Rangers Battle Kings at The Garden

Rangers (16-12-3, 35 pts) vs Kings (20-9-3, 43 pts)

7 pm, Madison Square Garden

MSG Network; ESPN 98.7 FM

Friday begins a back-to-back set for the Blueshirts, who will travel to Boston after the game to take on the Bruins Saturday afternoon. With the three games in four nights, goaltender Ondrej Pavelec is expected to start one of this weekend's games, though which is unknown.
The Kings arrive in New York with eight wins in their last 10 games, though the one regulation defeat came Tuesday in New Jersey.
After seeing his points decrease by 22 last season from the year prior, captain Anze Kopitar has rebounded to more than a point-per-game with the Kings in 2017-18. The 30-year-old has 16 goals - four more than his total last season - and 38 points through 32 games.
Dustin Brown is off to his best season since 2011-12, with 12 goals and 26 points in 32 games, followed by Drew Doughty's 24 points.
Goaltender Jonathan Quick is healthy again and is 15-9-1 with a 2.30 GAA and a .926 SV%. Backup Darcy Kuemper is 7-5-2 with a 1.88 GAA and a .941 SV%.

Players to Watch

Grabner padded his lead as the Rangers' goal leader with his 15th of the year on Wednesday, four ahead of both Buchnevich and Zibanejad. Grabner has fond memories of playing against the Kings, the team he established his single-game career-high with four points on Dec. 19, 2015 when he was a member of the Maple Leafs.
As stated, Kopitar is well on his way to eclipsing his point totals from a year ago when. In fact, Kopitar is on pace to set career-highs across the board, with his current best season coming in 2009-10 when he had 34 goals and 47 assists for 81 points in 82 games.

Rangers Projected Lineup

Chris Kreider - David Desharnais - Pavel Buchnevich
Rick Nash - Kevin Hayes - Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner - J.T. Miller - Mats Zuccarello
Paul Carey - Boo Nieves - Jimmy Vesey
Ryan McDonagh - Nick Holden
Brady Skjei - Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal - Brendan Smith

Inside the Numbers

The Rangers have earned at least one point in 10 of their last 13 games against Los Angeles, dating back to Dec. 17, 2008 (7-3-3 record over the span).