Battle for the Metro! Rangers vs Hurricanes

Rangers	NHL Rankings	Hurricanes
51-22-6	Record	52-20-8
7^th	NHL Standing Rank	3^rd
16^th	GF/PG	10^th
2^nd	GA/PG	1^st
3^rd	PP%	11^th
8^th	PK%	1^st

With three games left in the season, the Rangers‘ chances to catch Carolina for first place in the Metropolitan Division are looking bleak. With a win tonight against the Rangers, Carolina would clinch first place in the division. If the Rangers win, they’ll trail Carolina by just two points with a game in hand. The Blueshirts also have to pass the Hurricanes in point total due to Carolina having the tiebreaker
The Steven McDonald Extra Effort Award will be given to the Rangers player that went “above and beyond the call of duty” as voted by the fans
Have to think that Chris Kreider and Igor Shesterkin are the two favorites to win the award this year. Adam Fox won the award last year
The big news entering the game on both sides regards the health of each team. For the Rangers, Andrew Copp, Filip Chytil, and Kaapo Kakko all participated in practice on Monday and are listed as game-time decisions for the Rangers. Copp and Chytil are more likely to return to the lineup based on line rushes and rotations at practice. Kakko has a chance to play Tuesday but is more likely to return on Wednesday
Gallant told the media that health is the most important thing about choosing his players and he wants them to be 100% for the playoffs
For Carolina, the biggest question comes in goal. Freddy Andersen had already been out with injury and backup goaltender Anti Raanta suffered an injury in their previous game against the Islanders. Pyotr Kochetkov is the likely starter for Carolina
The Blueshirts will get to face the Carolina third-string goaltender with a chance of evening up the season series. The Rangers are starting their final back-to-back of the season so expect Shesterkin and Alex Georgiev to split the two games
With catching Carolina very unlikely even with a win on Tuesday, you have to wonder if the Blueshirts start to rest players for the final two games of the season
One thing the Rangers will want to figure out is their power-play against the Hurricanes. These two teams have a chance of meeting up in the second round of the playoffs this season. The Blueshirts went 2-3 on the power-play in the first meeting this season but in the last two, they have gone 0-6. Carolina has the best penalty-killing unit in the NHL and they smothered the Rangers’ powerplay in the last meeting. On four attempts, Carolina’s aggressive penalty killing didn’t even let the Rangers set up. Even just figuring out how to get set up against Carolina could be vital information for the future
With three games left in the season – Artemi Panarin is four points shy of the century mark