Penguins Beat Rangers

The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the New York Rangers in Round One by a series total of 4-1.  This was a revenge series for the Penguins, as they now knock out early the same team that has knocked them out the prior two years.  Two years ago, it was a 4-3 victory for the Rangers in the Second Round after getting down 3-1.  Last year, it was the Rangers against the Penguins who snuck in as the Second Wild Card.  It went exactly the same that this series went, except for the fact that both teams are switched around.  The Rangers won game one at home, the Penguins took game two at the Garden, and then the Rangers won the following three games.
I wasn't easy for the Penguins.  Marc-Andre Fluery, their regular goalie, had been out for a couple of weeks with his second sustained concussion of the year.  Their backup, Matthew Murray, suffered a concussion in the final game at the Flyers, so the Penguins were left with their third goaltender, Jeff Zatkoff.
Zatkoff would start the first two games, the first Stanley Cup playoff games he has ever started, and was good in the first but the magic ran out.  Luckily, Murray was cleared for game three, and in his postseason debut, he allowed only one goal in a 3-1 Pens victory, as well as a 5-0 shutout in game four, and a 6-3 win in Game 5.
Murray outplayed King Henrik Lunqvist, considered to be possibly the best goalie in the game.  Lundqvist got poked in the eye by a teammate's stick, and got taken out of game one, but was fine the rest of the series.  He got lit up in games 4 and 5, and got benched.  All ten that he allowed in the two games were not all his fault as his defense was terrible against the speedy Penguins skaters.
Rookies played a big part in the Pens success in this series.  Murray, Bryan Rust, Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust, and Tom Kuhnhackl all were key in this series win.  The most impressive was Sheary, who has moved into the first line with Sidney Crosby has been impressive, and his chemistry with Sid the Kid.  This, along with Evgeni Malkin coming back and Phil Kessel heating up, this Pens team is dangerous, and Fluery might be on his way back.
The Penguins are put into a showdown with Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Captials, who have never gotten past the second round in the Ovechkin era.  Crosby and Ovechkin have only met once in the Playoffs in a 4-3 Pens victory, the same year they won the Stanley Cup.  The President Cup trophy winners in the Caps against the second-best team makes no sense, and I might rant about the playoff system, like the New York Islanders tanking to avoid the Metro side.  But, the Caps should be a good Conference Semifinal, but it's a shame it's not a Eastern Conference final.  The action will start this week.