New York Rangers: Lottery standings and home ice focus of season finale

Stuff you need to know

About the Rangers:

• The New York Rangers are 31-36-14 heading into the season finale.
• The Blueshirts finished 2018-19 with a home record of 18-14-9 and they head into tonight’s game 13-22-5 on the road.
• The Rangers are 3-6-1 in their last ten games following Friday night’s shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
• It was awards time for NYR on Friday with Mika Zibanejad being crowned the Rangers’ Most Valuable Player. Jesper Fast was selected as the recipient of the Players’ Player Award.
• The New York Rangers are currently fielding the youngest team in the NHL (average age is 25.5 years).
• At least one Ranger who is 23 years old or younger has put up a goal in 13 of the last 15 games and in 15 of the last 18 games.
• Also, and this is an interesting one, at least one Rangers defenseman has recorded a point in 27 of the team’s last 30 games. They have tallied 53 points (eight goals, 45 assists) in the last 29 games.
• It looks like it will be Alexandar Georgiev in goal tonight,  meaning Henrik Lundqvist wil have to wait until next season for a chance to gain his 450th career win.
• Chris Kreider scored his 28th goal of the season against the Blue Jackets on Friday, tying his career-high.
• As of the end of the second period against Columbus, Alexandar Georgiev made 93 consecutive saves. According to NHL Stats & Information, Georgiev’s streak of 93 consecutive saves is the longest by a NYR goaltender since the start of the 1997-98 season.
• Tony DeAngelo’s 18 assists since Feb. 4 are tied for the fourth-most among NHL defensemen and he is one of six Rangers blueliners 23 years old or younger who have tallied 30 or more points in a season over the last 30 seasons (Leetch, Zubov, Del Zotto, McDonagh and Skjei).

About the Penguins

• The Pittsburgh Penguins are 44-26-11 this year.
• The Pens have a record of 23-14-3 at home in 2018-19.
• They are also 5-3-2 in their last ten games.
• Pittsburgh are currently ranked fourth in the NHL on the power play, converting on the man advantage at a percentage of 25.0.
• However, they rank 20th on the penalty kill (79.7%).
• The Penguins are now getting ready to take part in the Stanley Cup playoffs for the 13th consecutive season.
• There is still a lot at stake for the Pens tonight who could clinch home ice advantage in the first round with a win in any fashion coupled with a New York Islanders loss.
• Sidney Crosby leads the Pens in points this year with 98 (34 goals, 64 assists). He needs two points tonight to become the sixth player to reach the 100 point plateau in the NHL in 2018-19.
• Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang returned to the line-up for the Pens on Thursday and should be fine to play tonight.
• Zach Aston-Reese (lower-body) and Chad Ruhwedel (upper-body) both skated on Friday, but Brian Dumoulin (lower-body) did not.

Head-to-Head:

• The Rangers have an all time record of 128-113-23-14 (71-54-9-7 at home, 57-59-14-7 on the road) against the Penguins.
• Tonight’s game is the fourth and final match-up between NYR and the Pens.
• The Rangers have an 0-3-0 record against Pittsburgh this year, that includes 0-2-0 at home and 0-1-0 on the road.
• The last meeting between these two teams saw Pittsburgh prevail 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Mar. 25.
• Mika Zibanejad (one goal, two assists), Kevin Shattenkirk (three assists) and Tony DeAngelo (three assists) all have three points each against the Penguins this year.
• Six of the last nine tilts between the Rangers and the Penguins have been decided by one goal, whilst three of those nine matchups have been decided in either overtime or in a shootout.

Game Info:

• Face off tonight is at 7:00 pm ET
• Tonight is the 2018-19 season finale for both teams
• The game will be broadcast on the MSG Network and on ESPN 98.7 FM Radio.