Rangers Face NHL's Penguins

The Rangers will open the Eastern Conference semis at Pittsburgh on Friday 4/25 and will have a Sunday afternoon game at Pittsburgh, on 4/27, also. The Rangers get home ice on Tuesday 4/29, Thursday 5/1 and if necessary Monday 5/5. Pittsburgh gets game five, if necessary on Sunday 5/4 and the crucial game seven, if necessary, on Wednesday May 7th. So the powers to be are smiling that their favorite team, the Pens, will be on National TV, at least once and maybe twice.

So it will be up to our heroes to put a stake into the heart of the Pens, the NHL, the networks and also into whiner number two and moving up, Sydney Crosby. Make no mistake about it folks the Pens and their poster boy are the star attractions of the NHL. Have you ever watched them on Versus? They may as well call it the Sydney Crosby Show. Can the Rangers derail this NHL Idol and his supporting cast? It says here they can. How?

First of all the Rangers must abandon the defense at all costs philosophy. The rope-a-dope defensive structure must be dissolved. Yes, the Rangers must play some type of defense but the defense first mentality must go. The best defense is the best offense and the Rangers showed signs of that in the last two games against the Devils. The last game was close because the Rangers abandoned their offense to go totally defensive in the third period. To sort of mix things up, the Rangers defense was offensive. Figure it out.

The Rangers must be disciplined and must stay out of the box as the Pens do draw penalties. They drew the 4th most penalties in the NHL during the regular season and have a 20.4% rating on the power play. The Rangers are not that far behind in PP opportunities, ranking sixth in PP opportunities. The problem is that the Rangers PP % is at 16.5. So stay away from the hooks and the holds, the refs will call enough phantom calls against us.

Press the attack. Tough forechecking, shots on goal and go to the net with a purpose. And press we must as the young Pittsburgh goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury is red hot with a GAA of 1.26 and a save percentage of .955. Heady numbers, but remember that Ottawa was a shell of its early season form. Attack. Forecheck. Shoot the puck. Go to the net and score. Goooal! Goooal! Goooal!

Jagr says that booing sometimes has an effect on how he plays. Hope it's a good effect as he will be booed every time he gets near the puck. Maybe the Ranger fans should retaliate and boo Sir Sydney every time he gets near the puck. Overall the Rangers seem to be in excellent shape for this series. Steal one in Pittsburgh and it should make for an interesting series. The Rangers won only one out of four in Pittsburgh during the regular season and took all four at the Garden. The offense must continue the pressure that worked against the Devils and the defense has to get TOUGHER.

Lundqvist has to be our Prince. Rangers in six.

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