NEW YORK -- The Penguins will lose in four.
Let's start with that as the default outlook for this first-round Stanley Cup playoff series that gets going tonight at Madison Square Garden: The Rangers will take Game 1,they'll drive the nail deeper in Game 2, and once the scene shifts to Pittsburgh, the home atmosphere will be so fatalistic, so toxic that the visitors will sail away with the sweep.
That's the script, right?
Well, sorry, I've got nothing clever to counter it, if that's where you thought this was headed.
The difference in these teams' depth, their momentum, their size and strength and speed, their systematic play, even their energy and enthusiasm levels, couldn't be more stark. There's just too much tilting toward the NHL's best regular-season team, plus too much tilting against the Penguins without Kris Letang, to reasonably expect any other outcome.
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