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It’s Friday and it is also a Hockey Night in Pittsburgh. The Penguins will play in front of the home crowd for the first time since December 21st, a 4-3 win over the Calgary Flames.
The Penguins are 17-3 at home this year and their starting netminder Marc Andre Fleury has been a wall on Consol Energy Ice. Fleury has a 1.71 GAA with a save percentage of .940%.
The Penguins are currently on top of the Eastern Conference with 59 points. Their opponent tonight, the New York Rangers, are currently sitting at 42 points 4 points out of a wild card spot for the playoffs.
The Penguins come into their first matchup in 2014 with half of their top pairings back on defense. Brooks Orpik and Rob Scuderi have returned to action. However, Paul Martin is still out and Kris Letang will be missing tonight’s action after ruling himself out.
From a forward standpoint not much has changed. It is still an incredibly injured bunch. Even desperation call-ups like Chris Conner are out for the long term (6-8 weeks hand injury).
Evgeni Malkin did not take part in the line rushes today and he will miss tonight’s action per Dan Bylsma. The Penguins are so thin up front that they had to go out and make a waiver wire move. The Penguins claimed Taylor Pyatt from the New York Rangers and he will make his debut tonight with the team.
The Penguins may have created a nice cushion in the standings, but they will need to keep mixing in victories if they want to give Ray Shero a comfort zone from which to make a deal. The longer the Penguins can maintain their lead, the longer Ray Shero can analyze his assets and not rush into a deal.
Lots of rumors lately involving the Winnipeg Jets and some of their forwards (Kane, Wheeler, Ladd). I have no doubt that any of those 3 players would help the Penguins, but the cost would be high and I’m not so sure the Jets would even want to part with them.
I gave my 2 cents about the Olympic selection process during the past few days.
If you are looking for some other quality insight about who Team USA selected Rangers writer Jan Levine has a nice breakdown of his thoughts here .
Adam French has also documented his opinions on the Team USA selections here .
You can find Jan's preview of tonight's Penguins and Rangers game here
I have no doubt the Penguins will have a nice moment during the 1st stoppage to honor the players from both teams who have been named to Team USA (Martin, Orpik, McDonagh,Stepan, Callahan) Give them a nice round of applause.
Line Combos
Projected lineup for the Penguins based on the morning line rushes:
Kunitz-Crosby-Neal Jokinen-Sutter-Gibbons Pyatt-Vitale- Adams Glass-Sill-Kobasew
Orpik-Despres Scuderi-Bortuzzo Maatta-Niskanen
1st PP Unit
Kunitz-Crosby-Neal Jokinen-Niskanen
Projected lineup for Rangers from Jan Levine's blog:
Chris Kreider-Derek Stepan-Rick Nash Ryan Callahan-Brad Richards-Mats Zuccarello Carl Hagelin-Derick Brassard-Benoit Pouliot Brian Boyle-Dominic Moore-Derek Dorsett.
Ryan McDonagh-Dan Girardi Marc Staal-Anton Stralman John Moore-Conor Allen (though he could move up to play with Staal)
Henrik Lundqvist
Injuries
Evgeni Malkin did not take part in the line rushes. He said that he experienced mild pain when pushing himself yesterday. He will not play until there is no pain.
Kris Letang has ruled himself out of action for tonight’s game
Chris Conner will be out 6-8 weeks with a hand injury
No change in the status of Martin, Dupuis, Megna, and Bennett
Ryan Callahan has taken part during the line rushes for the Rangers this morning. It remains to be seen if he will indeed be inserted into the lineup.
Power Play
The Penguins have regained the top spot in the NHL on the power play. They are at 25.5%. Alex Ovechkin has had a mini slump in the goal scoring department (until last night) and that has caused the Capitals to drop to the #2 overall spot. Even with the injuries to Malkin, Martin, and Letang the Penguins can still throw out Crosby, Neal, and Kunitz with Niskanen and a very skilled Jokinen.
The Penguins are tied for 11th in the NHL with 141 power play opportunities.
The New York Rangers have the 9th ranked power play at 20.3%. This is a nice improvement from the 14th ranked power play at 17.3% the last time they played the Penguins. They are currently 14th in the NHL with 138 power play opportunities.
Penalty Kill
The Penguins are 2nd overall in the NHL on the PK with 88.1%.
The Rangers are tied for 5th overall with 85.0%.
The Penguins are 3rd best in the league with only being shorthanded 126 times
The Rangers are tied for 4th overall with 127times shorthanded.
Fenclose%
The injuries to the Penguins are starting to reflect in their even strength play. For the first time this year the penguins have fallen out of the top 5 in puck possession. The Penguins have slipped all the way to 9th overall at 52.6%. The only surprise is that it has taken this long to see a drop in their possession numbers.
The Rangers are 11th overall at 51.9%
Even Strength Save %
The Penguins are 21st overall with an EVSV% of .917%.
The Rangers are tied with the Penguins with an identical .917%.
In a very surprising stat Henrik Lundqvist has allowed 3 goals in 8 of his last 9 starts. The good news for him is that his last start was only 1 goal against.
Trends
Rangers are 4-1 in their last 5 overall
Rangers are 0-7 in their last 7 vs. Metropolitan
Rangers are 0-4 in their last 4 Friday games
Penguins are 8-1 in their last 9 vs. Metropolitan
Home team is 4-1 in the last 5 meetings
Rangers are 7-19 in the last 26 meetings in Pittsburgh
Rangers are 2-9 in the last 11 meetings
Stats courtesy of covers.com
Thanks for reading!
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