Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues kickoff their 2014-15 campaigns live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The game can be live streamed here. New York fans can hear all of the action on 98.7 WEPN while St. Louis fans can do the same on KMOX 1100.
New York is coming off of a successful run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2013-14 while St. Louis had a solid season a year ago, but once again had a disappointing postseason by blowing a 2-0 first-round lead and losing four straight games for the second straight year.
The Rangers went 45-31-6 for 96 points last season and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games, came back from a 3-1 deficit to top the Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games and then ousted the Montreal Canadiens in six before falling to the Los Angeles Kings in five in the Stanley Cup Final.
New York lost several key pieces from last year, including Brad Richards, who was bought out and signed a contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. The Blueshirts also lost solid defenseman Anton Stralman, but the Rangers brought in Dan Boyle to replace him alongside Marc Staal on the team's second pairing while he'll also take the point on the power play that was vacated by the departure of Richards.
The Blueshirts also have a new captain this season in defenseman Ryan McDonagh.
Mats Zuccarello had a career-season in 2013-14, leading the Rangers with 59 points off of 19 goals and 40 assists while injured center Derek Stepan had 17 tallies and 40 helpers to finish second on the team with 57 points.
Forward Anthony Duclair will make his NHL debut, but the 19-year-old isn't nervous.
"No, I don't really get nervous," Duclair said via NHL.com. "I get more excited than anything else. Like my first [preseason] game in Chicago, I was so excited to get out there. I think it's going to be the same here."
The Blues enter the 2014-15 campaign as one of the deepest teams in the league.
The most notable move the Blues made this offseason was winning the Paul Stastny sweepstakes and bringing the free agent in from the rival Colorado Avalanche to fill the No.1 center role this season and add to one of the fiercest top-six forward combinations in the league.
St. Louis was paced by Alexander Steen last season as he put up 62 points to lead the team off of 33 goals and 29 assists while T.J. Oshie had 21 markers and 39 helpers for 60 points and David Backes found the twine 27 times and added 30 assists for 57 points.
The Blues are up to the task of starting the season with a tough schedule after going 52-23-7 last season before their playoff disappointment.
"The Rangers know how to win," Blues coach Ken Hitchcock told NHL.com. "I said this to the players, we're going to know in the first six games what we got because we play the Rangers, we play L.A., we play Chicago, we play Anaheim ... we're going to know what we've got."
In net, New York turns to Henrik Lundqvist while St. Louis will go with Brian Elliott.
Lundqvist went 33-24-5 last season with a 2.36 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage while Elliott was 18-6-2 with a 1.96 GAA and .922 save percentage.
The Rangers and Blues faceoff tonight in their first NHL action of 2014-15 live from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
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