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Tuesday, 29 November 2011 11:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Rangers.

When and where: 7:30 p.m., EST; Madison Square Garden.

TV: Root Sports, MSG, Versus (outside the Pittsburgh and New York Markets), TSN2.

Record: 12-5-3, 27 points. The Rangers are in sixth place in the Eastern Conference and third place in the Atlantic Division.

Leading Scorer: Marian Gaborik, 17 points (10 goals, 7 assists).

Last Game: 2-0 home win against the Flyers, Saturday. Henrik Lundqvist (right) made 29 saves for the Rangers.

Last Game against the Penguins: 5-2 road win, March 20. Marc-Andre Fleury made 22 saves for the Penguins.

Rangers Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Ryan Callahan. He had nine points in six games against the Penguins last season.

Ex-Penguins on the Rangers: Erik Christensen, C; Ruslan Fedotenko, Rick Kehoe, professional scout; LW; Mike Rupp, C; Glen Sather, general manager.

Ex-Rangers on the Penguins: Pascal Dupuis, RW; Tony Granato, assistant coach; Kevin Stevens, professional scout.

Useless Rangers Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Three former Penguins have served as the Rangers' captains: Andy Bathgate, Vic Hadfield and Jaromir Jagr.

Best Rangers Video We Could Find: An oldie but a good. The old Vidal Sasson jeans commercial with Rangers stars  Phil Esposito, Ron Duguay, Dave Maloney and Anders Hedberg:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (13-3-2, 2.07 GAA, .925 SV%) for the Penguins. Henrik Lundqvist (9-4-3, 2.05 GAA, .935 SV%) for the Rangers.

Injuries: For the Penguins, defenseman Kris Letang (head) is questionable. Defensemen Ben Lovejoy (left wrist), Brian Strait (elbow) and center Dustin Jeffrey (knee) are on injured reserve. For the Rangers, center Mike Rupp (knee), left winger Wojtek Wolski (sports hernia) and defenseman Marc Staal (concussion) are on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines and defensive pairings in practice yesterday were:

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

Kris Letang - Brooks Orpik
Paul Martin - Zbynek Michalek
Matt Niskanen - Deryk Engelland

The Rangers' primary lines and defensive pairings in practice yesterday were:

Artem Anisimov - Derek Stepan - Marian Gaborik
Ruslan Fedotenko - Brad Richards - Ryan Callahan
Sean Avery - Brandon Dubinsky - Brandon Prust
Carl Hagelin - Brian Boyle - John Mitchell

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Michael Del Zotto - Michael Sauer
Jeff Woywitka - Steve Eminger

Notes:

-Letang will undergo further medical tests before tonight's game.

-The last time the Penguins played the Rangers, this happened:

-Brent Johnson has appeared in 299 career games.

-Letang has 148 career points.

-Orpik has 97 career points.

-Richard Park has 97 career goals.

-Asham has 196 career points.

-Dupuis has 296 career points.

-Rangers right winger Andre Deveaux is suspended.

-Our live blog begins at approximately 7:15 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Comments (4)

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written by Blitzburgh Brian, November 29, 2011 - 09:29 AM

If Letang doesn't play, do we have a #7 right now?

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written by espo33, November 29, 2011 - 10:06 AM

Can we please move Martin to the 3rd line pairing already? Niks has been playing so much better this year then Martin, who doesn't deserve to be teamed with Michalek.

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written by Iceburgh84, November 29, 2011 - 11:12 AM

Seth, do you know anything more about Neal being fined for high sticking Subban? Why didn't Subban get any punishment for slew footing Neal (which caused the high stick)?

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written by Hobbs5, November 29, 2011 - 06:36 PM

No doubt iceburgh, what a piece of crap. I guess it is the Canadians who got last laugh as Neal had dislodged the puck from Price, so they fined him. Clearly not only Suban slew foot Neal, he also embellished the stick hitting him because it hit the glass mainly, only glazing his face guard. What a joke. Anybody know where a video of the Neal high sticking can be found ? I know Suban embellished that stick hit. What does this league have against the Pens ??

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