Kenny Albert at MSGNetwork.com reports that history has not been kind to the Rangers during the postseason when matched up against the Penguins as Pittsburgh has won all three previous series between the division rivals..."Phil Esposito was behind the bench during the 1989 series, less than a week after he replaced Michel Bergeron as Rangers head coach. It was a quick exit for the Rangers, losing four games in five days to the Penguins.
Mike Richter made a surprise NHL debut as the Rangers' starter in Game 4, after Bob Froese started Games 1 and 2 and John Vanbiesbrouck started Game 3 for the Blueshirts. Paul Coffey led the Penguins in scoring in that series (2-7-9), while Brian Leetch (3-2-5) and Tomas Sandstrom (3-2-5) led the Rangers. Guy LaFleur -- in his only playoff series as a Ranger -- scored the last of his 58 career playoff goals.
Three years later, the President's Trophy-winning Rangers were beaten by the defending Stanley Cup champions, who would go on to win their second straight title. The series is best remembered for Adam Graves' slash of Lemieux -- costing Graves the last three games -- and Ron Francis' goal from center ice against Richter. Jagr scored two game-winners in the series for Pittsburgh.
In 1996, after the Rangers came back from down 0-2 series deficit to defeat Montreal in the opening round, it was the "Lemieux and Jagr Show." Lemieux (8-2-10) and Jagr (7-2-9) combined for the same number of goals as the entire Rangers team. Believe it or not, Jari Kurri led the Rangers in scoring in the series (1-5-6)."
...Penguins fans still haven't gotten over the Graves slash on Lemieux, meanwhile the Rangers were the ones who got screwed. Three games for a slash!!!
...when it comes to historical head-to-head records in the playoffs you can throw them out the window. Especially, in this case where there's only one person who played in any of those series playing now and that's Jagr who's on the Rangers.
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