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The New York Rangers are coming off a strong 6-3 victory against the Nashville Predators in their first home win of the season. The Tampa Bay Lighting are looking to build on their current two-game winning streak. Both teams are on the rise. This is our NHL Predictions for today’s game in the Sunshine State.
New York Rangers vs Tampa Bay Lightning
2025-26 Season Series: First game this season (2024-25: Rangers 1-2 Lightning)
Time: 7:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST)
How to Watch: Fubo, Sling TV, TNT
This game will certainly be an interesting one to watch, as both teams have struggled to start the year. In contrast, both teams have been on the upward trend recently. The Rangers are coming off their first home win of the season. New York’s offence finally started clicking. The return of Vincent Trocheck from an upper-body injury put some life in the team, particularly Artemi Panarin, who scored two goals in Monday’s game. The power play was perfect for New York as well, finding the back of the net on both opportunities. If the Rangers offence can keep it up against Andrei Vasilevskiy, New York should have a good matchup against Tampa Bay.
THE BREADMAN THROUGH TRAFFIC. pic.twitter.com/uLpiWFAQqq
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) November 11, 2025
For Tampa, keeping shots coming from the outside. They need to keep big bodies like J.T. Miller away from Vasilevskiy in front will force the Rangers to make creative plays to score goals, where Tampa could capitalize on turnovers with their very skilled forwards.
The Lightning are heating up, coming off two wins over the Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals, with a two-point showing from Brandon Hagel against Washington. Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov have had strong starts to the season with 15 and 14 points respectively to lead their team. The most interesting part of this matchup is how the Rangers defence will handle Tampa’s offence. However, it is possible Tampa Bay will be without some players today, most notably former ranger Ryan McDonagh.
The #GoBolts could be without a number of players tomorrow against the Rangers, including Ryan McDonagh
Mitchell Chaffee, Boris Katchouk, Scott Sabourin, and Roman Schmidt were not in the lineup for the @SyracuseCrunch tonight.
✍? @TheHockeyNews https://t.co/xYoNQLyYBn
— Diandra Loux (@Diandra_loux) November 12, 2025
Defenceman Vladislav Gavrikov will no doubt be in charge of shutting down Kucherov. The Lightning sniper has played well against the Rangers throughout his career, scoring 37 points in 30 career games. Shutting him down will be an important piece of the Rangers game plan.
The Lightning and Rangers are no strangers to playing each other, as Tampa Bay eliminated the Rangers 4-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022. The Lighting also eliminated the Rangers in the 2015 Eastern Conference Finals in seven games. That history could make this game a chippy one with the Rangers physical style of play. The Rangers will need to be tough to counteract the skills of Tampa’s versatile forward group.
Final score prediction: Rangers 3-2 Lightning, OT
Given the stars in net on both sides, expect a low scoring affair. Furthermore, the Rangers have a good defence, and even falling behind just one or two goals could spell demise for any team if Igor Shesterkin gets in a groove. New York has a very good road record this season as well, so they have proven that they can take games against anyone on the road. The Lightning will need to find an early goal or two to rattle Shesterkin and throw the Rangers off their game. This matchup will almost certainly come down to a one goal difference, and overtime is likely if both teams continue to remain stout on defense.
Either way, this game will prove to be an entertaining and important one. A win for either team could spell an advantage at the end of the year in terms of a wildcard tiebreaker and important momentum for both teams as the NHL heads toward the midway point of the season.
Despite the Rangers stout defense, a prop bet we like is for Nikita Kucherov to get back in the point column in this one. As mentioned before, Kucherov has always been a difficult problem for the Rangers to solve, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him tally one or more points in this one. For the Rangers, Gabriel Perrault could be an intriguing option to find his first goal for an anytime goal scorer. Perrault had a good showing against the Predators and assisted on Alexis Lafrenière‘s power play goal early in the second period.
Main Photo: Wendell Cruz – Imagn Images
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Trevor Teubner is a contributor for Last Word On Sports, writing about the New York Rangers for the Last Word On Hockey site. Trevor is an experienced writer, having worked for as a Sports Reporter for the Meadville Tribune and as Head Sports Editor for Millersville University’s school newspaper, The Snapper. Trevor graduated from Millersville with a bachelors in Sports Journalism in 2022.
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Nov 12, 2025
Nov 12, 2025
Nov 12, 2025
Nov 12, 2025
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