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New York Rangers

Five keys for the Rangers-Penguins playoff series

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  • Ryan McDonagh will miss the first game, and possibly the second with what is believed to be a broken bone in his right hand. Dan Girardi has a chronically cranky knee, and the speedy Penguins will have to be contained with help from backchecking forwards and hardy defense from Marc Staal, Kevin Klein, Keith Yandle, Dan Boyle and rookie Brady Skjei. No easy task, even without the sidelined Evgeny Malkin, against the likes of Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz, Hagelin, Nick Bonino and defenseman Kris Letang.
    Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac
  • Can Henrik Lundqvist steal some games? He's done it before, and may not have to be perfect if the Rangers can pressure Marc-Andre Fleury, returning from a concussion on March 31, with plenty of shots and screens. Fleury can be vulnerable in the playoffs, and the backups are Matt Murray and Jeff Zatkoff. Games may very well be decided by net front play and deflections. Watch for goaltender interference calls. Lundqvist, now 34 and named the team's MVP yet again, gets amped for the playoffs, and if he can gain some confidence, the Swede can be very tough. If he falters, this could be a short series.
    Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac
  • The Rangers have to stay out of the box and the penalty-killing units have to be better. They have improved in the last month, but are still lagging, just 26th in the NHL. The Penguins, meanwhile, are fifth in the league, denying opponents at an 84.4 percent clip. The power play squads are a wash, with the Rangers 14th and the Penguins 16th.
    Photo Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke

If the Rangers-Penguins series has a familiar ring, let’s recall how the bells have tolled in the past two postseasons.

Two springs ago, the Rangers were down in a second-round, best-of-seven series, 3-1, a deficit they had never come back from in franchise history. The Penguins had finished 13 points ahead of them. But an emotional, team-wide rally after the death of Martin St. Louis’ mother propelled the Blueshirts to three straight wins.

Last April, the Rangers captured a first-round series in five games, with Henrik Lundqvist allowing just eight goals, and Carl Hagelin — now a Penguin — scoring the overtime winner in Game 5.

This year, only three points separated the teams in the regular-season standings, thanks to an incredible post-Christmas run by the Penguins that included three wins against the Rangers from Feb. 10 to March 27.

Here are five key areas to watch when the puck drops on Wednesday in CONSOL Energy Center:

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