New York Rangers Daily: Penguins come to town, line changes, Blackhawks fire coach
Welcome to the New York Rangers Daily, a new one-stop spot each morning for the latest news on the Blueshirts and the rest of the NHL.
The Rangers (13-10-1) return to action Friday when they host Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins (11-12-4) at Madison Square Garden. It seems like decades ago that the Rangers ran roughshod over the Penguins on opening night in Pittsburgh, winning 6-0.
Somehow the Rangers are only one point ahead of the Penguins in the Metropolitan Division with three games in hand. Part of the reason is that New York has lost six of their past seven games and Pittsburgh is on a season-long four-game winning streak.
Oh, and Crosby? He recently scored the 600th goal of his NHL career, and plays his 1,300th game on Friday.
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New York Rangers news
Let’s get you set for the Rangers-Penguins clash with our three things to watch for on Friday.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette stopped the line juggling this week in practice, so we should see more familiar groupings against the Penguins.
On the ice, the Rangers will try to get back on the winning track after a 5-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Monday. Off of it, NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman says the Rangers are the “team to watch” when it comes to making a trade in the upcoming days or weeks.
We’ve got you covered for the 4 Nations Face-Off, including Mike Richter’s take on the international tournament taking place in February. In addition, John Kreiser and I debate whether Rangers fans care at all about the 4 Nations Face-Off; and we break down which five Blueshirts will participate in the tournament.
Finally, it was fun night in Hartford, where Matt Rempe, Victor Mancini and Bryce McConnell-Barker supported Alex Belzile’s second hat trick of the season in an explosive 6-1 Wolf Pack victory.
NHL news
The Chicago Blackhawks (8-16-2) fired coach Luke Richardson and replaced him on an interim basis with Anders Sorenson, who was coaching Rockford in the American Hockey League. Richards is the third NHL coach fired already this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins) and Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues).
The hits keep coming to the Nashville Predators. They learned that forward Ryan O’Reilly is week to week with a lower-body injury, then went out and lost their sixth straight game, 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens.
Speaking of that win by the Canadiens, Patrik Laine scored again and has two goals in two games since returning from a knee injury.
Watch this: Two NHL players scored two goals in 23 seconds Thursday night. Brandon Hagel did so for the Tampa Bay Lightning in an 8-1 thrashing of the San Jose Sharks; and Owen Tippett of the Philadelphia Flyers did it during a 7-5 loss to the Florida Panthers.
On the night the Edmonton Oilers held a pregame ceremony to celebrate Connor McDavid reaching 1,000 points in the NHL, the superstar center went out and had four assists in a 6-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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