by Bobby Coles

Created on: April 19, 2008

The blueshirts of New York, the beloved Rangers, have vanquished the New Jersey Devils in five games, losing just once in their opening round audition for the postseason pundits to pontificate. The New York Rangers used a bevvy of players to dismantle the Devils systematically.

New York now faces a well rested and hungry team in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pittsburgh has enough talent to cause New York umpteen fits. Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, Sergei Gonchar, Marian Hossa, Gary Roberts and Marc Andre Fleury will spell a lot of trouble for the Rangers if they get into any type of penalty trouble. Massive pest Sean Avery will hound one line of these core Penguin players, but the other lines will remain hassle free.

New York faces an uphill battle now, and their season is on the line. How the Rangers respond will largely fall onto the shoulders of Jaromir Jagr. He is the catalyst, and the impetus with which emotion and desire take shape.

Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Jaromir Jagr, Sean Avery and Henrik Lundquist all have stood up to be accounted for, and then some. While many other players have turned it up a notch, these players have really shone thus far for the Rangers. Are the Rangers beginning to click and gel at just the right time?

After a roller coaster season, in which they had fits and spurts enough to drive you to the madhouse, the Rangers seem as though they have pulled together as a team, and are finding new ways to dominate games. The Devils fell victim to the New York Ranger powerplay, orchestrated admirably again by Jaromir Jagr, and received plenty of attention in particular to Sean Avery. Avery is at his best when he is riling up the opposition, and that is just what he has done so far in the 2008 playoffs. Superpest has managed to crawl under the skin of even his own teammates, who are thankful that he is on their side.

The New York Rangers will now have a little bit of relaxation time to prepare for their second round after winning 5-3 in game 5 to clinch the series. Their second round opponent is the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The New York Rangers have their work cut out for them, but as long as they are getting maximum effort out of their footsoldiers, like Brendan Shanahan, and getting world class goaltending from Henrik Lundquist, then it follows that the Rangers will be a force to be reckoned with in the second round of these playoffs. This team does not seem, on paper at least, to be the team to win the Stanley Cup this year, but that is exactly why the games are played on the ice and not on paper. Grit and mentality win hockey games at this time of year, and the Rangers have many players that fit the bill as winners.

As for predictions, I do believe that the Rangers will fall in a dramatic seventh game to the highly offensive Penguins.

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