Rangers Conclude Series Finale Against Pittsburgh

The Blueshirts will play the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final time this season with the season series on the line (8:00 on ABC).

Rangers	NHL Rankings	Penguins
39-19-10	Record	34-24-10
8^th	NHL Standing Rank	15^th
14^th	GF/PG	13^th
8^th	GA/PG	18^th
9^th	PP%	14^th
16^th	PK%	14^th

Previous Game

For the final time this season, the Rangers will take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. New York is currently 1-1-1 against the Penguins this season with the latest win coming just two days ago at Madison Square Garden. In the game, the Rangers were boosted by a two-goal game from Chris Kreider. Igor Shesterkin continued his recent strong play with his fourth-straight victory in a 30 save effort. His counterpart Tristan Jarry was also stellar and he was a big reason why the Penguins had a chance in the third period. Mika Zibanejad and Tyler Motte recorded the Rangers first two goals.

Ryan Lindgren

The big news on Saturday morning was Ryan Lindgren practicing with the team for the morning skate. The left-handed defenseman did more than he had been doing in previous days and weeks. Lindgren has not played since February 25^th after suffering an upper-body injury against Washington. Head coach Gerard Gallant has called him day-to-day since suffering the injury as his absence nears a month. The 25-year-old appears very close to returning to the lineup, but he will likely not play on Saturday night. Lindgren started practice skating with usual defensive partner Adam Fox, but Niko Mikkola took line rushes with Fox while Lindgren was on the side with the coaches. Gallant would not rule Lindgren out of the lineup, but said there is a better chance that he will not be playing. His next chance to join the lineup would be Sunday night against Nashville.

Rangers vs Penguins

The Rangers are expected to use the same lineup if Lindgren is unavailable. The Blueshirts defense will have to do a better job on Sidney Crosby on Saturday night. Crosby recorded two points – both on primary assists. While shutting down one of the league’s best ever players will be no easy task, Crosby was influential when in possession and the Rangers know very well what he is capable of. In his career, the 1,492 points in 1,176 games. Crosby has two more years on his contract after this season.

Jeff Petry suffered an upper-body on Thursday and his status looks uncertain for Pittsburgh on Saturday. Defender Mark Friedman was called up via an emergency recall from their AHL team while Nick Bonino was placed on LTIR to make Pittsburgh cap compliant. Pittsburgh already had Chad Ruhwedel as an extra defenseman, but Friedman’s emergency recall means that another Penguins defender may not be available. Kris Letang did not practice on Friday as he had a maintenance day and he could be the Penguins defender who could be in jeopardy of missing Saturday’s game.

For the Rangers, Shesterkin will be back in goal against their divisional foe Pittsburgh. With that, expect Jaroslav Halak to start the Nashville Predators on Sunday night. The Rangers have two more sets of back-to-backs after this weekend for the remainder of the season.

Artemi Panarin continued to be separated from Patrick Kane at even strength and he continued his strong play despite not playing with one of his best career linemates. Panarin recorded an assist on Zibanejad’s opening goal and he now has six points in the past five games and points in four of those games. Kreider, who is playing with Kane recorded his 29^th and 30^th goals of the season on Thursday. Gallant continues to look for consistency and options as the playoffs near. Vincent Trocheck had an assist on each of Kreider’s goals.