New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

Sunday, 3:00 p.m.

Madison Square Garden

Rangers Record: 29-24-4

Penguins Record: 35-18-4

On Sunday afternoon, Feb. 13, the Rangers return home after a three-game road trip to take on the Penguins. The Rangers, still winless since the All-Star break, look to get back to their pre-break form with their first home game in 10 days. Pittsburgh has been slightly struggling as well, due to the loss of forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to injury, both possibly for the season.

Despite the return of much of the Rangers’ extensive disabled list to the active roster, the wins have not been coming. The Rangers have been working hard in every game, but it just has not been quite enough to get the points. There was a bright point, however, in the Rangers’ most recent game—Friday night’s loss against Atlanta—in which they were able to take a one-goal lead during the third period. It was the first time in the past 255:35 minutes of play that the Rangers had held any lead at all. With this improvement, and the Rangers’ overall satisfactory play, the wins will start coming. A home-ice advantage might be exactly what they need to get back on the right track.

The Penguins have definitely been feeling the loss of their two star forwards. Their last game, a 9-3 routing by the Islanders on Friday night, showed that they have some work to do to adequately overcome these injuries. The Penguins will likely come out with a fire on Sunday, looking to avenge their loss and show that they are still the great team that they were.

The Rangers are suffering from injuries to forwards Derek Boogaard, Chris Drury and Ruslan Fedotenko, as well as the season-ending injury to forward Alex Frolov.

In addition to Crosby and Malkin, the Penguins have injuries to forwards Arron Asham, Mike Comrie, Dustin Jeffrey, Chris Kunitz and Mark Letestu. This depleted team has been struggling, but has something to prove, and will attempt to do that against the Rangers on Sunday.

This is the fifth time the Rangers and Pens will face-off this season—the current season series stands at 2-2. Someone has to take the lead…be sure to watch and see if the Rangers can finally get that elusive win!