Game Preview: Pittsburgh Penguins @ New York Rangers

Game Time: 7:00pm/ET
From: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Penguins Record: 19-16-4 (9th in Eastern Conference)
Rangers Record: 23-14-3 (6th in Eastern Conference)
Last Meeting: December 12th, 2008 @ New York (3-2 Rangers [SO])

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS LINE COMBINATIONS:
Tyler Kennedy - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Ruslan Fedotenko - Evgeni Malkin - Petr Sykora
Maxime Talbot - Jordan Staal - Matt Cooke
Eric Godard/Tim Wallace - Dustin Jeffrey - Miroslav Satan

Brooks Opik - Ryan Whitney
Kris Letang - Rob Scuderi
Mark Eaton - Phillipe Boucher

PENGUINS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Marc-Andre Fleury (11-8-2 / 3.01 GAA / .904 SV%)

PITTSBURGH PENGUINS INJURIES:
Sergei Gonchar (left shoulder surgery) - on injured reserve
Mike Zigomanis (upper body) - on injured reserve


NEW YORK RANGERS LINE COMBINATIONS:
Markus Naslund - Scott Gomez - Nikolai Zherdev
Nigel Dawes - Chris Drury - Ryan Callahan
Aaron Voros - Brandon Dubinsky - Fredrik Sjostrom
Lauri Korpikoski - Blair Betts - Colton Orr

Wade Redden - Daniel Girardi
Michal Rozsival - Marc Staal
Dmitri Kalinin - Paul Mara

RANGERS PROBABLE GOALTENDER:
Henrik Lundqvist (19-11-3 / 2.67 GAA / .908 SV%)

NEW YORK RANGERS INJURIES:
- None -


PENGUINS LEADERS:
GOALS: Malkin (15)
ASSISTS: Malkin (45)
POINTS: Malkin (60)
+/-: Malkin (+19)

RANGERS LEADERS:
GOALS: Naslund (14)
ASSISTS: Zherdev (23)
POINTS: Zherdev (35)
+/-: Dawes (+6)


Things are not going well for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

However, the Rangers have lost four of their last five and they have been falling down the Atlantic Division ladder, much like the Penguins.

The Penguins have changed their line combinations pretty drastically, demoting Miroslav Satan to the fourth line and promoting Tyler Kennedy to the top line with Crosby and Dupuis. Kennedy will also see time on the power play.

The Penguins power play has not scored a goal in six games, so hopefully Kennedy's presence will help.

The Penguins have blown leads against the Rangers in both of their games against them this year.

Prediction: 3-2 Rangers

New York Media:

Newspapers:
New York Times
New York Daily News
New York Post

Blogs:
Blue Notes
Blueshirt Bulletin
My Blueshirt Heaven
Rangers Report
Battle of New York
Hockey Bird
Scotty Hockey