Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the Pittsburgh Penguins (24-10-1, 49 points) and New York Rangers (16-17-1, 33 points) faceoff live from Madison Square Garden in New York City for the second of four meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. Pittsburgh fans can hear all of the hard-hitting action on 105.9 WXDX while New York fans can do the same on 98.7 ESPN Radio.
Pittsburgh enters play atop the Metropolitan Division and has won four straight games while compiling nine wins in its last 10 games despite fighting injuries. New York is in the midst of a franchise-record nine-game homestand that has seen them win one game in five tries thus far (1-3-1) as the team had to go to a shootout to win its first game of the homestand on Sunday. The Rangers defeated the Penguins 5-1 at Madison Square Garden the first time these two teams met on Nov. 6.
Despite a host of injuries, the Penguins own a 10-point lead in the Metropolitan Division after a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday while calling up players from its minor league affiliate.
"We keep finding ways," captain Sidney Crosby said via NHL.com. "A lot has to do with the way the [new guys] are playing."
Crosby leads the NHL with 47 points off of 19 goals and 28 assists. Evgeni Malkin, who is second on the team with 41 points off of nine tallies and 32 helpers, is sidelined with a lower-body injury while Chris Kunitz is third on the team with 33 points and has found the twine 17 times and added 16 assists for 33 points.
The Rangers have been tinkering their lineup around and head coach Alain Vigneault said he hasn't found the consistency he wants out of his team.
"In my opinion, we have one [line] that seems to have a little bit of chemistry, that's [Chris Kreider] and [Derek Stepan]," he said. "That being said though, [Stepan] went without [a goal] for quite some time before getting a goal (10 games). We're looking for possible combinations, and if I could keep them together, I would."
Stepan is second on the team with 22 points off of six goals and 16 assists. Brad Richards is the team's leader with 25 points by finding the net nine times and adding 16 helpers and has three points in his last five games while Mats Zuccarello is third on the team with 21 points and has lit the lamp six times while adding 15 assists.
Henrik Lundqvist will make his season-high seventh straight start tonight and is 10-14-1 with a 2.71 goals-against average and a .979 save percentage while Marc-Andre Fleury will likely start for Pittsburgh and is 19-8-1 with a 1.98 GAA and a .925 save percentage.
The Penguins look to keep winning despite their injuries while the Rangers look to continue to turn around their homestand when the puck drops tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
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