With the matchups set for the second round the bar has also been raised with regard to the entertainment that the first round provided. The unfortunate sidebar is that when you eliminate half the teams, there is exactly 50% less playoff hockey to watch on television.

While it will be hard to top the sheer quantity of the drama that we saw in Round 1, every team playing right now is four wins closer to the ultimate prize. The new playoff format worked out by design and the second round pairings feature big time rivalries from the Original Six to Orange County.

Friday night, two old friends renew acquaintances in Pittsburgh as the New York Rangers visit the Penguins to begin their best-of-seven series. While the Penguins may privately be relieved that they don’t have to face their annoying neighbors from across the state, the Rangers are a club that will provide many other matchup concerns.

Offense

The Penguins look like the better team on paper, but it took six games to get Evgeni Malkin in the goal column. Meanwhile, Sidney Crosby has yet to get his first playoff goal. The two top centers are the primary points of concern on offense. James Neal has also been invisible, posting only a single goal through six games. You have to figure that the offense will eventually start clicking, but the playoffs can be pretty unforgiving when teams are trying to “get on track”.

The Rangers are in a similar pickle with their stars struggling to find consistency. Brad Richards, Martin St. Louis and Rick Nash have four goals between them in seven games. New York has shown that they can get goal scoring beyond the top two lines, but they’ll need to step up to keep the Penguins honest.

Defense

So far it has been the Penguin’s blue line that has provided the most consistent effort. Paul Martin and Matt Niskanen are at the top of the scoring table which should eventually change. Kris Letang has had a remarkable recovery from a stroke, and seems like he is still getting his wheels underneath him. Rookie Olli Maatta has followed up his impressive rookie season with a solid first round.

The Rangers have a distinct advantage here with a much more experienced (and finally healthy) defensive unit. The top pairing of Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi will be tasked with shadowing the Crosby line whether it has Malkin on it or not. Marc Staal has shown that he can be a physical presence as well, while Anton Stralman, Kevin Klein and John Moore round out the crew. McDonagh had a particularly awful time with Philadelphia’s top line and will need to elevate his game to keep up with Crosby and company.

Goaltending

On paper one would surmise that the Rangers have the obvious advantage, but it is the Pens Marc-Andre Fleury that boasts the most important hardware with a 2009 championship ring. Fleury had a moment or two against Columbus that left all of Pittsburgh, their coaches, players, zamboni drivers and fans with their hearts in their collective throats. Besides his ubiquitous “LOL” moment in Game 4, Fleury was solid against Columbus and will be tasked with more of the same against the Rangers.

Lundqvist for all his personal achievement lacks in Stanley Cup playoffs success. For all the adulation he receives including his fictitious crown as “King Henrik” he has been tremendously ordinary in the postseason. His goals against average is good, not great (2.20). His GAA is outstanding (.920), but in the most important category of all Lundqvist is hardly regal. Through 74 playoff starts with New York Lundqvist is just 34-40. There is certainly more to wins and losses than goaltender play, but if New York wants to get through the Penguins, their goaltender will need to be huge.

Special Teams

The Penguins have a decisive advantage on the power play with the wealth of talent at coach Dan Bylsma’s disposal. However, with very little creativity blending the other lines with the superstars, the Pens seemed predictable and remarkably unimaginative in round one. Columbus also seemed to have their way on the power play against Pittsburgh also, something the Rangers have certainly looked at. In the regular season Pittsburgh had the number one power play and the fifth best penalty kill. They’ll need to find that success rate against a talented bunch in New York.

The Rangers could never seem to get out of their own way on the power play in the regular season. Even with some talented and experienced veterans on the roster, the Rangers struggled all year before finishing in the middle of the NHL at 15. The penalty kill was a thing of beauty for New York however. The Rangers seemed to channel their deposed coach John Tortorella, blocking shots and playing smart, purposeful hockey when they were a man down. Against a high-powered team like Pittsburgh, the best bet is to stay out of the penalty box.

……So how does it end?

Like the Philadelphia series, the Rangers will need to dictate the pace of the games and ultimately the series. They are talented enough to control the puck against almost any team in the NHL, and they match up well against Pittsburgh man-for-man on paper. Unfortunately for New York, playoff hockey games aren’t played on paper, they are played inside of my television set and the series looks every bit like the heavyweight bout that it is.

This is going to be a long and grinding series between two teams that know each other well and don’t like each other very much. There is a ton of head to head battles to keep an eye on, but the most important one will be the Ranger’s offense against the Pens defense. Pittsburgh’s blue line has a lot of miles on those wheels and coach Alain Vigneault loves to push the puck up the ice and play an up tempo style of play. This series could honestly be a coin flip, but some how the Rangers end up taking the series in seven games. New York 4-3