New York Rangers Face Extremely Difficult Road to Cup

The New York Rangers never make it easy on themselves, do they? While a large portion of the fanbase rooted for the New York Islanders to beat the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday night in order for the Rangers to avoid a first-round matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins, it was simply not meant to be. Instead of a much more favorable first-round series with the Florida Panthers, the Rangers draw the red-hot Penguins, and thus, an extremely arduous road to a championship.

Many “experts” will pick the Penguins simply on the premise that they are red-hot at the right time. Not so fast. The Penguins, like the Rangers, are banged up. The big difference, however, is that the Penguins will not have their second-best player, Evgeni Malkin, for the entire series. The Rangers’ second-best player, captain Ryan McDonagh, may return from a hand injury very early in the series. More importantly the Rangers will have their best player at the most important position, Henrik Lundqvist at goaltender, in net and healthy. The Penguins may have to lean on their third-string goaltender, Jeff Zatkoff, for the entire series while Marc-Andre Fleury recovers from a concussion and second stringer Matt Murray recovers from an injury he sustained this past weekend.

Make no mistake, though: this Penguins team is far and away better than the team that lost last season’s first-round series against the Rangers in five games. They will have Norris Trophy candidate Kris Letang (absent last season) for the series, and will boast clutch former Ranger Carl Hagelin and goal scorer Phil Kessel on their second line. The Rangers’ defense is highly suspect, and if they are not on their A-game every single shift, the Penguins’ scorers will expose them badly. If the Rangers do win this series, it is because Lundqvist will be Lundqvist, McDonagh comes back healthy, the defense steps up and all four forward lines contribute on the scoresheet.

It will be a long, arduous series. If the Rangers survive, they more than likely will face by far the best regular season team in the league, the Washington Capitals, who will beat them up physically and overwhelm them with their depth. And if they somehow survive them, how much will they have left in the tank to survive two more rounds? Perhaps it is time to hope that the Rangers win and the Flyers upset the Capitals?

If the Rangers win the Cup this year, they will truly have to earn it. The thing is, though, this team knows what playoff hockey is all about. They’ve overcome so much in the last few seasons, and despite their regular season struggles, may be prepared as ever to make a deep run.

Just be ready for a million heart attacks along the way.