Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers faceoff for Game 3 of their Eastern Conference Finals series live from Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The game can be live streamed for free here. Montreal fans can hear all of the action on TSN 690 while New York fans can do the same on WEPN 98.7.
As the series shifts to New York City, Montreal hopes that a change of scenery will help it get back into the series after dropping the first two games on home ice while New York looks to take a commanding 3-0 series lead and give itself a chance to clinch the series at home on Sunday.
The Rangers took Game 1 by a 7-2 margin Saturday and followed it up with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 on Monday to escape Montreal with two huge road wins.
After losing two games at home, the Canadiens may face some changes in the lineup. Thomas Vanek (5-3--8), who has no points and is a minus-3 in this series, may get demoted from the top line to the team's fourth line.
"Now I'm at a point where I have to make some decisions, we normally judge with goals and assists," coach Michel Therrien said via NHL.com. "That's not always the way we do things, but if I see they've got chances, I like to stick with it. If I see it's the opposite, now I've got to take some decisions. Hopefully, by making some changes, something's going to happen."
The Rangers hope that having the fans in their corner for the first time this series will propel the Rangers to their sixth straight win this postseason.
"Having fan support is obviously huge at this time of the year. Unconditional love, it's something that's really beneficial to a team," coach Alain Vigneault told NHL.com. "It's so demanding on the ice. They could really help you energy-wise. It's a fun time."
Martin St. Louis (five goals, six assists) and Mats Zuccarello (four tallies, seven helpers) each lead the Rangers with 11 points this postseason while Brad Richards (five goals, five assists) and Derek Stepan (three markers, seven helpers) rank second with 10 points apiece. Stepan has six points in his last four games.
The Rangers have also been sparked by defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who has six points this series and Rick Nash, who was held scoreless in the first two rounds (14 games) but has found the back of the net in each game of this series.
P.K. Subban leads the Canadiens and all NHL defenseman with 12 points off of four goals and eight assists while Lars Eller has three points in his last four games and has found the twine five times and added six helpers in the playoffs for 11 points. Brendan Gallagher has lit the lamp four times while racking up five assists for nine points in these playoffs.
With Carey Price (lower-body) out for the series, Dustin Tokarski will man the crease for Montreal after stopping 27 shots and yielding three goals in Game 2 during his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut. New York counters with Henrik Lundqvist in the crease, who leads the playoff field in wins (10), goals-against average (1.93) and save percentage (.934).
The Canadiens look to get into this series while New York hopes to take a commanding 3-0 series lead when the puck drops tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals as part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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