With Philly winning in overtime 3-2 last night, the Rangers will now face the Penguins in Round 2 with games on Friday and Sunday in Pittsburgh and Games 3 and 4 at the Garden on Tuesday and Thursday.

Here’s the full schedule:

Game 1: Friday 4/25 at the Igloo 7 p.m.

Game 2: Sunday 4/27 at the Igloo 2 p.m. Game on NBC

Game 3: Tuesday 4/29 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 4: Thursday 5/1 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 5*: Sunday 5/4 at the Igloo 2 p.m. Game on NBC

Game 6*: Monday 5/5 at the Garden 7 p.m.

Game 7 *: Wednesday 5/7 at the Igloo TBD

*if necessary

The Rangers went 5-3 this year against the Pens. 4-0 at the Garden and 1-3 in Pittsburgh. Two of the Ranger wins were in overtime, including the one win in Pittsburgh and Marc Andre Fleury went 3-2 against the Blueshirts.

They will have to face the star power of Crosby, Malkin and Hossa. and it will be interesting to see if Tom Renney dresses Colton Orr for this matchup, since the fourth line of Betts, Hollweg and Orr did a great job against Crosby this season.

Should be a fun matchup.

I won’t be around for the first few games - getting married this weekend, but I will be watching from afar and checking in from the blackberry or on my laptop. Full reports from here and NYSD return next week.

Saturday’s games just made matters more complicated with Boston and Washington winning. This is good and bad for the Rangers, since they may get an opponent that’s tired and beaten up, but they still have to wait and won’t be able to prepare until those series are resolved.

That said, the Rangers now face the tricky situation where they will have to stay sharp without knowing who they will play. Last year, we saw that become a problem. After sweeping the Thrashers, the Blueshirts had to wait a week until Round 2 started. They came out flat in Game 1 against the Sabres and then lost the second match.

I asked Jromir Jagr about that after the game on Friday to which he said the team will need to practice like its playing in a game. 

Round 2 is expected to start either Thursday or Friday, so it will be a long layoff for the team.

***  

Too much is being made from the Marty Brodeur snub of Sean Avery. Sure, Avery is a bit annoyed and called Brodeur “Fatso” during his post game interview on the MSG Network.

But to make it out to be some sort of crime is like making Avery’s face guarding play into some sort of international crime.

Bottom line here is this: 77 games is just too much for Brodeur to play in a season and needs to play about 60 at 36 years old. He has burned out in the playoffs the past three seasons and Lou Lamoriello needs to sit down and talk to his goaltender in the offseason.

And if the Devils keep insisting on playing Brodeur so many games, then why keep a veteran like Kevin Weekes in the roster. They would be better served with a goalie from the ‘A’ who can fill in for five games.

Ok, the Rangers won a round and even though it’s a good thing to dispatch the Devils, the games will probably get a little harder from here on out.

For the next round, the Blueshirts will get three possible opponents depending on what happens in the two remianing series in the Eastern Conference.

The most likely opponent is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who the Rangers went 5-3 this season. They were 4-0 on Garden Ice and 1-3 in the Igloo, so if the trend continues they will win it in seven games. Now the trick with the pens is to do to Marc0-Andre Fleury, what the Blueshirts did to Marty Brodeur. If that can crash the net and get him off the game, they can steal a game in Pittsburgh and then continue Penguin mastery at the Garden.

For the series, Tom Renney may put Colton Orr back in the lineup, because the fourth line of Blair Betts, Ryan Hollweg and Orr, did a great job at shutting down Sidney Crosby during the year, while relying upon the Ranger big guns to come through with less ice time.

Also watch if Jaromir Jagr melt unter the Scott Gomez treatment in Pittsburgh.

Now if the Caps come back and Montreal wins, the Rangers will visit the Bell Centre for game 1. The Blueshirts were 3-0-1 against the Habs, who are relying upon Carey price. As we saw in Game 5, Price can get rattled by little mistakes as the Bruins were able to keep the series alive. In this possible series the Ranger penalty kill needs to shut down the Hab pwer play and also stay out of the box, because the Habs offense is centered around taking advantage of other teams mistakes.

They also will be visiting a hostile Bell Centre, unlike the cushy Prudential Center they got in the first round.

If Boston and Philly win, they the Blueshirts will open at the Garden against the Flyers. They were 5-1-2, but Stephen Valiquette took three of thoise wins. Don’t expect Vali to replace the King in the beginning, but coach Tom Renney may use his backup in this series to change things up. Valiquette has a 1.04 gaa against the Flyers.

On offense, the Rangers need to solve Martin Biron and doing the same things to him as they did to Brodeur should do the trick.

They can also play the Capitals if the Caps and Briuns win their respective series. Again, they will have to deal with Cristobol Huet, who was great in the regular season, but struggled against the Flyers who ran him. However this matchup seems unlikely due to the nature of their round 1 matchup.    

