The Pens are back to work and will see the Rangers today
Who: New York Rangers (27-25-4, 58 points, 5th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (23-26-9, 55 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division)
When: 3:30 p.m. ET
How to Watch: National broadcast on TNT, streaming on Max
Pens’ Path Ahead: Pittsburgh started a stretch yesterday that will see them play seven times in just 11 days, so it’s going to be hectic. The hits keep on coming next week with a trip to Philadelphia on Tuesday, followed by a return match against the Flyers in Pittsburgh on Thursday, followed by another pair of afternoon home games next weekend when the Bruins (Sat, Mar 1, 3pm) and Maple Leafs (Sun Mar 2, 1pm) visit the Burgh.
Opponent Track: The Rangers were in action yesterday up in Buffalo with a 5:30pm start, and hoo boy it went as poorly for them as it did for the Pens yesterday. NYR was down 5-0 in the blink of an eye on their way to a listless 8-2 loss. Add in the travel and another game 22 hours later is a tight turnaround and it’s a tough hill to climb for them entering today. NYR gets back at it on Tuesday on the road again, but this time just across the boroughs in Long Island.
Season Series: The Pens won 3-2 against NYR a couple weeks ago on Feb 7th, despite not having Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin in the lineup. But the Rangers took the victories in the first two meetings (the 6-0 drubbing on opening night and then a 4-2 win in December). Today is the final PIT/NYR game of the 2024-25 season.
Hidden Stat: Yesterday was only the third time in Mike Sullivan’s 729 games behind the bench for the Penguins that the team has given up 8 goals or more (joining a 8-4 April 2021 loss to the Rangers and a 10-1 October 2017 loss to Chicago). Pittsburgh has scored 8+ under Sullivan in nine games, most recently in a December 2024 9-2 win over Montreal.
Hidden Stat II: The Rangers also gave up 8 goals yesterday for the first time this season in a 8-2 loss to Buffalo.
Getting to know the Rangers
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Artemi Panarin – J.T. Miller – Reilly Smith
Will Cuylle – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreniere
Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Jonny Brodzinski –
Arthur Kaliyev – Sam Carrick – Matt Rempe
DEFENSEMEN
Ryan Lindgren / Adam Fox
K’Andre Miller / Will Borgen
Urho Vaakanainen / Braden Schneider
Goalies: Jonathan Quick and Igor Shesterkin
Scratches: Jimmy Vesey, Matthew Robertson, Zac Jones (AHL conditioning stint)
IR: Adam Edstrom
—Shersterkin got the start and gave up five goals in 18:21 and got lifted before the first intermission. Not for nothin’, it was Shesterkin’s first game since playing the Pens back on Feb 7th where he suffered an injury (but finished the game). Quick played the final 41:39 of the game yesterday, yielding three goals on 17 shots in a contest that was pretty much out of reach the whole time he was in there. It makes for an interesting goalie decision, do the Rangers go back to Shesterkin or do they ride the 39-year old Quick for the second straight day?
—Vincent Trocheck is reportedly playing through a broken finger. Trocheck had no points, five hits and was a -2 yesterday, but for his part said he was “good” and offered a “no excuses” line after the loss.
Player stats
(via hockeydb, does not include yesterday’s game)
—The Rangers had five players rep their respective countries at the 4 Nations (Zibanejad, Fox, Trocheck, Kreider, Vaakanainen) and none particularly excelled individually coming out of it. I guess on the bright side at least there were no injuries, outside of whatever did or didn’t happen to Trocheck.
—Miller recorded two points yesterday to go up to six points in six games with the Rangers and it will be fascinating to see how that trade shakes out for NYR. Will they get buyer’s remorse on a soon-to-be 32-year old who has a contract through 2030? As long as Miller stays productive that might be a step too far but all things considered I’d think to take Filip Chytil and a first round pick.
And now for the Pens
Projected lines
FORWARDS
Anthony Beauvillier – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell
Michael Bunting – Evgeni Malkin – Cody Glass
Danton Heinen – Kevin Hayes – Philip Tomasino
Matt Nieto – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari
DEFENSEMEN
P.O. Joseph / Kris Letang
Matt Grzelcyk / Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves / Vincent Desharnais
Goalies: Alex Nedeljkovic and Joel Blomqvist
Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Vladislav Kolyachonok, Boko Imama (upper-body injury)
IR: Bryan Rust
—Rust was unable to go yesterday with an illness, we’ll see if an extra 24 hours changes his status. If he is well enough to play, the team could opt to slide Imama to the IR to open up a space for Rust to return to the 23-player roster.
—The Penguins also have a choice to make in net after using both goalies yesterday. Nedeljkovic had been so good from mid-January on that Blomqvist barely got opportunities to play but yesterday sure wasn’t a good day for Ned (or many of his teammates). There’s plenty of upcoming games in the near future, this could be a good time to give Blomqvist the proverbial ball and see how far he can run with it.
—What’s going to be the bigger source of joy in Penguinland: when Nieto is mercifully removed from the active roster for good or when the Grzelcyk/Karlsson pair is finally kaput? Either is going to be worthy of a celebration that can’t come soon enough.
Coach vs coach
Both the Penguins and Rangers are below the playoff line right now. Both teams gave up eight goals yesterday in blowout losses. There was some differences in how each respective coach viewed yesterday’s game by their team:
“There was nothing that was good about the game,” head coach Peter Laviolette said. “Terrible start, terrible first period, and it didn’t get much better from there. It was not the game we were looking for coming out of the break. That’s it, in a nutshell.”
Later, Laviolette would say in a scorching take, “there’s systems to the game, there’s details to the game, there’s execution with the puck,” he said. “There’s also speed. There’s also compete. There’s a lot of things that needed to be elevated to a much higher level.”
“There’s no sense talking about any one particular individual,” Laviolette when asked about Shesterkin. “We weren’t good as a team, and we got what we deserve.”
Mike Sullivan might agree on that last point of getting what one deserves, but noted that the Penguins were actually doing pretty well yesterday before the bottom dropped out.
“We beat ourselves in so many ways,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “When the [Capitals] got their fourth goal, it was a 3-2 game, I think it was 5:43 (remaining) in the second period, the shots were 19-9. We had twice as much offensive-zone time as we did in the defensive zone. We felt pretty good about where the game was at, even though we were down a goal.
“Then, we chased offense. And when you chase offense, and you don’t have a recognition of risk-reward, you end up giving your opponents easy offense. As a result, that’s what we get.”
That makes today some interesting theater, kinda in the sense of tuning into a race to watch for a big crash. The Rangers and Penguins were both very sloppy yesterday. Both are very capable of laying some stinkers out there. NYR had to travel and their game yesterday started about when the Pens’ game was ending. Who knows what to expect in a circumstance like this, almost any outcome could be considered possible.
Draft pick focus
Then again, this outlook from Tankathon (taken at 10:30 last night, so maybe it’s changed a little pending late results) shows what could be the most relevant aspect of this game:
A reminder, the Pens will get the NYR first round pick in this draft if the pick ends up being 14th or later. They acquired that pick by virtue of the trade that sent Marcus Pettersson to Vancouver — a pick the Canucks got from NYR via the J.T. Miller trade. If the pick ends up being 13th or better, the Rangers keep it — but then have to send their 2026 first round pick to Pittsburgh regardless of if its first, 32nd or anywhere in between.
Several teams right around the Penguins won yesterday (good news if you want the best odds for a better draft pick). If NYR keeps losing, then the Pens will only have one first round selection in this year’s draft but then will have two next year. That outlook may change several times in the coming weeks as NYR continuously rises and falls but is worth keeping an eye on for how it is going to shake out.