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John Dellapina / Daily News:
Rangers Like Own Youth vs. Penguins
Breaking Down The Rangers-Penguins Eastern Conference Semifinal Series
Rangers-Penguins TV sked
Steve Zipay / Newsday:
Rangers vs. Penguins Preview: The Matchups
NY Post:
Jagr: Sidney Not In Mario's League
Bettman KOs Avery Shirt
Sam Weinman / Journal News:
Subplots Abound In Rangers-Penguins Series
Hockey Bird:
Rangers vs. Ice Chickens -- Isn't that nice.....a whole series of hearing about how great Sid the Kid is ...
Scotty Hockey:
So It's Set: Rangers vs. Penguins -- ... Keys To The Series.
*Someone has to give Cindy a binky so he can't cry to the refs...
Outside the Garden:
Penguin On The Menu
Lisa Kennelly / Star-Ledger:
Jagr facing chilly return to the Igloo
NY Times:
Penguins’ Fans Are Certain To Boo When Jagr Takes Flight
Rangers-Penguins, a Parent’s Nightmare -- Marc Stall (NY) vs. Jordan Staal (Pitt)
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Penguin ScatThe Pens Blog:
No Sleep Till Manhattan -- With both teams possessing some nice firepower, it's gonna come down to the goalies...
This guy [Arthur Staple] isn't calling for a Ranger to injure a Penguin, so he's still all right.
He's just spewing his nonsense ...
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The Pens Blog: Bulletin Board Material --:: Crosby's a diver. [ Newsday ]Sean Leahy / Going Five Hole:
New York Media Already Removing Their Binky's -- ... Arthur Staple [at Newsday] prepares an excuse if the Penguins get by the Rangers.
Rangers may have to beat Crosby and refs, too -- [The Rangers] should be absolutely certain that Crosby will whine to the refs every time he's bodied off a puck or otherwise interrupted.Haven't we been down this road before? So, basically Sidney Crosby and the Penguins will never get a fair shake in the eyes of opposing fans and media because there's some conspiracy for him to win a Stanley Cup every single year of his career.
Sid the Kid is the best player in the game, but at just 20 years old, he's become a master at complaining and drawing penalties with dives or overreactions to slashes and sticks waving by his face...
Can we get over that already? ...
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The Sidney Crosby Show:Prepare For Battle -- And there are two more things that prove how much of a tool this guy [Arthur Staple of Newsday] is...
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Gene Collier / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:Traffic alert: Penguins rev up -- The Rangers . . . represent balance, discipline, experience, hunger and just about every other conceivable menace without even mentioning Sean Avery. "
They play such good defense," said Penguins forward Petr Sykora, the first-round sniper. "When we get chances, we've got to create traffic in front of the net. You're not going to get a lot of outside goals or stuff that starts behind the net. We've got to create traffic."
You wouldn't figure a New York team to be unduly aggravated by traffic, but it appears right now to be the only way to beat Lundqvist, keeper of the New York net and fresh off a five-game dismissal of gold standard counterpart Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils. "
He's big and he doesn't get caught out of position," Sidney Crosby said of King Henry after yesterday's practice. "If you get a chance to get him out of position, you've got to make it count." ...
The Blue Line / NJ.com:
Subplots should mean more drama -- First of all, don't call him Henry. Second of all, can you believe on a team filled with stars, the defense, of all things, gets so much credit from former Ranger Petr Sykora? Very interesting...
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The Sidney Crosby Show:Ammo Against Avery -- Now that we know we face the Rangers for round 2, let the loathing begin anew! And my God, there aren't even words to describe this hate-inducing gem that good Friend of The Show Cassie C. found about Ranger schmuck Sean Avery (from ABC News):
Macho man and provocateur Sean Avery -- by some accounts the most hated player in the National Hockey League [snoop: you can say that again] -- will be joining the estrogen-infused world of fashion as an unpaid intern at Vogue magazine...Why We Call Sid The Saint[this guy is a joke]
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Seth Rorabaugh, Empty Netter Blog / Pittsburg Post-Gazette:[very good] Rounding Up -- Welcome to the conference semifinals. Or the second round. Or the round after the first round. Or whatever you want to call it.
It's been a while since Penguins fans have been this far...
Something worthwhile about the Penguins: Sidney Crosby (2.00) and Evgeni Malkin (1.75) have the two highest point-per-game averages in the playoffs. ...
Something useless about the Rangers: From 1989 to 1993, the Rangers drafted at least one player who would eventually become a Penguin. They are: Roman Oksiuta (10th round 1989), Sergei Zubov (Fifth round, 1990), Alex Kovalev (first round, 1991), Peter Ferraro (first round 1992), Eric Cairns (third round, 1992), Chris Ferraro (fourth round, 1992) and Maxim Galonov (third round, 1993).
Best Rangers YouTube We Could Find: Rangers defenseman Barry Beck jumping over the boards to fight Penguins defenseman Paul Baxter:
-Arthur Staple of Newsday is the early favorite to be the Don Brennan of this series. He claims Sidney Crosby is a diver and that Adam Graves's slash back in the 1992 playoffs on Mario Lemieux was an unintentional dirty play...
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FAUXRUMORS:Second Round Predictions -- NY Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: In our pre-season-playoff predictions we picked the East's Final 4 as the Rangers, Pitt, Philly and Ottawa. We had the Rangers playing the Penguins for the Conference title. So its a round earlier? Anyway, this match up should prove to be the much more entertaining of the two East series. These teams played 8 times in the regular season so they're should be little need to get acquainted. The two contrast in style with the offensively gifted Penguins looking to/can run opposing teams out of the building, with the patient/disciplined Rangers waiting for opposing teams to make mistakes. Generally in the playoffs its the ladder that wins more games, as does the team with the better goalie (Rangers). However we will have to go against the grain here and believe that the penguins simple possess to much fire power for even Vezina candidate Lundqvist to handle. Key players for both teams: For Pittsburgh: Fleury. For the Rangers: J. Jagr. Prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
vs.
