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Pens, Rangers cap off starkly different opening weekends

Rangers vs Penguins

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 20: Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers makes the first period save as Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins looks for the rebound at Madison Square Garden on January 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

The Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Rangers will be dealing with very different emotions following this weekends contests.

The teams ranked first and second when it came to their chances of winning the Stanley Cup as far as the online sports book Bovada was concerned. However, with the Penguins 6-3 victory over the Rangers on Sunday, Pittsburgh is leading the Atlantic Division with a 2-0-0 record while the Rangers are still searching for their first win.

Fortunately for the Rangers, their schedule isn’t as initially heavy as some other teams. After playing in back-to-back games over the weekend, they will only participate in five contests over the next 11 days. That will give them time to adjust rather than being forced to sort their problems out on the fly.

Another silver lining for the Rangers is that they did look good towards the end of Sunday’s game and while it was too little, too late, Rick Nash and Derek Stepan combined for an impressive shorthanded goal late in the third period.

Still, moral victories will only take them so far. They need to start accumulating actual points soon if they don’t want to wind up in a rather deep hole.