Tom Renney looked loose as a goose today as he spoke to reporters before the game.

First he mused about a “N/R’ ron the wall at the Prudential Center looked like a “NYR”

Then he spoke about the goalies he played with joking they used to drink more than the defenseman [his position].

Finally he said he was a fan of the Western Conference meaning he could watch the games and enjoy them instead of worrying about coaching.

I guess it’s good to be up 3-1, and not getting relieved of his duties, unlike his counterpart at the Garden. Mercifully Isiah Thomas was relieved of duties and will go onto his next job as a popcorn maker. [Patrons still have to pay for the food at Ranger games.]

But it will be worth it in the second round if the Blueshirts can pull of the game tonight. It won’t be easy and Renney did warn about taking the game for granted like what happened in Montreal last night.

Should be interesting and the puck drops in an hour.

My Sunday doubleheader continues. I was at Shea earlier and now sitting here at the Garden for Game 3.

Before the game, the media spoke with Tom Renney, who seemed very loose as his team looks to take control of this series by going up 3-0.

Jaromir Jagr came in and showed the press his Stanley Cup Ring, which he tells us is the “2008 ring.”

The Blueshirts will tote the same lineup out there, why change?

As for the Devils, they will desperately try to get back in this series which could be over by Wednesday if the Blueshirts keep winning.

Philly won today with Marty Biron coming through with a shutout, so it’s a brand new series with the Flyers taking home ice.

Oh and the Mets lost 9-7, but we won’t go there.

More later….

«FULL STORY»

Ok stat of the night: The Rangers have never lost a series when they took a 2-0 lead. Well it looks like this trend will continue.

Think about it, do you honestly believe the Devils will take two games at the Garden, a place where they are 9-2-1 against the Devils in the regular season since the lockout and the two regulation losses had Kevin Weekes in goal? Sure the Devils beat the King twice at MSG in the 2006 playoffs, but remember he did have the hip flexor and migraine headaches back then.

With the Garden rocking and a determined Ranger team, it’s going to be tough for the Devils.

Bottom line, the Blueshirts should win this series, unless a 2004 Yankee-like collapse occurs.

Before we get ahead of ourselves and look at the Montreal matchup, there are still two games to be won and unlike last year’s Atlanta Thrashers, which saw Kari Lehtonen meltdown, Marty Brodeur won’t go out that easy. Tom Renney knows this and will have his team ready.

First the Rangers will need to put more pressure on Brodeur and get more pucks to the net. With only 13 shots through two periods, the team will have to play like they did in the third tonight, while keeping Lundqvist well protected.

It’s not going to be easy, but I am keeping a quiet confidence.  

As expected, a tough period with a lot of his, a few scoring chances and no goals. Oh, there’s the penalty door issue too, but that seems to be fixed for now.

Changing things up, Brent Sutter put the Madden line out against Chris Drury, since No. 23 killed New Jersey on Wednesday. Otherwise, we saw something similar as Game 1. Good scating, good defense and a tremendous defensive matchup.

Now if the Rangers cane come through in the second, remains to be seen. But in seven minutes we will find out.

We are back in Newark for Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

Tonight the Rangers will look to continue to take advantage of mistakes, nut must forecheck the puck into the Devils zone more. New Jersey will try to take advantage of the young New York defense, while keeping with the gameplan that worked in Game 1, but couldn’t score against Henrik Lundqvist.

The Devils may play more desperate tonight because a 2-0 Ranger lead going into the Garden probably spells certain doom for the merry band from New Jersey.  

And a mea culpa: It was Brendan Shanahan who assisted on Nigel Dawes empty netter rather then Chris Drury. That’s what happens when you see it on the way to the elevator. Thanks to my friend in life and hockey, Patrick Hoffman, for pointing that out.

Well, that looked easy didn’t it?

With the Rangers coming through for two goals in the third, the Blueshirts take home ice back for a 1-0 lead in the series.

And this was a Devil Fans nightmare. Their ‘favorites’ like Scott Gomez and Sean Avery performed and Marty Brodeur looked like a rookie out there [or at least like Mike Dunham] in the third when he tried to handle pucks that should have been just covered up.

Good job by the young Rangers like Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky who didn’t melt under the pressure and good work from Brandan Shanahan scoring the first goal.

The star of the night was Henrik Lundqvist who outplayed Brodeur and could have had a shutout if Marty Straka’s stick didn’t break causing a 5-4 powerplay to be a 5-3 since the Rangers couldn’t clear the puck and Straka couldn’t do too much.

But that’s water under the bridge, because the Callahan and Avery goals were the difference.

And what leadership from Chris Drury at the end of the game, giving the puck to Nigel Dawes for the empty netter so he can get his first goal.

All in all, a nice win.