Carolina Hurricanes vs. New York Rangers: Lineups and Game Discussion

The Carolina Hurricanes host the New York Rangers on Tuesday night in a Metropolitan division matchup. The teams will wrap up the season series, which Carolina presently leads 2-1.

The Canes most recently faced the Rangers on February 8th in New York. Petr Mrazek recorded the 3-0 shutout victory which broke the run of 16 straight regulation/overtime losses for the Canes at Madison Square Garden.

Winners of three straight and 7-2 since the all-star break, Carolina looks to take all six points out of a three-game home stand that began with a 3-1 victory over Edmonton last Friday night. Each of the players on the top line (Aho, Williams, and Niederreiter) enter tonight’s game riding 4-game point streaks.

Expected lines are as follows:

Nino Niederreiter - Sebastian Aho - Justin Williams
Micheal Ferland - Lucas Wallmark - Teuvo Teravainen
Andrei Svechnikov - Jordan Martinook - Brock McGinn
Warren Foegele - Greg McKegg - Saku Maenalanen

Jaccob Slavin - Dougie Hamilton
Brett Pesce - Justin Faulk
Calvin de Haan - Trevor van Riemsdyk

Petr Mrazek
Curtis McElhinney

Injuries and Scratches: Jordan Staal (IR upper body)

The New York Rangers are coming off a 6-5 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday. First year head coach David Quinn’s team currently ranks in the bottom third of the NHL both in goals for (25th) and goals against (22nd).

The Rangers enter Tuesday night’s game in 7th place in the Metropolitan Division and 11 points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. With their playoff hopes fading, trade rumors continue to swirl around upcoming free agents Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes.

Expected lines are as follows:

Chris Kreider – Mika Zibanejad – Mats Zuccarello
Jimmy Vesey – Kevin Hayes – Pavel Buchnevich
Vladislav Namestnikov – Ryan Strome – Jesper Fast
Brendan Smith – Boo Nieves – Connor Brickley

Marc Staal – Neal Pionk
Tony DeAngelo – Kevin Shattenkirk
Fredrik Claesson – Adam McQuaid

Henrik Lundqvist
Alexandar Georgiev

Injuries and Scratches: Brett Howden (MCL)