team is hoping to get him in on a contract extension as well. The team is having a contract issue with Derek Stepan and while the team wants him back, Glen Sather has criticized him in the media, saying that his holdout to sign a contract as an unsigned restricted free agent is not "wise".
The Rangers have made offers to Stepan and the team said it feels the deal is fair and Sather took to the airwaves to try and get things moving in the right direction. The team likes the young star and with training camp already going on with the preseason, Stepan has remained away from the team. According to ESPN.com, he has missed two weeks of prep during camp and now he is waiting for another offer from the team.
Stepan was the top scorer for the team and now that he is absent from camp, it could set things back considerably. Some other games going on Tuesday includes the New Jersey Devils taking on the Philadelphia Flyers, Ottawa Senators playing against the Toronto Maple Leafs after their fight with the Buffalo Sabres, as well as the Tampa Bay Lighting playing the Nashville Predators.
The Dallas Stars are playing the Avalanche in Colorado, while the Anaheim Ducks are taking on the LA Kings in a California battle and playoffs rematch. The Rangers and Oilers are playing, as are the Vancouver Canucks and the San Jose Sharks.
