After yesterday afternoon’s “game” against the Isles, the Rangers traveled to Pittsburgh for another divisional showdown against the defending back-to-back Cup champs. The Penguins are not the same as they used to be, very top heavy and lacking on the blue line. That said, they’ve been extremely unlucky all year, and that terrible SH% is bound to get back to normal.
If the Rangers continue to play like they have the past few weeks, they are going to get torched by the Penguins. Regardless of their struggles, they still have elite talent that can put the puck in the net. We keep wondering the Rangers will wake up. We’ve been waiting for a few years now.
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:
Conor Sheary-Sidney Crosby-Patric Hornqvist
Jake Guentzel-Evgeni Malkin–Phil Kessel
Carl Hagelin–Riley Sheahan-Bryan Rust
Tom Kuhnackl-Carter Rowney-Ryan Reaves
Brian Dumoulin-Kris Letang
Olli Maata-Matt Hunwick
Ian Cole-Justin Schultz
PP1: Crosby-Kessel-Malkin-Hornqvist-Letang
PP2: Sheary-Guentzel-Rust-Maata-Schultz
Tristan Jarry gets the start.
Rangers Lines
JT Miller–Mika Zibanejad–Mats Zuccarello
Rick Nash–David Desharnais-Jesper Fast
Michael Grabner–Boo Nieves–Pavel Buchnevich
Jimmy Vesey–Paul Carey–Vinny Lettieri
Ryan McDonagh–Nick Holden
Brady Skjei–Kevin Shattenkirk
Marc Staal-Steven Kampfer
PP1: Nash-Zuccarello-Buchnevich-Zibanejad-Shattenkirk
PP2: Vesey-Miller-Desharnais-Skjei-McDonagh
Henrik Lundqvist gets the start.
Scratches/Injuries: Chris Kreider (blood clot), Brendan Smith (healthy), Kevin Hayes (contusion)
Crazy Prediction: Signs of life.
Game time is 7:30pm. Be sure to follow on our Snapchat for in-game shenanigans.
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