The Fan Hub

All eyes around the NHL will be on the Madison Square Garden ice on Thursday night when the New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins face off in a pivotal Atlantic Division showdown. The Rangers come into the game in first place in the Eastern Conference — the same place they’ve been for the past two months — but have a red-hot Penguins team nipping at their heels at just six points back with a game in hand.

The Penguins are in the midst of a nine-game winning streak that began with a 2-0 shutout of these same Rangers on February 21, and what’s even more amazing is that they’ve done all of it without captain Sidney Crosby, and most of it without no. 1 defenseman Kris Letang, who last played on February 29. Both players are set to return from their respective head injuries on Thursday night, a scary prospect for the rest of the league. When Crosby last came back in November, he collected 12 points in eight games before suffering another hit to the head and a recurrence of the concussion symptoms that plagued him during his 10-month layoff. Now with him back in the lineup, along with Hart Trophy frontrunner Evgeni Malkin, it’s not hard to understand why Rangers GM Glen Sather said that Pittsburgh is the best team in the NHL.

Sather’s statement undoubtedly raises a few eyebrows given his team’s place in the standings and his usual reluctance to speak to the media, but it also seems to be a bit of gamesmanship to motivate his team. The Rangers come into the game as decided underdogs even though they’re in first place. Not only does Pittsburgh have all the momentum and is getting back two of their stars, but the Rangers will also be without several of their top players; captain Ryan Callahan may miss his sixth game in the last two weeks with a bruised foot, Michael Del Zotto will likely miss his fourth straight game with a bruised hip, and Vezina frontrunner Henrik Lundqvist, who has been bed-ridden with the flu all week, will not dress for the game.

It’s certainly not the end of the world for the Rangers if they drop this contest, but it would certainly give them some much-needed breathing room over the surging Penguins, who have their sights set on that number one seed in the Eastern Conference with the playoffs quickly approaching.