Penguins to hoist banner, battle Rangers
Last Updated: Friday, October 2, 2009 | 1:13 PM ET
CBC Sports
Penguins playoff hero Max Talbot, right, won't be with the team as they look to start the season with a win over goalie Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers on Friday. (Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press)The Pittsburgh Penguins will show off a new decoration in their home rink when they host the New York Rangers in the season opener for both teams on Friday.
The Pens will raise their first Stanley Cup championship banner since the 1991-92 team won the second of back-to-back finals.
"The celebration and raising of that banner, that doesn't happen very often in your career and for teams," head coach Dan Bylsma told the Penguins' official website. "It's special in that regard. There will be an added energy and excitement because of that."
Team captain Sidney Crosby believes they can repeat but knows every team will have their sights set on toppling the defending champs.
"We've set the bar pretty high," he said. "You have to be ready every night because you're going to see everyone's best."
The best indication of how well the Penguins hopes for this season match up with reality is that most of the winners of last year's championship will be wearing the black and gold sweaters for Pittsburgh on Friday.
Headlined by Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, defenceman Sergei Gonchar and goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury — Pittsburgh feels it has the ingredients for success in 2009-2010.
One loss, albeit for a portion of the season, is Max Talbot. The Penguins forward, who scored both goals in the Game 7 clincher against Detroit isn't likely to return until January after off-season shoulder surgery.
Rangers pin hopes on Gaborik
The Rangers hope to spoil the banner raising by notching a rare win in regulation at Mellon Arena — Pittsburgh is 13-0-2 in its last 15 home games against the Atlantic Division rivals.
To accomplish this, New York will need to improve its weakest aspect — putting the puck in the net. The Rangers were 28th in the NHL last season in goals, averaging 2.44 a game and only put up four goals in their last three playoff games in their first round defeat to Washington.
"Very disappointing," said goalie Henrik Lundqvist. "... You try to learn from everything, but that one was a tougher experience. Hopefully it will help us move forward and help me to try to learn from it."
What the Rangers had for scoring, they lost in the off-season. Markus Naslund's 24 goals paced the Rangers in 2008-09, but he retired while last season's co-scoring leaders Scott Gomez and Nikolai Zherdev went to other teams.
But in typical Rangers style, they used the off-season to throw some money at the problem — namely $37.5 million US over five years at Marian Gaborik, the biggest offensive name available in free agency.
"Expectations and pressures were there in Minnesota, but here it's going to be a little more," Gaborik said. "It's a new organization, a new place to play for me. I am looking forward to everything. It's a team game. You can't just go out there and do it all by yourself. It's just not happening."
With files from The Associated Press
