Penguins (24-12-2) vs. Rangers (17-15-5)
Madison Square Garden | New York, NY
Tuesday, April 6 | 7:00PM Eastern
NBCSN | MSG | AT&TSN-PT
The Penguins head to the Big Apple in search of a win, with their skeleton crew on duty against the Blue Shirts at the Garden on Tuesday night in a nationally televised contest.
The injury parade continues, as Brandon Tanev is now also classified as week-to-week with an upper-body injury. He joins Evgeni Malkin, Teddy Blueger, and Kasperi Kapanen as major cogs who will not be in the lineup tonight.
The Penguins split a two-game series against the Bruins despite the lack of services from the aforementioned skaters, collecting a 4-1 win on Thursday, and dropping a 7-5 decision after a dreadful 2nd period that saw the Bruins post 5 goals on Casey DeSmith.
Jarry back in the cage, returning from an upper body injury that kept him sidelined for the weekend series in Boston. Jarry is 14-8-2 on the year, allowing 2.78 goals per 60 minutes of play, and posting a .910SV% on the 2021 campaign.
Forwards
Guentzel – Crosby – Rust
Zucker – McCann – Rodrigues
Aston-Reese – Gaudreau – Lafferty
Zohorna – Jankowski – Sceviour
Defense
Dumoulin – Letang
Matheson – Ceci
Pettersson – Marino
In Net
Jarry
The Rangers find themselves in a surprising striking distance of the playoff picture, thanks in some part to the utter implosion the Flyers have been in the midst of over the past few weeks. They’re 2 points back of the 5th place Flyers, and 5 back of the final spot, occupied by Boston who does have two games in hand on the Blue Shirts.
All that said, one can’t help but be excited at the Rangers’ performance on the season, given the roster composition:
Alex Lafreniere: 1st overall, 2020
Kaapo Kakko: 2nd overall, 2019
Vitaly Kravtsov: 9th overall, 2018
Filip Chytil: 21st overall, 2017
K’Andre Miller: 22nd overall, 2018
And that’s not counting some of the more established pedigree guys like Zibanejad (6th overall in 2011) and Kreider (19th overall in 2009).
But the guy who has been stealing the show is undoubtedly Adam Fox, who came over in a trade with Carolina in the lead up to the 2019 draft. While there may be some sensationalism in the idea that he’s a Norris candidate right now, his meteoric rise is one that is finally beginning to attract some of the attention it deserves.
Fox has 33 points, good for 2nd best in the league at the position, trailing only defending Norris Trophy-winner Viktor Hedman. 13 of those points came in a 7-game span, including two absolute ass-whoopings of the Flyers. He had 20 points in 15 games in March.
Igor Shesterkin gets the start between the pipes. The Blue Shirts young goalie is 9-8-2 on the year, ceding 2.27 goals against per 60, and stopping .925% of shots faced.
Forwards
Kreider – Zibanejad – Buchnevich
Panarin – Strome – Blackwell
Lafreniere – Chytil – Kakko
Di Giuseppe – Rooney – Kravtsov
Defense
Lindgren – Fox
Miller – Trouba
Hajek – Smith
In Net
Shesterkin
ICE Cold Fact: Your Hustle and life experiences will be directly effected buy the people you surround yourself with and admire.. In some cases that could be bad. Pick your friends and business partners WISELY.. Some people just wanna Survive.. Others wanna Hustle Hard and THRIVE pic.twitter.com/vrhNDynnvU
— ICE T (@FINALLEVEL) April 4, 2021
Go Pens.
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