The Art Of War

Jesse Marshall | Pittsburgh Penguins

Apr 23, 10:49 AM | Hype this story!

The story of the Penguins in the first round was the story of 4 short and relatively painless games. Cue the celebration and roughly 9 days off.

The Penguins will now face off against the New York Rangers, perennial Atlantic division rival and a team that gave the Penguins fits in the regular season, posting a 5-3 record on the boys in black and gold after a 2-1 overtime victory on March 31, 2008.

The pre-series analysis could literally go on for weeks, but I’m going to try and sum it up with a few key points.

1. Goaltending

Henrik Lundqvist played some great hockey for the Rangers during their first round match, as he did all season. Here’s a bottom-line fact about this series, and the sooner Penguins fans understand this, the better off they’ll be: Henrik Lundqvist is going to steal at least one game in this series. It’s a fact that history has proven correct throughout the course of King Henrik’s career. The onus is going to be on the red-hot Marc-Andre Fleury to answer that bell and steal a game or two of his own. The Rangers are a defensively apt team that provides loads of support to their goaltender. The Penguins will have to make sure they play smart in front of Fleury and allow him to see shots, cover the puck and have lateral movement within the crease. It will be interesting to see if Marc-Andre can carry over his hot streak to the next series. If he can, we might see one of the best goaltending duels of the post-season.

2. Home Ice

The first two games are absolutely crucial for the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens have been notoriously bad at Madison Square Garden over the course of the last few years, and to maintain the home ice advantage and avoid backing themselves into a wall, they need to get a 2-0 start at Mellon Arena. New Jersey didn’t heed that advice, they squandered the first two games at The Rock and were effectively toast after that. The Penguins can force the hand of the Rangers by dominating at home. Keeping that advantage is a must-do for Pittsburgh.

3. Agitate the Agitator

Sean Avery ruined Martin Broduer’s hockey experience so badly, that Broduer isn’t even playing in the World Championship’s this coming summer. That’s the mark of a true agitator. The Penguins need to get in the face of Avery, Lundqvist, and Jagr, and do the same back to them. The onus is on Jarkko Ruutu, Gary Roberts, Georges Laraque, and Max Talbot. Between the four of them, they have a great opportunity to not only counter-act what Shanahan and Avery do, but employ tactics of their own to turn the tide in Pittsburgh’s favor. Whatever the case may be, the goal needs to be drawing penalties, not taking them. Too many times the Penguins have taken the short-end of the stick in an exchange with Sean Avery, which needs to change for the playoffs.

4. Match checking with checking

The Rangers have a good forecheck and they work tenaciously on the puck in the offensive zone. Their defensive system makes it difficult to get the puck out and generate odd-man breaks. The Penguins will have to match that checking with a constant barrage of their own all the while being mindful of their defensive game and not turning the puck over. The Penguins proved capable of doing that against the Senators, this challenge will prove to be bigger.

We’re about to find out how good our Pittsburgh Penguins really are.

Comments

  1. Phil

    Apr 23, 11:28 AM

    All I can think about in this series is how vivdly I remember the two worst games of the season the Pens had. Both were shutout (or close anyway) losses in New York where the Pens looked like my ice hockey team and not the future 2nd seed in the east. Times have changed since the 2nd game til now but I hope they don’t decide to stroll down the wrong memory lane.

  2. Eric

    Apr 23, 05:46 PM

    I agree with most of what you wrote here Jesse, excellent work.

    Lundqvist is an elite goalie. The type who will certainly make it tough. Over the past 2-3 years, he’s arguably been one of the steadiest goalies – without a stellar defensive cast.

    If the Rangers do have a weak link, it’s their defensemen. While not the most experience bunch, they are a group who can get the job done. They do their job well, and have every reason to be playing in the conference semi’s. However, I do believe they are a group that can be broken down and taken advantage of. I think that playing to their weaknesses, could be an excellent way to win this series.

    Both teams are fairly evenly matched, up front. Gomez, Drury, Shanahan, Jagr, Straka, Dubinsky, Callahan and Dawes are just as productive as the crew the Penguins will front. While Jagr might be on the downside of his career, he’s still affective. As well as Gomez is as good as any playoff performer right now.

    I think this will be a series won by the coaching and defensive stability. I’m taking into consideration that both teams will certainly score goals, it’s going to be a matter of how effective they can create them. Therrien has his work cut out for him, trying to find a way to breakdown the Rangers. I think it CAN be done.

    I see this series going the distance. It’s that evenly matched, imo. Fleury will need to shine and steal a game, it’s that time of the season. It will be very important to see how the Penguins bounce back after a loss.

    The Sean Avery dynamic will be interesting too. Provided he gets time away from his job at Vogue. (http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/story?id=4704620)

    I can’t wait for game 1.

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