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The challenge for the Flames may be exacerbated Sunday at Madison Square Garden when they visit the New York Rangers in the opening game of a two-game Eastern Conference road trip.Both teams lost their most recent games. The Rangers fell to the host Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday. The Flames dropped a 5-3 decision to the visiting Nashville Predators on Friday.Now the Flames (4-3-0) will look to get off to a faster start after traveling cross-country. Calgary Ondrej Palat Jersey , which will play the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night, has been outscored 9-7 in the first period this season. On Friday, the Predators scored 51 seconds into the first period and never trailed.Article continues below ...“We talked about our starts after the Boston game,” left winger Matthew Tkachuk told the Flames’ website Friday, in reference to a 5-2 win over the Bruins on Wednesday in which Calgary led 3-0 after the first.“And today, first minute, what happens? They score. We kept battling back, but you can’t continue to play uphill.”This season is likely to be an uphill battle for the Rangers (2-4-1), who embarked upon a rebuilding project at the trade deadline in February. But New York has shown promise under rookie coach David Quinn, who has presided over four losses by two goals or fewer. The loss to the Capitals on Wednesday capped a productive two-day stretch against contenders for the Rangers, who beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 on Tuesday night.“That’s big, coming away with a point — three out of four,” left winger Chris Kreider told reporters afterward. “Obviously, we’d like to have four out of four Ryan Callahan Jersey , but three out of four’s pretty good, considering the travel and the strength of the opponents that we played. So it’s something we can hang out hat on. But I think we can get to the point where we’re getting all four points.”Two 36-year-old No. 1 netminders are likely to oppose each other Sunday night. With three days off, the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist is scheduled to start for the seventh time in eight games. Lundqvist took the loss Wednesday when he had 34 saves against the Capitals.Mike Smith, who has started the previous two games for the Flames and six of seven this season, should occupy the net Sunday. Smith absorbed the loss Friday, when he stopped 26 of 30 shots against the Predators.Lundqvist is 8-3-0 in 11 career games against the Flames. Smith is 5-12-2 in 20 career appearances against the Rangers. For the Rangers, defenseman Freddie Claesson is likely to miss Sunday’s game after suffering an upper-body injury during practice Saturday.Flames defenseman Travis Hamonic, who suffered a facial fracture while fighting with Vancouver Canucks defenseman Erik Gudbranson in the season opener Oct. 3, is skating with teammates but will miss his seventh straight game. DENVER (AP) — In keeping with hockey tradition, a tip of the cap to honor Alex Ovechkin and Patrik Laine .They’ve each recorded a hat trick of hat tricks this season.Easy as one, two, three. Or so it may seem.Around the league, there have been 61 hat tricks through the first 770 games of the season — the most since 1995-96 (62), according to research by the NHL stats and information department. Leading the surge are Ovechkin of Washington and Laine of Winnipeg with three each.Hold on to your hat http://www.officiallightningprostore.com...agh-jersey , there’s more: There has been at least one three-goal scorer in 10 of the 13 days leading into to the All-Star break.“I think the reason why,” Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen succinctly surmised, “is because scoring around the league is up.”Simple, yes. But on target, too.There have been 132 instances of a team scoring six or more goals in a game so far, which is the most since 2005-06. Teams are averaging 3.03 goals per game, which is on pace for the highest-scoring season since the 3.14 in, you guessed it, 1995-96. There has been an 18 percent increase in scoring since the post-expansion low of 2.57 goals per game for teams in 2003-04, before a lockout led to rule changes.Naturally, hat tricks figure to go hand-in-hand with the escalation.“It’s exciting and not something everyone has done,” said Nashville forward Austin Watson , who had his first NHL hat trick on Nov. 25 against Anaheim. “It’s a cool achievement.”Long associated with cricket and soccer, the term hat trick appears to have made its way into the mainstream hockey vernacular when a Toronto businessman offered a hat to any player who scored three goals during an NHL game while visiting his town. As the legend goes Womens Steven Stamkos Jersey , Chicago forward Alex Kaleta went into the shop in 1946 and found a fedora he fancied, according to an NHL.com story . Only, he didn’t have the funds to purchase it. The business owner offered to give it to Kaleta free of charge should he score three goals against the Maple Leafs.Kaleta had four. Presto, a hat trick.These days, hat tricks come in a variety of forms. There’s the natural one (three straight goals by a player), traditional (any three goals, sometimes culminating with a late empty-netter) and of course the “Gordie Howe” (a goal, assist and a fight).The achievement of a hat trick has long been celebrated with fans tossing their hats on the ice. Ever wonder where all those hats go? The Avs, for one, donate the caps to the Denver Rescue Mission.The fastest NHL hat trick took just 21 seconds by Chicago’s Bill Mosienko (1952). The most in a career? Wayne Gretzky, who had 50. Ovechkin has the most of any active player with 23.They’re far from common — this year’s total of 61 so far is just 8 percent of all games. The Great One needed 1,487 games to get his 50.All the increased scoring means the feat may someday lose a bit of its luster. But not yet.“It’s a pretty hard thing to do,” said Minnesota forward Jason Zucker, who had a hat trick on Nov. 9 Tyler Johnson Jersey , 2017. “Scoring any goal in this league is a hard thing to do. To do three in one game is pretty incredible.”Ovechkin had two in a four-day window this season, while Laine had a pair over a six-day span, including a five-goal game on Nov. 24.Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog gave his first hat trick on Nov. 11, 2017, against Washington the royal treatment. He has the puck in a case with the game sheet and a picture. He said he doesn’t have his puck from the second one, which happened a month later.“I don’t think guys are going out there trying to score hat tricks,” the All-Star Landeskog said. “Guys are going out there trying to help the team win.”As for why there are so many hat tricks this season, Zucker has a simple deduction.“It’s the speed. It’s the skill. It’s the sticks, the way guys shoot pucks now,” Zucker explained. “Guys don’t even have to try to shoot pucks — the sticks do a lot of the work for us.”No need to convince Minnesota’s All-Star goaltender Devan Dubnyk of that.“Teams are discovering ways to create chances and figure how pucks actually go in the net and not just thinking if you throw 50 pucks at the net that you’re going to score a bunch of goals,” Dubnyk said. “It’s understanding how to create offense. You can see it throughout the league this year. There’s a lot of offensive creativity and it’s making it tough for defenses and tough for goalies.”