Rangers look to rebound from defeat in Tampa when they face the Pittsburgh Penguins

Defeat in Tampa Bay set the Rangers back a little bit in their efforts to chase the Stanley Cup. An inability to cope with Brayden Point and the Lightning's top line cost the Rangers two points, and allowed the chasing pack in the division to cut the lead to just four points. Now, the Rangers get a chance to extended it when they take on Sidney Crosby and the flailing Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena in the Steel City.

When these two organizations met earlier in the season, the Penguins were shutout as the Rangers were able to win a low scoring game. Since that game in early November, a lot has changed for both organizations. New York has ascended to the top of the standings, and the Penguins were sellers at the deadline as we've noted here with the Rangers interest in Jake Guentzel before he was shipped to Carolina.

As for the Rangers tonight, they will be looking to right the ship today against a dangerous Penguins team. Still without Jacob Trouba, the Blueshirts will be looking to get back to the solid defensive performances that saw them beat both the Carolina Hurricanes and the New Jersey Devils. This Penguins team can cause issues for those that do not show up and take them seriously, so the Rangers cannot overlook them.

Projected Lineups

New York Rangers

Chris Kreider - Mika Zibanejad - Jack Roslovic
Artemi Panarin - Vincent Trocheck - Alexis Lafreniere
Will Cuylle - Alex Wennberg - Kaapo Kakko
Jimmy Vesey - Barclay Goodrow - Jonny Brodzinski
Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox
K'Andre Miller - Braden Schneider
Zac Jones - Erik Gustafsson
Igor Shesterkin
Jonathan Quick

Pittsburgh Penguins

Michael Bunting - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Drew O'Connor - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Reilly Smith - Lars Eller - Valtteri Puustinen
Emil Bemstrom - Noel Acciari - Jeff Carter
Marcus Pettersson - Kris Letang
Ryan Graves - Erik Karlsson
John Ludvig - Pierre-Olivier Joseph
Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic

Puck Drop

This is a 3 p.m. Eastern Puck drop as it is a matinee from the Steel City. We will see if the Rangers can get the two points they failed to collect against Tampa Bay against another team that has won back-to-back Stanley Cups in recent memory. This is a difficult run of games for the Rangers, so excuses cannot be made to drop points against a team that was a seller at the deadline. This needs to be a win.