The Rangers play the back end of their back-to-back games tonight as they host their cross-town rival New Jersey Devils.
- New York Rangers (16-8-4)
- New Jersey Devils (15-11-2)
- Television: MSG Network
- Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
The New York Rangers are back in action tonight with a contest against the first place New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden.
The Rangers are coming off a loss to the Washington Capitals by a score of 4-2 in which they gave up the opening goal against them just 14 seconds into the game. Michael Grabner scored his team-leading 14th goal of the year late in the second period. Jesper Fast scored his ninth of the year in the third period, but the Caps scored the last two goals of the game to take the win.
It was announced yesterday that center Mika Zibanejad (concussion) will not play in last night or tonight’s games. Tonight will be Mika’s fifth straight game out of the lineup. There has been no further status of his condition other than that he remains in the concussion protocol.
Mika Zibanejad (concussion) will remain out at least through the weekend. Tomorrow will be his fifth game missed.
— Justin Tasch (@J_Tasch) December 8, 2017
Zibanejad is missed on the power play, which has gone dormant. The team was 0-for-5 on the two-game road trip to Pittsburgh and Washington.
The New Jersey Devils are coming off a loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-3 at the Prudential Center.
The Devils leading goal scorer is Brian Gibbons, who has lit the lamp 11 times this year and has 15 points on the season. He is followed by Taylor Hall, the teams leading points scorer, who has nine goals and 20 assists this season. Rookie Nico Hischier is second on the team in points (five goals, 15 assists). The man between the pipes for the Devils is Cory Schneider (11-6-3) with 2.72 goals against average. The Devils are ranked 12th in the NHL on the power play at 20.45 percent efficient.
This is the second meeting between the two teams. The Devils defeated the Rangers 3-2 on Oct. 14 at MSG. They have two remaining games against one another after tonight, Dec. 21 @ New Jersey, Apr. 3 @ New Jersey.