The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers are playing on the NHL playoffs schedule on Friday and the Game 5 matchup could be an elimination for the Rangers, as NY is down 3-1 in the series and the game starts up at 7 pm ET on the NBC Sports Network and has a live stream from the live extra website and Pitt is excited with Sidney Crosby heating up and they could be one step closer to the Stanley Cup after the game in the east at CONSOL Energy Center.
The Rangers have not been able to score at all at any consistent rate in this series or in the playoffs and that is the main reason why they are down 3-1. The team has totally lost it on the power play and they have not converted in over 30 chances after starting off the playoffs three for their first eight and now they have no choice but to try and keep winning in the series to stay alive and they need the big names to step up and it's more than just on Henrik Lundqvist, who is doing all he can to keep the team alive in the postseason.
The Rangers, amazingly, are the only team to make it into the second round of the playoffs in each of the past three years, but they have advanced to the conference finals just once and they have not been considered a strong option for the title in any of those years. The Penguins won their division and were the second team in the east this season and the Rangers appear tired out from their first series and that went seven games against the Philadelphia Flyers. Crosby is finally getting some scoring in and he will be tough to stop no matter what the Rangers do on Friday night.
The Rangers have not gotten the production they have needed from Rick Nash, Brad Richards and Martin St. Louis and that has been the biggest issue and scoring seemingly always is for NY no matter what year it is. Rick Nash is leading the team in shots and he has done a good job of attacking the net, but so far nothing has broken through and while Richards is leading in points and St. Louis is tops in assists, no one has more than three goals and it also didn't help that the Rangers didn't score for two games and then it took them a while to even get one in for the game after that.
Lundqvist is one of the best goalies in the league, but the team has not done a good job at scoring in front of him and now the Rangers are on their last legs. The team won the first game in overtime and that was a tough matchup and a very good victory, but they have now lost three games in a row and with a team like the Penguins streaking, it will be hard to win. Evgeni Malkin and Crosby are starting to get hot and that will be too much for the Rangers to overcome, especially with Crosby leading in assists and Malkin in points.
