Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Rangers vs. Penguins Headlines

Today's newspaper headlines deal with the Rangers second round opponent the Pittsburgh Penguins...

Steve Zipay has this from Tom Renney...With Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa and Petr Sykora, Pittsburgh "is an explosive team," Rangers coach Tom Renney said. "They've got some terrific young players ... their goaltending certainly seems to have nailed it throughout the course of the season. They're one of those teams who will force you into mistakes by the pressure they apply offensively, so we have to be alert to those issues and try to keep a pretty good offensive team off the ice in terms of the power play."

Lynn Zinser at the New York Times says the Rangers will need to get on the defensive..."On Tuesday in Greenburgh, N.Y., the Rangers worked almost exclusively on their power play and penalty killing, areas they say will have to be stronger than they were in their five games against the Devils. Pittsburgh’s offense will also present a much steeper challenge, and the Rangers are looking to return to their defense-dominated style."

At the Daily News, John Dellapina noted that the Rangers will not give out bulletin board material this year..."A year ago, perhaps a bit too pumped up by the team's first playoff series triumph in 11 years, a couple of Rangers said some things that their second-round opponent parsed into bulletin-board fodder...Expect no such utterances from anybody in a Broadway Blueshirt before their 2008 second round faces off Friday night in Pittsburgh. Game 2 will be Sunday afternoon. After having dispatched the Devils in five games in the first round, the Rangers are more grounded and guarded heading into the second round this time around."

Larry Brooks at the New York Post writes about Jagr playing his former team..."This means that Jagr, who has played more playoff games than any other player in Penguin history and is second in franchise postseason scoring to Mario Lemieux, will surely hear boos every single time he touches the puck in Pittsburgh, where he won the Stanley Cup in 1991 and 1992, his first two seasons in the league."

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