2. The Pittsburgh Penguins vs. the New York Rangers
Who doesn’t love a good Metropolitan Division rivalry? The Pittsburgh Penguins and the New York Rangers are two huge name teams who come with worldwide fan-bases and are slated as some of the NHL’s top teams. These two teams have always inspired top-notch rivalry-like performances and this season won’t be any different.
The Rangers didn’t finish any closer to a Stanley Cup than usual and, after some team tweaking, this team is going to want to come into the season on top. Luckily for Pittsburgh, the Penguins have often had the upper hand over New York, especially lately.
Last season, the two teams faced off in a total of five games which resulted in Penguins’ dominance of three wins to two. The Pens didn’t just top the Rangers in their wins, they dominated, with one shootout with and two wins where they had five goals on their opponent.
New York is going to come into these games hard because, simply put, they want to win. Getting the edge over the Penguins would help the Rangers get closer to their goal, the Stanley Cup, and they’ll bring hard play. The Penguins, however, are no stranger to rivalry-like games and will bring their hardest play to top their opponent.