Lundqvist benched once again for tonight's game

The New York Rangers have won 5 of their past 7 games, including one against the Tampa Bay Lightning. This evening the Rangers are in Tampa Bay and will look to make in 6 out of 8.

The Blueshirts are indeed enjoying a hot run of form. That being said, they faced defeat in their last game as they lost at home in the overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins by a score of 3-2. Coach Quinn and the Rangers will undoubtedly be seeking to bounce back from a disappointing result on Tuesday.

Despite having lost to the Penguins in their last outing, Quinn maintains his faith in his current lineup. There will be absolutely no changes made to the Rangers' line combinations for tonight's game against the Lightning.

That means the New York legend and future Hall of Fame goaltender Henrik Lundqvist will once again be the back up to Alexandar Georgiev who is set to start yet another game. The young Bulgarian netminder has an identical record to that of the King so far this season, 4-3-1. His 2.73 goal against average is far from amazing but it is much better than Lundqvist's 3.23 GAA. 

While some may argue that Lundqvist has faced more shots and more difficult scoring opportunities than Georgiev (both have a similar save percentage hovering around 0.916), it now seems clear that David Quinn believes that Lundqvist is simply not doing enough.

Here is the Rangers' projected lineup for tonight's matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning according to NHL.com correspondent Corey Long:

Forwards:

Artemi Panarin - Ryan Strome - Jesper Fast

Chris Kreider - Filip Chytil - Pavel Buchnevich

Brendan Lemieux - Brett Howden - Kaapo Kakko

Greg McKegg - Lias Andersson - Brendan Smith

Defensemen:

Libor Hajek - Jacob Trouba

Brady Skjei - Tony DeAngelo

Ryan Lindgren - Adam Fox

Goaltenders:

Alexandar Georgiev

Henrik Lundqvist

Michael Haley is set to be the only healthy scratch for the Rangers, while Mika Zibanejad and veteran Marc Staal are still out with injuries.

The Lightning are playing their first game this evening since coming back from Sweden where they won back-to-back games against the Buffalo Sabres in the Global Series last weekend. They will be well rested. Look for them to come out strong and to show up well prepared to handle Panarin and Kakko who have been on fir for the Rangers lately.

It should be a great hockey game.