The Chicago Blackhawks wrap up a set of back-to-back games against the New York Rangers on Friday night. In the house of the worst home team in the NHL, the Hawks have a chance to make amends for last night’s turnover debacle.
The last time these two met was a 3-0 shutout for Chicago at the United Center on Dec. 3. The New York Rangers were having an up-and-down start to the season. Since then, it’s been mostly down. The Rangers sit in 31st place with 65 points and were officially eliminated from the playoffs following a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. That’s a two-game losing streak for the Blueshirts and a 4-5-1 record in their last 10 games. As mentioned, this is a team that stinks at home: they own a 9-18-7 home record. Chicago is only two points ahead of them in the league standings, so this may actually be a game Rangers fans want lost for the sake of the draft lottery.
Eyeballing the draft lottery matters for the Rangers because they’ve accepted the dark realities of a rebuild. Rebuild casualties include Artemi Panarin, who was sent to the Los Angeles Kings in return for prospect forward Liam Greentree, a conditional 2026 third-round pick, and a conditional 2028 fourth-round pick. Nice work (sarcasm). Center Sam Carrick was sent to the Buffalo Sabres for a third and a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft. Aidan Thompson was acquired from the Blackhawks for defenseman Derrick Pouliot (both in the AHL). And 23-year-old Brennan Othmann was sent to the Calgary Flames for 19-year-old Jacob Battaglia (both wingers).
What’s left of the Rangers roster (which is mostly the same outside of Panarin’s absence) includes Mika Zibanejad leading the team in scoring with 69 points (32 G, 37 A). Alexis Lafreniere is next at 50 points (21 G, 29 A), followed by Vincent Trocheck at 48 points (15 G, 33 A), and J.T. Miller rounding out the top four scorers at 42 points (14 G, 28 A). Adam Fox leads the blueline with 39 points (5 G, 34 A) through 45 games played. Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov has 31 points (14 G, 17 A), and outside those two defencemen, none are cracking 20 points. Among the injured are goaltender Jonathan Quick (day-to-day), young forward Noah Laba (day-to-day), defenseman Urho Vaakanainen (day-to-day), and forward Matt Rempe is out for the season.
Here’s the Rangers’ lineup with Igor Shesterkin likely in net:
Full #NYR morning skate look:
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) March 27, 2026
Perreault – Zibanejad – Lafrenière
Cuylle – Trocheck – Sýkora
Kartye – Miller – Sheary
Raddysh – Brodzinski – Chmelař
Gavrikov – Fox
Borgen – Schneider
Fortescue – Robertson
The Blackhawks are 4-3-3 in their last 10 games, and that includes a sloppy loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night. The Hawks are looking at an absolutely winnable game against one of the worst teams in the league. The Rangers can have their tank win, we want to see young players like Anton Frondell continue to make an impact. Frondell has two points through his first two games and has displayed solid passing, skating, and puck protection. This will be Sacha Boisvert’s second game, who didn’t look bad in his NHL debut against Philadelphia. As long as the Hawks clean up their puck management and press the Rangers in transition, they should have no problems making Rangers fans happy on Tankathon.
Some good news for the Hawks. Louis Crevier appears to be okay following the terrifying skate-to-the-face incident that sent him off the ice on Thursday. The Blackhawks signed prospect Jiri Felcman to his entry-level contract, which kicks in next year. Felcman had a successful season in the Swiss league and signed his ATO with the Rockford IceHogs on March 25.
friday morning signing!🔔
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) March 27, 2026
📰 ➡︎ https://t.co/kY9lhtGO7M pic.twitter.com/roRlABBYDc
No lineups to report, so here’s what was iced last game. Arvid Soderblom can be expected to start. Soderblom has faced a high volume of shots in his last two starts. 49 saves in a 4-1 loss against the Colorado Avalanche (a .918 save percentage), and 47 saves in a 4-3 win over the New York Islanders ( a .936 save percentage).
Blackhawks lineup in warmups
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) March 26, 2026
Greene-Bedard-Frondell
Bertuzzi-Nazar-Lardis
Burakovsky-Donato-Mikheyev
Teräväinen-Boisvert-Slaggert
Vlasic-Levshunov
Kaiser-Rinzel
Del Mastro-Crevier
Knight
Söderblom
Let’s go Hawks.
Tale of the Tape
Blackhawks — Statistic — Rangers
45.83% (30th) — 5-on-5 Corsi For — 48.77% (21st)
42.79% (32nd) — 5-on-5 Expected goals for — 48.99% (21st)
2.57 (30th) — Goals per game — 2.76 (26th)
3.17 (23rd) — Goals against per game — 3.18 (24th)
46.4% (31st) — Faceoffs — 54.2% (3rd)
17.9% (23rd) — Power play — 24.3% (7th)
84.8% (1st) — Penalty kill — 78.1% (23rd)
(All stats from this season)
How to watch
When: 6:00 p.m. CT
Where: Madison Square Garden, New York
TV: CHSN
Webstream: ESPN+
Radio: WGN 720