Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the Boston Bruins (27-16-7, 61 points) and New York Rangers (29-15-4, 62 points) face-off for the second of three meetings against each other this season live from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Boston has won two straight games heading into this match while New York has also been victorious in two consecutive contests and closes out a four-game home stand.
The Rangers own the third and final automatic playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division entering tonight while the Bruins own the second and last wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The first time these two teams met, Boston blanked New York 3-0 on Jan. 15.
This game is part of the NHL's Wednesday Night Rivalry and can be live streamed for free by clicking here.
The Bruins roll into town off of a 3-1 victory over the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.
Boston forward Milan Lucic has been sidelined the past two days with the flu, but he is expected to play tonight.
"He's on his way and he's feeling better so it's projected right now he'll play," Bruins coach Claude Julien said per NHL.com.
Patrice Bergeron has paced Boston thus far this season with 33 points off of 12 goals and 21 assists. Carl Soderberg is second on the Bruins with 32 points off of 10 tallies and 22 helpers while Loui Eriksson has found the twine 11 times and added 18 assists for 29 points.
The Rangers are coming off of a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday and announced they will be without Henrik Lundqvist tonight.
"[Lundqvist] won't be available tonight; he has an upper-body injury that we are investigating right now and we'll have more information for you before the day is over," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault told NHL.com. "We don't know how long he'll be out but the injury is related to the injury he had over the weekend." Vigneault emphasized that the injury is not concussion-related."
Lundqvist was hit in the throat with a puck against the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, but suited up Monday, though it could still be related to that.
New York will turn to Cam Talbot in the crease and he is 4-4-1 this season with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage.
Boston is set to counter with Tuukka Rask and he is 22-11-7 with a 2.31 GAA and a .931 save percentage.
Rask will look to stop a Rangers unit that is led by Rick Nash, who paces the team with 46 points and is tied for the NHL lead with 31 goals. Martin St. Louis (14 goals, 22 assists) and Derick Brassard (12 markers, 24 helpers) are tied for second on New York with 32 points apiece.
It's an Original Six matchup on the Wednesday Night Rivalry when the puck drops on the Bruins and Rangers live from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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