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That’s what it has come to, folks. After ab abysmal 1-5 start, the Rangers are in danger of falling below the four-points-out line at the end of October, which makes it very difficult (not impossible) to make the playoffs. Now with the Penguins in town, the feat gets tougher.

Coaching is an issue. As is roster construction. But the piece that the players control is showing up to play. Saturday against the Devils was inexcusable, and hopefully that serves as rock bottom. The lines went through a blender again, but the defense pairings look somewhat decent. Who knows, maybe they turn it around tonight.

Penguins Systems

The best part about facing the Penguins is that the Rangers faced themrecently in the playoffs. 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:

Jake Guentzel-Sidney Crosby-Conor Sheary
Bryan Rust-Evgeni Malkin-Phil Kessel
Carl Hagelin-Greg McKegg-Patric Hornqvist
Tom Kuhnackl-Carter Rowney-Ryan Reaves

Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Matt Hunwick-Justin Schultz
Olli Maata-Chad Ruhwedel

PP1: Crosby-Kessel-Malkin-Hornqvist-Schultz
PP2: Sheary-Guentzel-Rust-Maata-Schultz

Matt Murray gets the start.

Rangers Lines

Rick Nash-Mika Zibanejad-Mats Zuccarello
Chris Kreider-David Desharnais-JT Miller
Jimmy Vesey-Kevin Hayes-Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner-Adam Cracknell-Pavel Buchnevich

Ryan McDonagh-Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei-Brendan Smith
Marc Staal-Kevin Shattenkirk

PP1: Zibanejad-Kreider-Buchnevich-Zuccarello-Shattenkirk
PP2: Nash-Desharnais-Miller-Vesey-McDonagh

Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.

Scratches/Injuries: Nick Holden (healthy), Steven Kampfer (healthy)

Crazy Prediction: In an odd twist, the Rangers blow out the Pens 8-0, but don’t score again until November.

Game time is 7pm. Be sure to follow on Twitter for gifs, and on our Snapchat for in-game experiences.

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