Round 2: (M1) Pittsburgh vs. (M2) New York
- Thread starter CarltonTheBear
- Start date
Rangers have a pretty tough schedule to deal with considering they played games 6 and 7 against Philly on Tuesday and Wednesday. That's going to be 5 games played in 7 days for them.
Boston Leaf
New member
I think Rangers pull the upset.. Fleury can be a sieve.. King Henrik can steal games
LittleHockeyFan
Moderator
I hope you're right BL..... not that I like the Rangers, but I prefer them to the whining diving Penguins.
bustaheims
Active member
I'm gonna say Rangers in 6. Their tough schedule will slow them down a little, but, Fleury's gonna Fleury.
hockeyfan1
New member
Pittsburgh vs NYRangers
Rangers have the defence having limited the Flyers in the first round to under 25 shots per game, second lowest SOG in the playoffs so far.
The Rangers got timely goaltending from Lundqvist (though he did have an unlikely one in the Game 6 loss (replaced by backup Cam Talbot). The Rangers stars such as Eick Nash hardly registered a point and their powerplay is 0 for 21 in these playoffs.
The Penguins got fair and at times incompetent netminding from their supposed top netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who, while providing capable goaltending, his puckhandling skills behind his own net are rather questionable.
The Pittsburgh defense helped chip in some goals, notably Letang, Niskanen, and Martin, but invariably, there were times when there wasn't any defence of any kind going on, not when a team allows an opponent room to come-from-behind too many times in the playoffs, as Pittsburgh did against the Blue Jackets in their opening round.
The Penguins stars hardly registered much in the way of goals or points and the Penguins powerplay is okay.
So then, whom would one choose over the other -- New York's superior defence and goaltending, or, Pittsburgh's offensive depth that somehow gets the job done even when their superstars (Crosby & Malkin) are held off the scoresheet for a lengthy period?
This series is clearly a toss-up. Then again, it might just be up to M.A.Fleury.
Rangers have the defence having limited the Flyers in the first round to under 25 shots per game, second lowest SOG in the playoffs so far.
The Rangers got timely goaltending from Lundqvist (though he did have an unlikely one in the Game 6 loss (replaced by backup Cam Talbot). The Rangers stars such as Eick Nash hardly registered a point and their powerplay is 0 for 21 in these playoffs.
The Penguins got fair and at times incompetent netminding from their supposed top netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who, while providing capable goaltending, his puckhandling skills behind his own net are rather questionable.
The Pittsburgh defense helped chip in some goals, notably Letang, Niskanen, and Martin, but invariably, there were times when there wasn't any defence of any kind going on, not when a team allows an opponent room to come-from-behind too many times in the playoffs, as Pittsburgh did against the Blue Jackets in their opening round.
The Penguins stars hardly registered much in the way of goals or points and the Penguins powerplay is okay.
So then, whom would one choose over the other -- New York's superior defence and goaltending, or, Pittsburgh's offensive depth that somehow gets the job done even when their superstars (Crosby & Malkin) are held off the scoresheet for a lengthy period?
This series is clearly a toss-up. Then again, it might just be up to M.A.Fleury.
Stralman just earned another $5k from me for handling Crosby coming in one-on-one on him at full speed.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
Rangers just scored twice in OT.
Kessel Run
New member
CarltonTheBear said:
Think he actually makes it to UFA?
bustaheims
Active member
So, when do the Rangers file a missing person report for Rick Nash?
Kessel Run said:
It'll be a tough decision for them. But I can see them letting him walk so they can pursue that top-4 puck carrying defenceman that they seem to desperately need. Timonen or Boyle maybe. Boyle would actually make a lot of sense as he would be re-united with former his former TB teammates in St. Louis and Richards (although Richards is probably being bought out).
GhostofPotvin29
New member
I don't get how the Rangers/Penguins play back-to-back after the back-to-back 6/7 games for the Rangers last week, but Boston/Montreal don't? Two teams who played 5/4 games in round 1 respectively? I'm sure there's scheduling reasons or something, but seems dumb.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
To add to that, the Rangers are really getting screwed here on the schedule:
http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/496240
http://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/496240
GhostofPotvin29
New member
Weird.
