Rangers Vs. Penguins Preview: A Look Ahead To The Home Opener

The New York Rangers will be right back at it tonight as they faceoff against the Pittsburgh Penguins in their home opener at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers didn't have the greatest showing against the Boston Bruins and they hope to rebound in front of their home crowd tonight. This will be the Rangers first back-to-back of the season, and it will be interesting to see how they respond.

VS.

Pittsburgh Penguins (1-0-0) at New York Rangers (0-1-0)
Madison Square Garden - New York, NY - 7:00 PM
Television: MSG (local), NHL Network | Radio: ESPN NY 98.7
Opponent's Blog: PensBurgh

The Rangers were the victim's of a slow start against the Boston Bruins yesterday, and just weren't able to get their legs under them. They were often sloppy in their own end and allowed the Bruins to force a ton of turnovers in the offensive zone. The Penguins are 1-0 heading into tonight's game with a 3-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, and their offense was firing.

The Rangers need to get back to working the puck down low and forcing the opposition to play below their own goal line. It's something that worked rather well for them last year, and they weren't getting the zone time to execute it last night.

Some Quick Thoughts:

*** The powerplay was mediocre at best last night, and easily cost the Rangers the game. Their powerplay has been a constant struggle dating back to last season, and obviously hasn't changed much. Even when they loaded up with Rick Nash, Marian Gaborik, Brad Richards, Ryan Callahan, and Michael Del Zotto they weren't getting the right looks. There needs to be more body movement, puck movement, and more shots on net.

*** Rick Nash was solid in his first game with the Blueshirts, and had quite a few scoring chances. Besides a weak hooking call in the third period to negate a power play, I thought he played really well.

*** As I stated above, the Rangers need to get more zone time tonight against the Penguins if they want to come away with two points. It's hard to score goals when you're not in the offensive zone. More pucks down low and battles along the boards.

*** Henrik Lundqvist was solid between the pipes and absolutely robbed David Krejci last night, which is an early candidate for save of the year. The King is expected to start between the pipes tonight in front an electric Garden crowd.

Projected Lineup:

Carl Hagelin - Brad Richards - Rick Nash
Marian Gaborik - Derek Stepan - Ryan Callahan
Chris Kreider - Brian Boyle - Taylor Pyatt
Mike Rupp - Jeff Halpern - Arron Asham

Ryan McDonagh - Dan Girardi
Marc Staal - Anton Stralman
Michael Del Zotto - Stu Bickel

Henrik Lundqvist

Scratches: Matt Gilroy, Steve Eminger