Hank's been in a slump, hopefully a few days of Benny time gets him out of the funk.
Rangers are a much bigger team, and have better overall depth.
The Penguins are much faster and they hustle hard.
Rangers will need Hank to stand on his head, and their players to be physical.
IMO the goat for the Rangers is Kevin Hayes... he's missed a lot of checking assignments and isn't the fastest guy out there. He's a guy that can be exposed. He's missed a lot of checking assignments versus the faster teams and hasn't hustled at all.
I can see him being a regular scratch depending on how the first couple of games go.
Rangers would be wise to not overexpose Skjei early on.
Being that the Pens are much faster.. the Rangers should use their size, crash the net, and play a very disciplined game along the walls.
Getting into a track meet with these guys is an easy loss.
It will be interesting to see if the coaching adapts to more of a slower grinding game along the walls instead of that fast game that AV likes but this roster isn't equipped to handle versus Pittsburgh.
Physicality will be key. Staal, Nash, Kreider are all on the softer and physically disengaged side for the Rangers, but they'll need to finish checks and take out the Pens defensemen who are basically 4 deep and soft.
IMO they should run Letang every chance they get. Tanner, this is yo time to shine boy.
I can see Kunhackle being concussed by McIlrath. The Undertaker's gotten him good a few times his season... absolute bone crushing hits. If he's playing, hope he can line up Kessel that way.
Marc Staal, let's see some more of those cross checks to Crosby's neck. Let's turn that into an annual tradition.