Penguins at Rangers
THE STORY: The
"World's Most Famous Arena" has certainly been a safe haven for the home
tenants. The New York Rangers will vie for their seventh straight win
at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday when they host Sidney Crosby and the
Atlantic Division-leading Pittsburgh Penguins. The Rangers are off to
their best home start in 19 years - and a big part of that success is
owed to Henrik Lundqvist. The 29-year-old Swede improved to 7-1-0 in
November by turning aside all 29 shots he faced for his 37th career
shutout in a 2-0 triumph over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Lundqvist will look to do the same against the other Keystone State
representative, against which he is 20-13-5 in his career. Like the
Rangers, the Penguins have also won two in a row - and an argument can
be made that Marc-Andre Fleury has been every bit as good as Lundqvist.
The former top overall pick will look to cap an impressive November
(6-1-2) with his league-leading 14th victory of the season.
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, VERSUS, TSN2
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (14-6-4):
Talk about toughing it out. Defenseman Kris Letang suffered a broken
nose late in the third period Saturday after a hit by Max Pacioretty of
the Montreal Canadiens. The blue-liner passed the necessary concussion
protocol before returning to the ice and netting winner in overtime. “It
shows a lot of guts and we’re all happy that, first of all, he’s OK,
and for him to respond like that it’s pretty amazing,” Crosby said. The
Penguins own the second-best penalty kill in the NHL with a 91.3 percent
success rate.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (12-5-3): Rookie Carl
Hagelin is having a memorable start to his NHL career. The 23-year-old
Swede collected an assist in his league debut and followed that up with
his first career goal Saturday. Brad Richards recorded his seventh goal
and 11th point in his last 12 games. The Prince Edward Island native is
averaging more than a point per contest (28 points in 27 games) in his
career versus Pittsburgh.
OVERTIME:
1. Evgeni
Malkin continues to flourish following the return of Crosby. The
25-year-old Russian has recorded multi-point performances in his last
four contests. As for the captain himself, Crosby was selected as the
NHL's first star of the week after securing two goals and eight points
in four games.
2. Should New York emerge victorious, it will match its best home start to the season since 1992 (7-1-1).