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The New York Rangers (43-32-5, 91 pts., 8th in East) host the Atlanta Thrashers (33-34-12, 78 pts., 12th in East) at MSG tonight starting at 7:00 p.m. For a preview go to Yahoo! Sports.

Rangers Game Notes

TV: MSG; Radio: 1050AM ESPN Radio, XM 204

Probable Lines:
Wolski-Stepan-Prospal
Dubinsky-Anisimov-Gaborik
Fedotenko-Boyle-Prust
Avery-Christensen-Gilroy

Staal-Girardi
McDonagh-Sauer
McCabe-Eminger

Goaltenders:
Henrik Lundqvist - 35-26-5, 2.27 gaa, .923 sv%, 11 so.

Ondrej Pavelec - 20-22-9, 2.72 gaa, .914 sv%, 3 so.

Opponent Notes:
- The Thrashers are 12-3-3 in the past 18 meetings against the Rangers, including four straight wins at MSG.

- Atlanta's penalty kill is 18-for-19 in the past seven games.

- Toby Enstrom, who leads the Thrashers with 41 assists, is out tonight with a shoulder injury.

- Dustin Byfuglien has just one goal in his last 13 games. He has 20 goals on the season.

- Andrew Ladd leads the Thrashers in goals (27) and points (56).

- Former Ranger Nik Antropov is a -14 this season.

- Blake Wheeler has 7g, 8a in 20 games since being traded to the Thrashers from the Bruins.

- Former Rangers Radek Dvorak, who is day-to-day with a concussion, has just one assist in 13 games since being traded to the Thrashers from the Panthers.

2010-11 Season Series:
Oct. 27 Rangers 4, Thrashers 6 at MSG
Jan. 22 Rangers 3, Thrashers 2 (SO) at Atlanta
Feb. 11 Rangers 2, Thrashers 3 at Atlanta
April 7 Rangers vs. Thrashers at MSG

Opponent Blog:
The Blueland Chronicle

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Update, 4:54 p.m.:
Sean Leahy at Puck Daddy also sits down with Hagelin.

...Happy "Carl Hagelin Day" everybody.

Update, 3:36 p.m.:
In an interview with DJ Powers at Hockey's Future, Hagelin says he will attend Rangers camp this summer.

...assuming he's talking about the Rangers prospect development camp. Either way this is a good sign that Hagelin will be signing with the Rangers after rumors he may be looking elsewhere.

Original Post:
Just a heads-up that Rangers prospect Carl Hagelin (2007 - 6th), a senior at the University of Michigan, will be playing in the Frozen Four tonight against North Dakota at the Xcel Energy Center starting at 8:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPN2.

In the other national semi-final, Minnesota-Duluth takes on Notre Dame starting at 5:00 p.m. The winners will face each other in the nation championship game Saturday night. For more on the Frozen Four click here.

Hagelin has 18g, 30a in 48 games this season.

...i know the Rangers will be playing the biggest game of the season tonight, but I'll definitely be flipping over to ESPN2 to check out a big piece of the Rangers future.

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Jesse Spector at The Blueshirts Blog spoke with Erik Christensen after this morning's optional practice about the surging 9th place Carolina Hurricanes...

"What can we do?" Christensen said. "I guess it's what we expected. It's not gonna be easy. It forces us to play well again tonight, and forces us to play really well again on Saturday. There's nothing we can do about it."

Earlier in the day Spector tweeted that in the last 10 games the Rangers, Sabres and Hurricanse all have the identical 7-2-1 record.

At the optional skate were Christensen, Matt Gilroy, Vinny Prospal and Michael Sauer, the rehabbing Chris Drury and Chad Johnson.

...i have to keep reminding myself this is supposed to be fun. I have been an absolute mess today.

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Haven't done a live chat in a while and I figured after tonight's Rangers/Thrashers game would be a great time to bring it back. So at 10pm I'll get it fired up so we can talk hopefully about the Rangers being one step closer to making the playoffs or God forbid needing to beat the Devils on the final day of the NHL season to get in.

