AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

Life without Mika Zibanejad begins today, and it’s going to really test the forward depth for the Rangers. Zibanejad brought more to the Rangers than meets the eye, as he was excellent in most facets of the game, even if he had cooled off since his hot start. The Rangers are already without Pavel Buchnevich, and even with a returning Josh Jooris, the scoring depth has been taking a hit lately.

With two fairly big injuries in the forwards, the Rangers are going to have to find other ways to win games. That means goaltending and defense are going to need to start coming through for them. Henrik Lundqvist isn’t the concern, so it’s the defense (both the blue liners and overall team defense) that needs to improve. Time for everyone to pick up the slack.

As for the Penguins, we know what they are. They are the model that the Rangers have built their team after. However they don’t have the injury bug at the moment, and their blue line is easily more mobile. This is a true test for the Rangers.

Penguins Systems

The best part about facing the Penguins is that the Rangers faced them last year. So I have a very detailed systems comparison between the two teams. Go check it out here.

If you don’t want to read it, here’s the long and short of it. Mike Sullivan has the Penguins running a 2-1-2 forecheck, much like Sully used to have when he was an assistant here under John Tortorella. The Penguins run a full zone in the defensive zone, overloading the boards and switching to a box+1 depending on puck location. On special teams, Sully runs a 1-3-1/umbrella hybrid powerplay and a full fledged zone hybrid (box, diamond, wedge+1) penalty kill.

For more details on hockey systems, check out our Systems page.

Penguins Lines:

Carl Hagelin-Sidney Crosby-Conor Sheary
Jake Guentzel-Evgeni Malkin-Phil Kessel
Scott Wilson-Nick Bonino-Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnhackl-Matt Cullen-Eric Fehr

Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Olli Maata-Travor Daley
Justin Schultz-Ian Cole

PP1: Crosby-Sheary-Kessel-Malkin-Letang
PP2: Guentzel-Bonino-Wilson-Daley-Schultz

Marc-Andre Fleury gets the start.

Rangers Lines (presumed):

Chris Kreider–Kevin Hayes–Mats Zuccarello
Michael GrabnerDerek StepanRick Nash
Jimmy Vesey–Brandon Pirri-J.T. Miller
Josh Jooris-Oscar Lindberg–Jesper Fast

Ryan McDonaghDan Girardi
Marc StaalBrady Skjei
Nick HoldenKevin Klein

PP1: DJ ZBad-Miller-Pirri-Zucc-McDonagh
PP2: Nash-Stepan-Vesey-Hayes-Girardi

Antti Raanta gets the start.

Injuries/Scratches: Mika Zibanejad (leg), Adam Clendening (healthy), Pavel Buchnevich (upper body), Matt Puempel (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: A shutout.

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