New York Rangers Report, 12/9/17: Devils in town tonight
Photo by Abbie Parr/Getty Images

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.

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.

A graduate of St. John's University class of '91. I have been a fan of the New York Rangers since the days of Peter Puck. Founder of Ranger Proud, the Facebook page that covers all news, notes, pre /post-game stats, and player quotes. I can be reached at [email protected]