Should be a great time as always. Hope to see everyone there.

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For those of you not familiar with the Yahoo Sports fantasy rotisserie scoring system click here. For more on TheNYRBlog Fantasy Hockey League Championship round click here.

OVERALL POINTS
Team   G   A  +/-  PPP  SHG  GWG  H   W  GAA  SV%  SO  TOT
GS     7   7   7    5   6.5   5   1   7   8    8  6.5  68

JDAS   8  3.5  4   7.5  6.5   8   5   8   2    2  2.5  57

FS     1   8   5   3.5  2.5   5   6   5   5   6.5 2.5  50

MSGU   3   2   6   1.5  2.5   5   3   5   7   6.5 6.5  48

TG     4  3.5  2   3.5  2.5   7   4   5   3    5  6.5  46

S'94   5   5   3    6   6.5  1.5  2   2   4   3.5 2.5  41

GTFM   6   6   1   7.5  6.5   3   7   2   1    1  2.5  43.5

BLUE   2   1   8   1.5  2.5  1.5  8   2   6   3.5 6.5  42.5

Team Key: JDAS = Jim Dolan's All Stars, TG = The Greeks, S'94 = Spring of '94, GTFM = GetTheFrolovMatteau, BLUE = BLUESHIRTS, FS = Fire Sather, MSGU = MS G-Unit, GS = Glen Sather

Scoring Key: G = Goals, A = Assists, +/- = +/-, PPP = Power Play Points, SHG = Shorthanded Goals, GWG = Game Winning Goal, H = Hits, W = Wins, GAA = Goals Against Average, SV% = Save Percentage, SO = Shutouts, TOT = Total Points

OVERALL STATS
Team         G  A  +/-  PPP  SHG  GWG  H  W  GAA  SV%  SO
GTFM        16 23  -8    14   1    2  85  3  3.11 .896  0

Fire Sather  8 27   6    10   0    3  77  5  2.18 .927  0

Spring '94  15 22   2    12   1    1  57  3  2.20 .923  0

Glen Sather 20 25  11    11   1    3  46  6  1.62 .939  1

The Greeks  13 21  -4    10   0    4  69  5  2.28 .925  1

MS G-Unit   11 20   7    5    0    3  61  5  1.98 .927  1

Dolan Stars 21 21   4    14   1    5  73  8  2.39 .919  0

BLUESHIRTS  10 16  12    5    0    1  86  3  2.15 .923  1

Thank you to the Rangers and Glass Bangers T-Shirts (I definitely recommend checking them out) for hooking us up with some great prizes.

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TheNYRBlog reader Eric S. uses his connections (why don't I have them?) to get into the MSG television booth and take a pic with Boston Bruins color commentator Andy Brickley during the Rangers 5-3 come from behind victory over the Bs Monday night...


...too bad it was a Versus game and Eric couldn't get a shot with Sam.

As always please continue to e-mail ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) your Rangers related pictures to me so I can post them.

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Rangers players Brian Boyle, Henrik Lundqvist, Derek Stepan and Brandon Dubinsky discuss the upcoming game vs. Atlanta after the team's April 6 practice.


Rangers head coach John Tortorella and defenseman Matt Gilroy discuss the decision to use Gilroy as a right wing for an April 7 game vs. Atlanta.


After the team's April 6 practice, Rangers forward Ryan Callahan and some teammates talked about Callahan's ankle injury and how it will affect the Blueshirts.

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Michael Farber at SI.com lists the 20 things to love about the NHL...

8. I like the fans in the Madison Square Garden's blue seats. Tough crowd. Smart crowd. They know the Rangers. They know the game. They know each other because so many have had the seats for so long. The small, end-arena press box at the Garden offers a unique view, but the upper press box affords stupendous eavesdropping. This is a hockey society in its grandest sense. I hope owner Jim Dolan isn't pricing out the fans in the blues.

...sorry to break the news to you Mike but Dolan is.

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