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With points on their mind, the Ottawa Senators will look to defend home ice at Scotiabank Place against the NHL's best in the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
The New York Rangers roll into town with a league-leading 91 points through sixty-seven games played - a real testament to the work of head coach John Tortorella as his club prepares for the post-season. New York's employed a combination of timely goal-scoring and relentless pressure in all three zones to strangle the opposition, paving the way for all-world goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to pick up victory after victory behind a suddenly-impressive Blueshirts roster.
Although the team has measurably improved, the New York Rangers know full well that their MVP resides between the pipes. However, with playoffs - and the first overall seed - appearing to be a certainty, John Tortorella has opted to roll with back-up Martin Biron into Ottawa tonight.
With Biron(11-3-2, .911 save percentage, 2.79 GAA), the team's still played well, but it's a monstrous reprieve for an Ottawa team that would prefer to avoid the league's best in a big home game tonight.
Perhaps most importantly, it'll level the playing field a touch. With Craig Anderson still on the mend after slicing a tendon, the team will again turn to newly-acquired Ben Bishop, who saw his first action as a member of the Ottawa Senators down in Tampa Bay on Tuesday night. Bishop stopped 25 of 28 shots.
While there's a large discrepancy in the standings between these two teams, the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators have actually engaged in quite spirited battles through the season series. Ottawa's heroic three-goal, late-game comeback victory in October was the highlight so far. The Rangers returned the favor in November with a 3-2 victory, but the Senators answered right back with a 3-0 shutout in January, and as such, hold the series lead 2-1.
On display tonight? Well, only two guys who are tied for fifth in the goal-scoring race at 32. Both Marian Gaborik and Milan Michalek have enjoyed monstrous bounce-back seasons, and remain key components to their offense's respective output.
Lineup changes are expected on both sides. For the visiting Rangers, they'll be without Brandon Dubinsky, who's dealing with some variety of sinus injury right now. The Senators will have Chris Phillips(broken nose) at their disposal tonight, but have opted to flip Jim O'Brien(in) and Zenon Konopka(out).
Bobby Butler will remain in the press box, largely a product of Colin Greening's Gordie Howe hat-trick on Tuesday night.
Puck drops at 7:30 PM ET on MSG/RSNE. Win tonight - no matter regulation or extra-time - and Ottawa moves to about 97%(
weighted) likely to reach the playoffs.
New York Rangers
Anisimov-Stepan-Gaborik
Hagelin-Richards-Callahan
Feds-Boyle-Prust
Rupp-Mitchell-Scott
McDonagh-Girardi
Del Zotto-Eminger
Staal-Bickel
Ottawa Senators
Greening-Spezza-Michalek
Klinkhammer-Turris-Alfredsson
Daugavins-Smith-Condra
Foligno-O'Brien-Neil
Kuba-Karlsson
Cowen-Gonchar
Phillips-Gilroy
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