Rangers at Penguins
The New York Rangers look to maintain sole occupancy in their penthouse suite of the top-heavy Metropolitan Division on Tuesday when they visit the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins. New York has won three in a row and six of seven to claim a two-point lead over the Penguins, who are 7-0-2 in their last nine and boast an impressive 13-2-2 mark at PPG Paints Arena - although they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Rangers on Nov. 21.
Veteran Henrik Lundqvist answered an uneasy role as spectator with a flourish, yielding just three goals with a scintillating .967 save percentage to win three straight starts and claim NHL Second Star of the Week honors. Lundqvist is tied with Dominik Hasek for the most wins by a European goaltender in NHL history (389), but the 34-year-old Swede was far removed from his traditional form in his last encounter with Pittsburgh - getting chased after permitting four goals on 17 shots in a 6-1 setback on Nov. 23. Captain Sidney Crosby collected two goals and an assist to highlight a five-goal second period in that contest and also set up fellow former Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin's tally in a 2-1 overtime loss to Toronto on Saturday. Crosby has shredded the Rangers in his decorated career, amassing 74 points (27 goals, 47 assists) in 57 encounters.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, MSG2 (New York), ROOT (Pittsburgh)
ABOUT THE RANGERS (23-10-1): Derek Stepan scored to snap an eight-game goal drought in Sunday's 3-2 shootout win over New Jersey, marking just his second tally at Madison Square Garden this season. The 26-year-old has doubled that total on the road, with one of those goals coming in the first meeting against Pittsburgh. Kevin Hayes scored and set up a goal in that encounter with the Penguins and followed up assists in back-to-back games with the shootout winner versus the Devils.
ABOUT THE PENGUINS (20-7-5): While the high-octane offense is rarely a concern in the Steel City, Pittsburgh is missing its top two defensemen in Kris Letang (team-leading 19 points among blue-liners) and Trevor Daley. "It's going to be hard," defenseman Olli Maatta told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of replacing Letang (undisclosed) and Daley (upper body). "When you don't have those two guys, there's not that one guy that can jump in there and fill in. They're that good of players." Maatta had a team-high six blocked shots on Saturday, Justin Schultz logged the most playing time (23:03) while fellow blue-liners Ian Cole and Brian Dumoulin also saw an uptick in minutes.
OVERTIME
1. Malkin has 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in his last 15 games overall and 46 points (23 goals, 23 assists) in 49 career meetings with New York.
2. Rangers LW Chris Kreider has five goals and three assists in his last 10 contests.
3. Pittsburgh LW Conor Sheary, who scored in the most recent meeting with New York, has four goals and five assists in his past 10 games.