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With just over two weeks left in the regular season, both the Carolina Hurricanes and New York Rangers have sewn up their spots in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Once they get there, it’s exceedingly unlikely that they will play each other in the first round.
But that’s all we really know at the moment. These two teams will face each other twice in the next 14 days, both in Manhattan, and the results of that 120 minutes (plus potential overtime) of game action will go a long way in determining each team’s potential road map to the Stanley Cup.
Vital Statistics
| Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Hurricanes | Bruins |
| Record | 54-20-8 | 51-26-5 |
| Goals/Game | 3.38 | 3.08 |
| Goals Against/Game | 2.44 | 2.66 |
| Shots/Game | 34.12 | 36.12 |
| Face Off Win % | 53.9% | 54.2% |
| Power Play % (Rank) | 22.0% (13th) | 21.2% (15th) |
| Penalty Kill % (Rank) | 88.0% (1st) | 81.3% (9th) |
| ES Corsi For % | 43.86% | 56.14% |
| ES PDO | 113.44 | 86.56 |
| PIM/Game | 12:00 | 22:00 |
Goaltender #1
| Category | Frederik Andersen | Linus Ullmark |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Frederik Andersen | Linus Ullmark |
| Record | 35-14-3 | 26-10-2 |
| Save % | .922 | .917 |
| GAA | 2.17 | 2.45 |
Goaltender #2
| Category | Antti Raanta | Jeremy Swayman |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Antti Raanta | Jeremy Swayman |
| Record | 15-5-4 | 23-14-3 |
| Save % | .912 | .914 |
| GAA | 2.45 | 2.41 |
Game Notes
- This is the third of four meetings between the Rangers and Hurricanes this season, but the first at MSG. On January 21 at PNC Arena, the Hurricanes took a 6-3 win, but the Rangers (and specifically Alexandar Georgiev) got their revenge three weeks ago, when Georgiev pitched a shutout and the Rangers won 2-0 despite being outshot 44-18.
- Oddly, in both games this season, it’s been Georgiev and not presumptive Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin who has faced Carolina. Shesterkin is likely to play tonight, though, and this would be only his second-ever game against the Hurricanes. He’s 1-0 career against them.
- Frederik Andersen, himself a dark-horse Vezina candidate, played both games so far this season against the Rangers. He was supposed to get the day off on Sunday, but Antti Raanta was a bit under the weather, so it wouldn’t be a shock to see Raanta, a former Ranger, get the call tonight if he’s feeling up to it.
- We usually pull these stats out for Western Conference teams, but this is a real oddity: tonight is the Hurricanes’ first game at Madison Square Garden since December 27, 2019. Yes, really. That was the second and final game at MSG in the 2019-20 season; the teams didn’t play in 2020-21 due to the division-only schedule, and it took them until the end of April to visit this season.
- Given the Canes’ well-documented struggles at MSG, I’m sure they weren’t complaining: the Rangers are 18-1 against the Hurricanes at home since the start of the 2011-12 season.
- We’d usually give stats for Hurricanes facing their former team in this space, but there are so damn many of them that we’ll just list them all: Raanta, Tony DeAngelo, Derek Stepan, Brendan Smith, Jesper Fast and Brady Skjei. In addition, Max Domi’s dad Tie played a couple seasons with the Rangers, Greg McKegg and Julien Gauthier are former Hurricanes, and Rangers GM Chris Drury is the uncle of Jack.
- Also, Adam Fox is playing tonight.
- Congratulations are in order to Don Waddell, who will witness his 1100th game as an NHL general manager tonight. He’s been with the Hurricanes for 280 of those games (including tonight), and was the GM for 820 games in Atlanta from 1999-2010, serving as the head man for all but one season of the Thrashers’ existence before the team moved to Winnipeg.
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