James Mirtle:
More predictions with conviction It's Round 2 already -- ... My big worry in picking the Rangers in this one, as I did preplayoffs, is the fact Tom Renney's going to roll out a green defence (Dan Girardi and Marc Staal) against some of the league's true superstars. I think they'll surprise us — and it'll come down to the goalies. King Henrik wins. (Sorry Pensblog Charlie.)
New York in 6.
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Penguins Playoff Video Blog:Sweep!! Pens win 3-1 move on to next round -- Here are my awards for round one of the playoffs
Penguins MVP:
The MVP has to be Marc-andre Fleury.
- He gave up a total of 5 goals in four games
- Fleury posted a goals against average of just 1.26
- He finished with a save percentage of .955
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NY Rangers:Video [3:37 min] -- Chris Elliott of the "Late Show with David Letterman" visits the Rangers, find out what happens in his attempt to skate with the Blueshirts.
Almost everyone predicts the Pens in six. Of course, these people ignore that the Rangers took 2 of 3 in March against these same Pens and 5 of 8 on the year. Almost everyone, that is, except the one commentator I respect - Bill Guerin. Bill, a man who has won the Cup (unlike Barry Melrose) and played each team several times this year thinks the Rangers will win. Why? Three strong lines, not two, and a fourth line that is all energy and hitting. I agree.
Rangers in Six.
12 to go!
section 335,
6 would be great, but fear the Blueshirts power-play problems and Fleury help Pens keep it tight.
Rangers in 7.
if our 'ole boy Captain Jagr can pull a 'Gomez in NJ' then we will have a shot at this. My greatest fear in all of this is our stupid Renney defensive system -- they have too much firepower, and I believe the only way we can capture control is by storming the net offensively. They will not expect it.
anxious in my dark corner...
tdr
tdr,
I see Dellapina gave the coaching edge to the Rangers. Does that surprise you?
The Therrien versus Renney chess game will be key. If Renney stays with his defensive 'rope-a-dope' does that prevent the Rangers from winning? And could he change things up? This series will tell us a great deal about the man behind the bench, for good (light) or bad (dark).
My guess is that this time of year, our phantom GM tell Clueless what he has to do. Usually, that means listen to the wisest man on the ice. For Glen, that once was Messier. now and now it is Shanny.
Shanny told the old men that this series will be determined by special teams. I believe that is likely true too. If we can keep out of the box, this series is ours. If not, Henrik will have an impossible task. We need him to steal one in the Igloo.
PS. The seeing Alexi Kovalev skating with his hair flowing in Montreal brought back old images of Guy LaFleur. Ever since Neil Smith picked him, I have thought him a world class talent with a head problem. If he is motivated, he can be one of the best players in the world - as both Jagr and Mario once said, he has top three talent. Montreal is fun to watch.
12 to go. Starting with one tonight. We need this one.
u rangers are gonign get dick punched by everyone and the pengiuns!! dorkzoids!!!!!!!!
It's nice to see that some of the dirty ice-chickens are visiting and leaving their droppings.
I liked that quote from the Pens blog: "It won't take long for the hatred to start..."
One of my sports highlights this last year was going to a Jets-Steelers game at the Meadowlands in Nov. and seeing the woeful Jets upset the vaunted Steelers in overtime. A third of the stadium was filled with Steelers fans waving their "terrible towels."
The "terrible towels" did a nice job mopping up all the tears when the game was over. It was a long drive back to W. Penn. for alot of folks.
section 335,
The Alexi Kovalev video was great. Good looking "old-school" style hair flowing in the breeze. I enjoy watching some of the old-timers charity games etc. just because they don't wear helmets and you can easily recognize everyone. It would be super to see Kovalev in the Garden after the Rangers dispatch "Saint Sidney" and his disciples. But, I don't want to count our ice-chickens before they're cooked.
Section 335,
Forgot to add that if the "brain-trust" is really listening to Shanny that is good news for the Blueshirts.
I think he'll be coaching someday.
In Shanny we trust.
If they don't listen to him then they are a "brain-bust."
Sorry this is long though you might find this interesting!
First, the series the Penguins just won: Who was the hero and who was the villain?
Hero: Marc-Andre Fleury. Flower showed us he’s the real deal. Villain: Bryan Murray, who seemed more interested in playing head games than in winning the series. Runner-up: Montreal citizens. What kind of idiots riot after winning the first round?
Now on to the new series. Who will win it, and why?
Penguins. They have too much firepower over a seven-game series. If Fleury can match Lundqvist and the Pens can keep Avery from getting into their heads, they should win. The Rangers have some firepower of their own, so it won’t be easy. Hal Gill being a CJN (Certified Jagr Neutralizer) certainly helps.
Any history between these two teams?
The Rangers have former Penguins Rozsival, Straka and Jagr. That makes it interesting. Jagr didn’t leave here on good terms. That’s why he is booed at the Igloo. Time for Pens fans to show some class -– stop booing Jagr! He’s one of the all-time great Penguins!
Do Pens fans have an opinion about Rangers fans, and if so, what is it?
We don’t have anything against the fans. We just hated the Rangers for years because they thought money could solve their problems. Maybe we should be thanking them –- they’re the single biggest reason for the salary cap!