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The Pittsburgh Penguins now know their opponent as well as their schedule for the 2nd round of the playoffs. The opponent will be the New York Rangers. The Rangers were able to close out their 1st round series against the Philadelphia Flyers by a 2-1 score. If not for Steve Mason the Rangers would have blown the doors off of the Flyers.
The schedule that was released late last evening is extremely beneficial to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Rangers will have to play 5 games in 7 nights, a huge advantage to the Penguins. Here is their schedule (courtesy of the Penguins official website):
Some things I noticed right away with the schedule was the fact that this series will avoid the dreaded afternoon game this upcoming weekend. The only chance this series has to be on during a weekend afternoon is Game 6. With a young family I very much prefer the night games as it is difficult to fit afternoon games into the family weekend schedule. Besides, night games have a better aura to them anyways.
I also noticed that Games 2 and 3 will be taking place on back to back nights. Once again, an advantage for the Penguins considering the work load the Rangers will have gone through to that point.
Lastly, there will be a two day break in between Games 6 and 7, something that was not afforded to the Rangers this past series (back to back nights for Games 6 and 7).
I totally understand the frustration from the Rangers side of things but there are two factors in play, one of which the Rangers controlled. Not being crushed in Game 6 would have gone a long way in avoiding this kind of workload for the Rangers. The other factor in play is the rink availability for both Consol Energy Center and Madison Square Garden.
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Congratulations to Sidney Crosby on being named a finalist for the Hart Trophy
Congrats to #Pens captain, Sidney Crosby, on his nomination for the Hart Trophy. Full story: http://t.co/fJ2gYQuubH pic.twitter.com/STHxuO0hyc
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) May 1, 2014
Also congratulations to Ryan Getzlaf and Claude Giroux on their fantastic regular seasons. However, this is a one horse race. Sidney Crosby is more than deserving of his 2nd Hart Trophy. In reality it should be his 2nd consecutive Hart Trophy and his 4th overall, but the injury bug has not been kind to him over the years.
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Both Brandon Sutter and Joe Vitale joined the Penguins for practice for the 2nd consecutive day. Brooks Orpik remained the only absentee from practice.
There have been no changes in the forward lines:
Kunitz-Crosby-Stempniak Jokinen-Malkin-Neal Bennett-Sutter-Vitale Glass-Goc-Adams
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Evgeni Malkin’s KHL team Metallurg Magnitogorsk has just won its first ever KHL league championship. Given the strong ties to Malkin his former team had a message for the Pittsburgh Penguins:
Gagarin Cup champs show some love to the #Pens RT @MetallurgMgn Le't go, Pens! pic.twitter.com/iPvl5dOsbd
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 1, 2014
It appears that the Penguins will be getting what most feel is the preferable matchup:
Thanks for reading!
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