Penguins and Rangers Heading in Different Directions as Rematches Loom

When the Pittsburgh Penguins meet the New York Rangers for the first time this season at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night, Pittsburgh general manager Jim Rutherford and coach Mike Johnston might want to pass along a thank you card to their opponents.

If the Rangers hadn't mounted their monster comeback to knock off the Penguins in the second round of last spring's NHL playoffs, incumbents Ray Shero and Dan Bylsma would probably have kept their jobs, while Rutherford and Johnston would be toiling elsewhere.

Instead, the two are an early-season NHL success story. Player personnel tweaks by Rutherford and a stronger puck-possession-based style instituted by Johnston have helped the Penguins become one of the top teams in the league as they prepare to take on New York twice this week.

The Rangers got the upper hand in the playoffs last spring, overcoming a 3-1 series deficit against Pittsburgh to win their series in seven games and become Eastern Conference champions. But it's the Penguins who are riding high this year, while a playoff hangover has engulfed Madison Square Garden.

Pittsburgh comes into Tuesday's game on a seven-game winning streak, fresh off a 6-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres last Saturday. Meanwhile, the Rangers hit the low point of their season over the weekend, dropping a 5-4 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday before losing 3-2 at home to the Edmonton Oilers the following night.

Assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson called his team's effort against Edmonton "embarrassing" during a second-intermission conversation with John Giannone of MSG Network, per SNYRangers.com.

The Penguins now top the Metropolitan Division with a 10-2-1 record, while the Rangers sit in fifth place at 6-6-2. 

In a salary-cap world, both teams had no choice but to make some changes over the summer. The Penguins are a better team for the addition of feisty forward Patric Hornqvist and grinders Blake Comeau and Nick Spaling, but the Rangers have seen just 14 minutes of game action from their biggest free-agent signing. Dan Boyle suffered a broken hand in New York's season opener and has yet to return to game action.

Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh is also missing from the blue line after separating his shoulder on November 1, while defenseman John Moore has been absent for the last five games while serving a suspension. He'll be back in uniform for New York on Tuesday.

Over in Pittsburgh, questions loomed during training camp about the health of key stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, who missed time during preseason. The prospects for winger Pascal Dupuis (knee surgery) and defenseman Kris Letang (stroke) were also uncertain after both suffered serious health issues last season.

Happily, performances from all four players have ranged from good to outstanding in the early going. In other good news, defenseman Olli Maatta skated on his own at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday, according to Dan Rosen of NHL.com, just one week after surgery to remove a growth in his neck. 

"

Why, that looks like Olli Maatta on the ice at MSG. Only smaller, of course. pic.twitter.com/y6RMDXYk2U

— Dave Molinari (@MolinariPG) November 11, 2014"

Offensively, the Penguins have been on fire through their first 13 games, leading the NHL with an average of 4.15 goals per game. Matched up against a depleted Rangers blue line that's ranked 24th defensively heading into Tuesday's game, expect Pittsburgh's scoring machine to put on another show.

The Penguins may have lost in the short term when they fell to New York last May, but the beatdown was the catalyst for changes that are paying big dividends. The Rangers could turn themselves around as the season progresses—after all, they started 3-7-0 last year before getting into gear. But the Penguins are a better team now than they were last spring. They should have no trouble dispatching the home team at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.