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The Penguins will bring their banged up and depleted roster to the Big Apple to take on the divisional rival New York Rangers.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are currently the #1 team in the Easter Conference with 49 points. The Bruins have 48 points with a game in hand on Pittsburgh.
On the flip side the New York Rangers are 11th overall in the conference right now with 33 points.
The Penguins enter tonight’s game with 9 players on injured reserve and winners of 9 out of their last 10 games.
How can the Penguins keep winning with so many NHL regulars out of the lineup? A lion’s share of the credit has to go with how the organization is structured. The same systems that the Penguins play are also implemented at Wilkes Barre Scranton as well as in Wheeling.
This familiarity helps make the transition between the various levels of hockey that much easier on the players. The Penguins were able to survive without Crosby and Malkin in the 2010-2011 season because of how the organization is setup and they are doing a very good job right now given the current injury situation.
The Penguins do not utilize simplistic puck retrieval or breakout systems. By allowing each level to train within those systems it is not overwhelming for the players when they reach the NHL level. Instead of a player trying to learn a bunch of brand new x's and o's they are able to focus on just playing.
The players can play assertively and the result is that they are not "thinking" on the ice, they are doing.
Anytime you can give a player called up less to worry about that is a good thing.
It is a big reason why the Penguins as an organization are able to truck along and still win games even with huge injury issues.
It isn’t all doom and gloom though, Rob Scuderi and Tanner Glass are on the cusp of returning and Evgeni Malkin is still listed as day to day. James Neal will return to the lineup tomorrow against the Minnesota Wild as well.
As for the Rangers they decided to make the decision to fire fiery Head Coach John Tortorella. Tortorella’s personality had worn thin in New York City and people like myself thought that his defense first shot blocking system was suffocating the Rangers offense. In came Alain Vigneault who has an opposite personality and a more wide open style of play.
With Vigneault’s hire I thought that the Rangers offensive minded players would have a renascence but so far this year that has not been the case. In fact some of the more important Rangers players have regressed.
Richards is the only player who has not regressed to some degree.
When you combine the regression in scoring for the Rangers star players and the goaltending not at the level that it has been at in the past, you have a team that is on the outside of the playoff picture at the present moment.
Update 11:00 AM
Don't know how this slipped my mind this morning when writing the blog, but we have a Dad vs Son battle tonight. Penguins Stanley Cup Champion Ulf Samuelsson is currently an assistant coach for the New York Rangers. This means he will be coaching against his son Philip who played in his first ever NHL game on Monday.
May the best Samuelsson win.
Line Combos
Projected lineup for the Penguins:
Kunitz-Crosby-Dupuis Zolnierczyk-Jokinen-Gibbons Conner-Sutter-Vitale Adams-Sill-Kobasew
Niskanen-Maatta Bortuzzo-Dumoulin Despres-Samuelsson
Engelland-Scuderi
Projected lineup for Rangers:
Kreider-Stepan-Nash Richards-Brassard-Zuccarello Hagelin-Boyle-Pouliot Falk-Moore-Dorsett
Allen-Del Zotto Girardi-McDonagh Moore-McIlrath
Injuries
Evgeni Malkin continues to be day to day
Jayson Megna injured his ankle against the Toronto Maple Leafs and will miss tonight’s game against New York. In fact he has been placed on IR. Megnatron has been shut down for now.
Kris Letang is on IR and will be out for the foreseeable future.
The following players are out on IR for the Penguins at the present moment: Tomas Vokoun, Rob Scuderi, Beau Bennett, Paul Martin, Tanner Glass, Kris Letang, Andrew Ebbett, Brooks Orpik, and Jayson Megna.
Not an injury but James Neal will be serving the final game of his 5 game suspension. Rochester, NY native Ryan Callahan is on IR with a sprained MCL. He will be out for a number of weeks.
Unfortunately Marc Staal of the Rangers is on IR with the dreaded concussion diagnosis. Not something you want to see given the rough go that Staal has had in recent memory. Staal had a plethora of issues that he has dealt with after being hit in the eye last season.
Power Play
The Penguins may still have the best power play in the league at 25.7% but their personnel does not look anything similar to what they have used for the majority of the season. Power play regulars Evgeni Malkin, James Neal, Paul Martin, and Kris Letang are all out of action.
The Penguins are tied for 13th in the NHL with 117 power play opportunities.
The New York Rangers have the 14th ranked power play at 17.9%. They are 22nd in the NHL with 112 power play opportunities.
No doubt the injury bug has affected the Rangers power play as Rick Nash and Ryan Callahan have both missed significant time.
Penalty Kill
The Penguins are 2nd overall in the NHL on the PK with 87.4%. The Penguins have killed 21 out of the last 22 penalties they have taken.
The Rangers are 7th overall with 85.7%.
The Penguins are 2nd best in the league with only being shorthanded 103 times
The Rangers are tied for 3rd overall with 105 times shorthanded.
Fenclose%
The Penguins are 5th overall at 54.1%
The Rangers are tied for 11th overall at 51.3%
Even Strength Save %
Don’t look now but the Penguins are climbing their way up the goaltending ranks. The Penguins have been ranked in the mid twenties range for much of the season but now find themselves tied for 13th overall with an EVSV% of .924%. Marc Andre Fleury is sitting at a very solid .928%.
The Rangers on the other hand are not where they want to be on this list. They are ranked 25th overall with an EVSV% of .913%. Not something you would expect from a Henrik Lundqvist led tandem.
Lundqvist’s EVSV% matches the disappointing team number of .913%. In comparison Lundqvist was at .936% in the 2012-2013 season. The Rangers were the best team in hockey with an EVSV% of .937% in 2012-2013. It will be Henrik Lundqvist in net for the Rangers tonight.
Thanks for reading!
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