NEW YORK -- Gone are Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh, Michael Grabner and J.T. Miller, part of the Rangers' recycling plan that was announced via the front office's stunningly frank email to their fans in early February.
Gone, too, are any prayers of a Stanley Cup playoff spot, marking the first time they'll miss since 2010.
So it might appear the Penguins could coast through this not-exactly-cataclysmic matchup tonight at Madison Square Garden, not to mention the one tomorrow in Montreal against the even-lesser Canadiens, and skate back through U.S. Customs with four points leading nicely into a rare four-day break.
Maybe. But maybe not.
My three keys to beating New York:
1. Don't presume anyone here has quit.
Even the way the front office handled the messaging a month ago, that the Rangers were about to sell off key veterans just three points out of the Eastern playoff picture, wasn't tantamount to surrender. It came with a plan for the future. And as much as that's anathema in this we're-owed-everything-right-now corner of the sporting world, it made perfect sense for a roster that was too old, too slow and going nowhere.
What's more, since all of the aforementioned four were traded by the NHL's Feb. 26 deadline -- Nash to the Bruins, Grabner to the Devils, McDonagh and Miller to the Lightning -- the Rangers have hardly collapsed: They're 4-2-1, and the lone losses came to the Jets, Lightning and Panthers (by shootout), with no shame accompanying any of those. In their most recent game Monday, they doubled up the Hurricanes, 6-3, on a hat trick by Jimmy Vesey and two goals by Mats Zuccarello.
The spirit of the remaining Rangers might have been best summed up by Vesey in our talk this morning: "We're going out there and getting better, doing our jobs, having a good time."
Zuccarello, one of the few remaining veterans, essentially echoed that at the next stall: "We're having fun. We feel like we've got nothing to lose, so we're going out there and having a good time playing hopefully good hockey."
And then Alain Vigneault a bit later: "For games, it doesn't change. We're here to win. We've got a great opponent tonight, and we've got to be ready for them."
2. Fire away, boys.
Alexandar Georgiev is 22, he's got all of four NHL starts, and Vigneault announced a day in advance that he'd start again tonight against the Penguins rather than a healthy Henrik Lundqvist.
So yeah, things are a little strange here.
Sure, Georgiev's off to an encouraging start, with a .930 save percentage and 41 saves in that victory over Carolina. But what this still boils down to is a front office hoping to see if the kid's for real and can serve as Lundqvist's backup next season. Thus, he'll be thrown to the figurative wolves to see how he fares against the league's most frightening offense.
"He's a battler," Vigneault said of Georgiev. "I like his positioning in goal, his rebound control, he's won his last two games. But for us right now, it's about his potential as a backup for Hank. So we'll see what he can do against a real good team."
OK, shoot the puck. That would definitely qualify as a key.
3. Pressure, pressure.
Never mind the goaltending. The Rangers also will be missing an important defenseman, Kevin Shattenkirk, to a lower-body injury, and Vigneault announced this morning that Tony DeAngelo, another defenseman, will be out with a sprained ankle. Ryan Sproul was recalled from Hartford for the game, and he'll be paired with Brady Skjei.
Other than Marc Staal, good luck identifying anyone on the New York blue line without a program: John Gilmour, Neal Pionk and Rob O'Gara. Other than Skjei and Staal, the rest of the defensive corps tonight has logged a combined 54 NHL career games.
Seriously, as each of these guys filtered off the ice and into the home locker room, I had to keep glancing down myself to match numbers with names.
Might be a good idea to forecheck.