Regardless of the end result, the Penguins largely had their way with the Rangers in terms of controlling play when the two teams met in the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
A season later, both teams are considerably different, but the foundation the Penguins laid to dictate terms against the Rangers last May is still there to be taken advantage of.
In the first of three matchups between them this week, the Penguins defeated the Rangers, 3-2, in overtime here at PPG Paints Arena Sunday. If the game's first 40 minutes are an indicator of what's to come, I suspect the Penguins will have the upper hand Thursday and Saturday in New York.
The Penguins aren't nearly as effective attacking off the rush as they were a season ago, but their ability to do so was one of the biggest reasons they carried play against the Rangers last postseason. They were able to dissect each layer of the Rangers' forecheck on their way to creating chances in transition or establishing possession in the offensive zone and creating off the cycle.
What stood out about the Rangers' forecheck on the first few shifts of Sunday's game is that they were sending all three forwards deep into the Penguins' zone. I'm talking all three of them as far down as the goal line. Typically, even in the most aggressive forecheck systems, F3, or the forward furthest away from the puck, will hang a little higher in the zone to prevent quick breakouts and counterattacks.
The Rangers, however, seemed to want to overwhelm the Penguins where they're most vulnerable in order to create bang-bang chances out front as the defensive coverage stumbles to recover. Doing so comes with an extreme amount of risk, though, as a pass with precision or puck reversal to the other side of the ice can quickly beat all three forwards on the forecheck, sparking odd-man rushes the other way.
Although it didn't lead to any goals, the Penguins routinely broke out of their zone with ease in the early goings of the game. And because the Rangers were sending their forwards in so deep, all it took was reaching the blue line before the Penguins had numbers going the other way.
As the game went on, the Rangers didn't bring that look as much, but they were still very aggressive on the forecheck. The Penguins kept it simple and managed to continue beating them out of their zone anyway.
I asked Kris Letang, overtime hero, if that's something they can carry forward against them later in the week.
"They have so many different lines, you know? They have a lot of grit, and they have a lot of skill, also, on certain lines," he'd say. "They come with different forechecks, which is tough to read sometimes. Usually teams are coming with the same forecheck and you adjust to that. The fact we that we got a lot of power plays early in the game, I think they tried to get into the game by forechecking, get their legs. They came hard on the forecheck and we did a good job of handling it."
With Letang on the ice during 5-on-5 action, the Penguins out-attempted the Rangers, 29-19, and out-chanced them, 15-6. He might not have directly factored into all of the Penguins' offensive generation further up the ice, but those results absolutely came about as a result of him making swift work of the Rangers' forecheck in his own end.
Letang can be absolutely maddening at times for trying to do too much with the puck on his stick, but I thought he did a brilliant job of playing within himself. That included making simple plays -- especially under pressure -- to navigate the Penguins out of the defensive zone. Mike Sullivan frequently refers to that as taking what the game gives you, and that's exactly what Letang and many of his teammates did against the Rangers.
"They’re an aggressive forecheck," Sullivan said of the Rangers. "We knew it going in, they come at us with five, not just three. Their defensemen are very aggressive. They’re aggressive on the walls, they’re gonna challenge us to beat their pressure, and that’s an important aspect when you play a team like this. It’s one of the strengths of their game."
Although it's an oversimplification, the Penguins simply not beating themselves likely does much of the legwork to defeat these Rangers.
"I thought in the first couple of periods we did a real good job," Sullivan continued. "I thought we got on our heels a little bit in the third, but we started to grab ahold of it. Make plays when they’re there, but sometimes plays aren’t there to be made. Sometimes we just gotta play behind a team and get in a footrace."
The Penguins want to flex their muscle. They want to put a gazillion goals on the board every night. But they're at their best when they act upon those urges in the right scenarios rather than trying to will -- or skill -- their way to victory.
"I think they’re probably just trying to get on the forecheck, create turnovers," Sidney Crosby said when I posed him with the same question as Letang. "Our D do a good job of bypassing that or skating it out, so we gotta work together to get out of our zone. We did a pretty good job of that early, and then in the third I thought we got on our heels a little bit, but you expect that when they push. We got through it."
The evidence is piling that the Penguins are capable of being the better team for the duration of any matchup against the Rangers. The way I see it, the only thing that will prevent them from securing several more points later in the week would be the Rangers' always lurking quick-strike game. If they can keep that at bay, they might just make a push to oust the Rangers from the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.