Penguins Can’t Use the Exhaustion Excuse if the Rangers Beat Them

To the Pittsburgh Penguins, the schedule couldn’t be more favorable for their Eastern Conference semifinal series against the New York Rangers.

Monday: Off. Tuesday: Off. Wednesday: Off. Thursday: Off.

“It’s a chance for us to take a deep breath, relax for once,” defenseman Neil Wilkinson said.

“Everybody’s got a few bumps and bruises,” defenseman Chris Joseph said. “And we’ve still got a few things we’ve got to work on.”

The Penguins are sore and tired from a laborious first-round series with the Washington Capitals that didn’t swing their way until they won Game 4 in a history-making four overtimes. But the Rangers are far more talented than the Capitals, and, historically, they dislike the Penguins even more than Washington does.

Many of the Rangers still retain grim memories of their six-game playoff loss to Pittsburgh in 1992, when the Penguins rallied around Mario Lemieux’s broken wrist in Game 2 to eliminate the Stanley Cup favorites.

“It will be two good teams going at it,” Lemieux said of the first Rangers-Penguins series since then. “They’ve got some guys who have won Cups before, and we have the same thing. I think it is going to be a long series.”

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The Philadelphia Flyers’ Eric Lindros said the Florida Panthers are no pushovers in the best-of-seven series starting Thursday at the Spectrum.

“It’s not going to be flag football out there,” said Lindros, who had 47 goals this season. “It’s going to be exciting. They are really forechecking hard. They are coming out as quickly as possibly.”

Florida is being cast as a huge underdog, but the Panthers believe they can win. The teams split, 2-2-1, during the regular season.