Playoff hockey is here, and your President’s Trophy winning New York Rangers are taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins in their quest to play hockey in June once more. This series is a rematch of last year’s Metro Division Finals, when the Rangers won three straight to beat the Pens in seven.

The Pens are dealing with some major injuries to Kris Letang, Christian Ehrhoff, Derrick Pouliot, Olli Maata, and Pascal Dupuis, with at least three of them out for the duration of the playoffs. That said, the Penguins still have Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, so they are no pushover. The Rangers are without Kevin Klein tonight, the only injury the Blueshirts are facing at the moment.

Justin did a full goalie preview of Marc-Andre Fleury, as the Rangers will look to exploit his playoff shortcomings. I wrote a comprehensive series preview, and you should definitely check out both if you haven’t yet already.

Penguins Lines

Daniel Winnik-Sidney Crosby-Patric Hornqvist
Chris Kunitz-Evgeni Malkin-David Perron
Beau Bennett-Brandon Sutter-Steve Downie
Nick Spaling-Maxim Lapierre-Blake Comeau

Paul Martin-Ben Lovejoy
Rob Scuderi-Ian Cole
Taylor Chorney-Scott Harrington

PP1: Martin-Crosby-Malkin-Perron-Hornqvist
PP2: Kunitz-Bennett-Downie-Cole-Scuderi

PK: Winnik, Lapierre, Sutter, Spaling, Crosby, Martin, Scuderi, Lovejoy, Cole

Marc-Andre Fleury is in net.

Rangers Lines

Chris Kreider–Derek Stepan–Rick Nash
Mats Zuccarello–Derick Brassard–J.T. Miller
Carl Hagelin–Kevin Hayes–Martin St. Louis
Tanner Glass–Dominic Moore–Jesper Fast

Marc Staal–Ryan McDonagh
Keith Yandle–Dan Girardi
Matt Hunwick–Dan Boyle

PP1: Stepan, Brassard, Kreider, Nash, Yandle
PP2: Miller, Hayes, Zuccarello, Boyle, McDonagh

PK: Stepan, Nash, Girardi, Staal, Moore, Fast, Hunwick, Boyle, Hagelin, Yandle, McDonagh

Henrik Lundqvist is in net.

Scratches/Injuries: Kevin Klein (arm), James Sheppard (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: The Rangers shutout the Penguins to open the series.

Be sure to check out our ticket link if you’re looking for tickets to the game. Game time is 7pm on MSG and NBCSN.

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