NHL: New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins
Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Rangers are back at MSG tonight to take on the surprisingly out of the playoffs Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins and the Devils are the surprise teams this year because they missed the playoffs, opening the doors for teams like the Caps and Flyers to be in contention.

The Penguins were mostly done in by horrid goaltending, and that hasn’t changed. They can still put up a good amount of goals and have a dangerous offense, so they are no push over either. This could be a track meet game, especially if the Rangers defensive play over the last few games carries over to this one.

Perhaps the visiting Penguins can give the Rangers a good mental reset in getting back to basics. A division rival that can play spoiler for the President’s Trophy can sometimes snap the brain back into place and stop the loose defensive play. So let’s hope for that.

Penguins Lines

Drew O’Connor-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting-Evgeni Malkin-Rikard Rakell
Reilly Smith-Lars Eller-Valtteri Puustinen
Jeff Carter-Samuel Poulin-Jesse Puljujarvi

PO Joseph-Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson-Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig-Jack St. Ivany

Tristan Jarry gets the start

Rangers Lines

Artemi Panarin-Vincent Trocheck-Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider-Mika Zibanejad-Jack Roslovic
Jonny Brodzinski-Alex Wennberg-Kaapo Kakko
Will Cuylle-Barclay Goodrow-Jimmy Vesey

Ryan Lindgren-Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller-Jacob Trouba
Zac Jones-Braden Schneider

Igor Shesterkin gets the start

Injuries: Filip Chytil (concussion), Blake Wheeler (leg), Erik Gustafsson (lower body)

Crazy Prediction: The fourth line scores twice.

Game time is 7pm.

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