Rangers v. Devils – Game one

April 9, 2008   ·   Lenny   ·   Jump to comments

7:07 Update: Marek Malik, Petr Prucha, Colton Orr and Jason Strudwick are the scratches. Dubinsky, Jagr, Straka is the top line, Gomez, Avery, Shanahan is line two, Drury, Callahan, Dawes is line three and Betts, Hollweg and Sjostrom is line four. Rozsival-Staal, Girardi-Tyutin and Mara-Backman are your defense pairings for tonight. Enjoy!

We’re merely an hour away from the beginning of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Rangers take on the Devils at 7 pm on MSG for those of us in the New York area.

Over the last couple of days, pretty much all that can be said about the playoffs has been said. Everywhere you read, you get a healthy dose of predictions, analysis and breakdowns. We’ll see how well everyone does when the whistle blows at the end of each series. Until then, nothing else matters.

For the Rangers, the man pictured above, Nigel Dawes, will be a key factor in this series. He has done well against the Devils so far this year, but with Jaromir Jagr being shadowed by players like Colin White and Jay Pandolfo, someone else will have to pick up the scoring slack. That’s where Dawes, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury and Sean Avery will step in.

Tom Renney has been cryptic on what his line combinations will be, but all signs are pointing to Petr Prucha, Marek Malik and Paul Mara being healthy scratches. I like this only because the Rangers will need the extra physicality that Ryan Hollweg and Jason Strudwick bring to the ice. The fourth line won’t be getting much time on the ice anyways, so Prucha would have been extremely underutilized there.

That being said, the one given is that Henrik Lundqvist will be squaring off against Martin Brodeur in a highly anticipated matchup. Sure, we saw it eight times in the regular season, but this is the playoffs. Both netminders will be playing to new levels and we will certainly be treated to plenty of outstanding saves and 2-1 final scores.

I’ll try to get back on after the lines are revealed, but I will be glued to the television as soon as the puck drops. Here’s to hoping the Rangers jump out to an early series lead. Whoever earns that advantage is most likely to win the series, in my opinion. Enjoy the game, then check out Ottawa vs Pittsburgh (can Ottawa even compete?), Minnesota vs. Colorado and San Jose vs Calgary. It’s the first day of the second season, get pumped!