For the Rangers to win in this series against the Penguins and NHL poster child Sidney Crosby, all 4 lines are going to have to be at their best and last night they all did their jobs on their way to a 3-2 overtime game one win. The Zuccarello-Brassard-Pouliot line even scored twice in overtime to asure the Rangers win. The third team on the ice, the NHL officials, had a tough night with allowing the Penguins 2nd goal which was clearly goalie interference by the NHL rules, and then in overtime not being on the goaline to see Derrick Brassards goal cross the line in the upper part of the net, so Benoit Pouliot made sure by scoring again.

The Rangers are going to have to be even better the rest of the series as a desperate Penguins team is the only thing more dangerous than a Pittsburgh Penguins regular team. This Rangers team has the depth to change with the talents of the teams that they face. After feeling out the Penguins in Game #1 and lucky enough to win it, I would expect to see J.T. Miller and or Jesper Fast injected to the lineup just like they were in the 1st round against the Flyers. A change that should be done is probably Rafeal Diaz for John Moore, as the Rangers need HUGE help on the powerplay and that is where Diaz is at his best. If the Rangers don't get their powerplay working, teams will start taking advantage of the Rangers key players without fear of retribution and being scored on. To survive in the playoffs, you need to instill fear to the opposing team of having to pay physically or on the scoreboard and the truth is the Rangers don't have the players to put fear into the other team physically as payback. The Rangers have a great team for putting a body on the Penguins, but their isn't anybody that will "take care of business". 

Brad Richards goal last night to put the Rangers up 2-0 is exactly what he was brought to New York to do, score in the playoffs with his 3rd of the 2014 playoffs. The Rick Nash--Derek Stepan--Martin St. Louis line is going to have to take on the other teams top defenseman pairing throughout the playoffs and are getting closer to making a difference. The Rangers depth seems to be clear in this matchup as the Rangers 3rd line of Zuccarello-Brassard-Pouliot were a difference maker in this game. It is looking as though Sidney Crosby may have some sort of middle of the body ailment. There were times in the game where he just stuck his stick out where he usually uses his legs to drive to the puck and/or player. With that knowledge, the Rangers should be hitting him at every chance. The combination of Mats Zuccarello and Martin St. Louis might be a huge size disadvantage, but last night that play where they almost scored twice shows that in the NHL, skill beats size.  The King Henrik Lundqvist made a few stellar saves (34 overall) and played his All-World game as he will have to every game for the Rangers to keep winning.

Now onto Game#2 and #3 on back to back nights as the NHL have given the Penguins an advantage, that makes the Rangers having to play 5 games in 7 days dating back to the Flyers 1st round series. The NHL refs, by allowing Malkin to clearly interfere with goalie Lundqvist to tie the game at 2, makes you wonder if the league really wants their poster child Crosby to keep winning. After allowing the Pittsburgh goal, you would have to wonder if the League would have even reviewed Brassard's overtime goal if Pouliot didn't make sure it was in by scoring again on the same play. It happened earlier in the season against the Rangers that the Rangers scored and it was n't even reviewed, with the league after the game apologizing for their error. In the Flyers series a few Rangers got embellishment calls after they were crushed into the boards, so sometimes you have to wonder about things you shouldn't even have to think about.

LET'S GO RANGERS!!!!!!