Tonight at 8:00 p.m. ET, the New York Rangers (21-20-3, 45 points) and Chicago Blackhawks (29-7-9, 67 points) hit the ice at the United Center for the first of two meetings against each other this season. The game can be live streamed here. New York fans can hear all of the bone-crunching action on 98.7 WEPN while Chicago fans can do the same on WGN 720.
The Rangers enter this Original-Six matchup having won three of their last five games while Chicago has won six of its last 10.
The Blackhawks lost backup goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to rotator cuff surgery, so the impressive Antti Raanta, 24, will remain as the team's backup behind Corey Crawford. It's unclear who will start tonight, but Raanta has been great this season.
"Antti's done an amazing job for us," coach Joel Quenneville told the Chicago-Sun Times. "He took advantage of an opportunity here. He really helped solidify that position for us."
Raanta is 11-1-3 this season with a 2.27 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage this season. The Rangers have announced that they will be going with Henrik Lundqvist, who is 12-16-3 with a 2.78 GAA and a .906 save percentage.
The Rangers came back from a 3-1 deficit on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets and were able to tie the game at 3-3 before ultimately falling in the shootout 4-3. Rick Nash (9-9-18) scored a pair of power play goals against his old team and hopes that it will get him going.
"Hopefully," Nash told the New York Daily News after the loss about whether or not the goal will spark him. "But . . . to lose in a shootout is disappointing. We've got to come out a lot better, and we can't keep making mistakes that end up in the back of our net."
Mats Zuccarello leads New York with 30 points off of 10 goals and 20 assists while Brad Richards has found the back of the net 10 times and added 19 helpers for 29 points and Derek Stepan has lit the lamp seven times and added 19 assists for 26 points.
Patrick Kane has paced Chicago and is tied for second in the NHL with 54 points off of 23 goals and 31 assists while Patrick Sharp has 25 markers and 21 helpers for 46 points and Jonathan Toews has found the twine 15 times and added 29 assists for 44 points.
The Rangers will look to bounce back from a tough home loss while the Blackhawks look to keep their hold atop the Central Division when the lights come up tonight at the United Center in Chicago.
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