Atlantic Division Showdown: Penguins/Rangers Preview

The Penguins match up against the Atlantic Division-leading New York Rangers tonight at 7:00 PM EST at Madison Square Garden.

Although the Penguins still have 4 games in hand on the Rangers, it would be nice to close the gap on them just a little. With essentially 4 points on the line tonight, the Penguins can close to within 3 points of the Blueshirts, rather than go 7 back.

Although Pittsburgh will have to contend tonight with the usual Rangers suspects --- Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Henrik Lundqvist --- the guy they really need to look out for is Nikolai Zherdev, the Rangers' top off-season acquisition from Columbus. He has started out well this year and not looked back. He leads the Rangers in scoring with 8 goals and 15 assists for 23 points in 27 games. He's also one of the few Rangers plus players at +8.

For the Penguins, they'll be missing Phillipe Boucher with an undisclosed injury. He'll probably be out a few weeks. Dany Sabourin will start in goal while Marc-Andre Fleury remains on the mend.

The key for the Boys of Winter tonight will be to try and get their power play going. It still sits last in the NHL away from home. Getting pucks behind Lundqvist is never easy; the Penguins will need their man-advantage tonight.

NOTE: For the month of December, Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke will fill the Alternate Captain roles, replacing Hal Gill and Rob Scuderi, who wore the "A" during the month of November. Brooks Orpik and Evgeni Malkin were the alternaties in October.

Recap tomorrow ....