Season Series: The Pens and Rangers met twice early in the season, with the Penguins shutting the Rangers out 3-0 at Madison Square Garden to kick off the campaign before losing 6-1 at home four days later.<\/p>\n
Hidden stat: The Rangers just went 0-4-0 against the Islanders in their cross-city rivalry. This marked the first time in franchise history the Rangers never held a lead in the season series, per The Athletic\u2019s Peter Baugh<\/a>.<\/p>\n Getting to know the Rangers<\/p>\n J.T. Miller – Mika Zibanejad – Gabriel Perreault<\/p>\n Will Cuylle – Vincent Trocheck – Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re<\/p>\n Brennan Othmann – Noah Laba – Taylor Raddysh<\/p>\n Brett Berard – Sam Carrick – Matt Remde<\/p>\n Vladislav Gavrikov \/ Braden Schneider<\/p>\n Matthew Robertson \/ Will Borgen<\/p>\n Urho Vaakanainen \/ Scott Morrow<\/p>\n Goalies: Jonathan Quick, Spencer Martin<\/p>\n Potential scratches: Artemi Panarin (roster management), Jonny Brodzinski, Connor Mackey<\/p>\n Injured Reserve: Conor Sheary, Adam Fox, Adam Edstrom, Igor Shesterkin<\/p>\n Artemi Panarin hasn\u2019t played since Jan. 26. He isn\u2019t expected to slot back into the lineup before rosters freeze for the Olympic break on Feb. 4, and ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan<\/a> reportedly it\u2019s \u201clikely\u201d he\u2019s already skated in his final game for the Rangers.The Rangers lost two key players to injury earlier this month when star goaltender Igor Shesterkin and top defenseman Adam Fox were placed on injured reserve the same day. Fox was placed on LTIR, and Saturday is the first day he\u2019s eligible to return. He returned to practice in a non-contact jersey<\/a> on Wednesday. Anthony Mantha – Sidney Crosby – Rickard Rakell<\/p>\n Egor Chinakhov – Tommy Novak – Evgeni Malkin (?)<\/p>\n Kevin Hayes – Ben Kindel – Justin Brazeau<\/p>\n Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Noel Acciari<\/p>\n Parker Wotherspoon \/ Erik Karlsson<\/p>\n Brett Kulak \/ Kris Letang (?)<\/p>\n Ilya Solovyov \/ Ryan Shea<\/p>\n Goalies: Arturs Silovs and Stuart Skinner<\/p>\n Potential Scratches: Bryan Rust (serving the second game of his three-game suspension), Connor Clifton<\/p>\n IR: Ryan Graves, Filip Hallander, Caleb Jones, Jack St. Ivany<\/p>\n What the Penguins\u2019 lineup looks like today will depend on the status of Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin. The Pens announced Friday that an update was coming on both players.If Letang and Malkin are unable to play Saturday, Kevin Hayes will likely slot in on the second line and Connor Clifton will draw in on defense, while the Penguins will hope the upcoming Olympic break gives their veterans a chance to rest up. As one player pointed out to the Tribune-Review\u2019s Seth Rorabaugh, they are \u201ccloser to 40,\u201d after all.Penguins team reporter Michelle Crechiolo<\/a> shared a fun article Friday about the chemistry on the Penguins this season, both in terms of the coaching staff and among the players in the locker room. That\u2019s included Evgeni Malkin taking Arturs Silovs, Sergei Murashov, Egor Chinakhov and Ilya Solovyov out for meals, according to Crechiolo.Erik Karlsson will enter Saturday\u2019s matchup one assist away from career helper No. 700.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who: New York Rangers (22-27-6, 50 points, 8th place Metropolitan Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (27-14-11, 65 points, 2nd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,1325,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-449664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-general","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Screenshot-2026-01-30-at-11.54.37\u202fAM.png\"\/)
<\/a>With Panarin sidelined, Mika Zibanejad is the most dangerous Rangers player to look out for. He\u2019s got goals in two straight games, although the Rangers were outscored by a total of 8-3 in those outings, and he was the lone player to score Thursday against the Islanders.The Rangers have been leaning on Jonathan Quick and Spencer Martin in net since Sorokin went down with injury. The two have been alternating starts for the last six games. Quick hasn\u2019t recorded a regulation win since Nov. 7\u2014 his lone victory since then came on Jan. 26 against the Boston Bruins in overtime. He got the last start Thursday against the Islanders, so it could potentially be Martin back in net tonight.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.pensburgh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/123\/2026\/01\/oerixpyuii3ujdl3bkom.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n