Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the New York Rangers (33-26-4, 70 points) and Carolina Hurricanes (27-26-9, 63 points) faceoff live from the PNC Arena in North Carolina for the second of four meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. New York fans can hear all of the action on 98.7 ESPN Radio while Carolina fans can do the same on 99.9 The Fan.
New York has lost three of its four games since returning from the Olympic break and is looking to stay within the top three of the Metropolitan Division while Carolina has lost four of its last five since returning from the break. The first time these two teams met, the Rangers beat the Hurricanes 5-1 on Nov. 2 in New York.
The Rangers traded their captain Ryan Callahan to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Martin St. Louis, and St. Louis made his Blueshirts debut in Wednesday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
"There's no time to be emotional about it, not much time to think and reflect, we've got games to win in a tight playoff race," St. Louis said of the trade after his first practice with the Rangers on Thursday via NHL.com. "There's no dipping the toe in. I have to jump right in here."
St. Louis has the most points on the Rangers with 61--all recorded with the Lightning--off of 29 goals and 32 assists while Brad Richards, who played on the 2004 Stanley Cup-winning Tampa Bay team alongside St. Louis and is a close friend, led the Rangers prior to St. Louis' arrival and has 44 points off of 16 goals and 28 assists. Mats Zuccarello (hand) is third on the team with 43 points off of 15 goals and 28 assists and is expected to return to the lineup tonight.
The Hurricanes acquired Andrei Loktionov and a conditional draft pick at the deadline from the New Jersey Devils in exchange for forward Tuomo Ruutu.
"Andrei is a young skilled forward who will play on our power play," president and general manager Jim Rutherford said, according to NHL.com.
Eric Staal leads the Hurricanes with 48 points off of 16 goals and 32 assists while Jeff Skinner has 40 points off of 23 markers and 17 assists and Andrej Sekera has lit the lamp 11 times and added 27 assists for 38 points and is on a five-game point streak.
Anton Khudobin will likely man the crease for Carolina and is 14-8-0 with a 2.16 goals-against average and a .928 save percentage while Henrik Lundqvist is confirmed to suit up for New York and is 22-20-4 with a 2.56 GAA and a .914 save percentage.
Two division rivals skate against each other when the Rangers and Hurricanes hit the ice tonight at the PNC Arena in North Carolina.
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