The Rangers scored twice in overtime on Friday night to take a 1-0 series lead, and stole home-ice advantage in the process. The Penguins were exploited twice for abandoning the slot and paid the prices. The Rangers were exploited twice for not picking up the trailer at the blue line. Both teams will make adjustments tonight. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were quiet on Friday, but that won’t last for long either.
Justin did an entire breakdown of this series, and it’s great reading if you haven’t done so already. This series will be won with special teams, but the Rangers –believe it or not– held the advantage at even strength during the regular season. If they can stay out of the box and exploit the fairly weak Pittsburgh defense and goaltending, as they did in Game One, they have a solid chance of coming home with a 2-0 series lead.
Rangers Lines:
Forwards
Martin St. Louis–Derek Stepan–Rick Nash
Carl Hagelin–Brad Richards–Dan Carcillo
Benoit Pouliot–Derick Brassard–Mats Zuccarello
Brian Boyle–Dominic Moore–Derek Dorsett
Defense
Ryan McDonagh–Dan Girardi
Marc Staal–Anton Stralman
John Moore–Kevin Klein
Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.
Scratches/Injuries: Chris Kreider (hand), Raphael Diaz (healthy), Ryan Haggerty (healthy), Jesper Fast (healthy) Justin Falk (healthy), J.T. Miller (healthy)
Game time is 7:30pm on NBCSN. Don’t forget to check out our Rangers Tickets link for deals to attend games.
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