Blue Notes

Sorry for the delay, technical difficulties,

Greetings from the Burgh, and no, during the morning skate, Rangers coach Tom Renney didn't set up speakers to simulate the booing that rang through this old place and irritated Jaromir Jagr last Saturday.

In fact, Renney and players seemed upbeat and loose after the workout that included deflection and face- off drills

After the game-day skate here last Saturday, Renney felt a little queasy about the readiness of his team. "I wasn't unhappy, just uncertain," he said.

Eight or so hours later, his club committed 12 penalties and the Penguins scored twice during 5-on-3s en route to a 3-1 win that left more than Renney's stomach upset..

After today's morning skate, Renney declared: "I feel much better than then. We had more energy, I liked the way we worked on some things."

Renney cautioned not to read too much into that change. "You can still come out later and lose two points," he said. "Sometimes you look great and come out flat."

But the coach had at least four other reasons to be optimistic.

Since the loss a week ago, the Rangers had dispatched both Tampa Bay and Carolina---the last two Stanley Cup champions---by 4-1 and 4-0 scores at Madison Square Garden to climb into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, 5-2 in his last seven starts---lowering his GAA to 2.92---was between the pipes last night.

Jagr appears to have shrugged off the booing that nagged him in his lackluster last game here to score three goals against the Lightning and Hurricanes. Jagr has 602 career goals and 1,466 points. With another point, he would tie Stan Mikita for 12th on the all-time list. He had a goal and two assists in the first game against the Penguins at MSG on Oct. 12 this season.

And the Penguins were missing Sidney Crosby, who sat out his third consecutive game with a groin strain. "I'm still a little sore...It's not ready," Crosby said after testing the injury in practice. "I'm a lot closer than I was three or four days ago." Without the stellar sophomore center, who is 10-20-30 in 19 games, the Penguins lost 3-1 to the Islanders on Friday and 4-3 in a shootout to the Bruins on Wednesday.

(Crosby--in suit and tie---just passed us in the press box, so Renney, who wasn't sold that Crosby would play, can rest easier)

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Rangers forward Jed Ortmeyer, out since August with pulmonary embolism, was cleared for contact after completing a week of non-contact practice. But Renney said at some point, he would be sent to Hartford to play games before getting the gree light to dress at MSG....Darius Kasparaitis and Thomas Pock were healthy scratches again.

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Russian rookie center Evgeni Malkin, who scored in each of those two games and has 11 goals, left the Islanders game with four minutes to play after he appeared to injure his shoulder on a check from Brendan Witt. But coach Michel Therrien said Malkin was fine. "He's trying to be a leader out there," said Crosby.

With injuries, Therrien said, "you've got to give different guys different roles that sometimes they're not used to...Maxime Talbot, he's supposed to be a fourth-line center, right now he's playing left wing on the second line. We've only had Malkin and Crosby [together] for 15 of our games. We all understand that they're a big part of our team. Minnesota lost some key players and lost four games in a row. We're not different. But I know my team's gonna come out and play hard against the Rangers."

Penguins rookie center Jordan Staal, who opened each of the two previous games against the Rangers with a goal (the first shorthanded and the other on a power play) was to be used throughout the lineup by Therrien.

"Eventually he'll be a better player." Therrien said of Staal, whose brother, Marc. is the Rangers top defense prospect. "He'll start on the fourth line, and it depends on how the game goes. We like to spot him on the second line, penalty-kill, we like to get him on the power play. But we don't want to give him the responsibility to be a second-line guy, we tried that and his game went down a little bit. It's too much to handle for an 18-year-old. You pick your spots, we want him to learn."

Brendan Shanahan, who has 17 goals this season, has a goal in each of the two games against Pittsburgh.... Marc-Andre Fleury (10-5-2, 2.82 GAA) was in goal for Pittsburgh....The Rangers had won two in a row; the Penguins had lost two of three....RW Jason Ward, who suffered a slight ankle sprain against Carolina, was close to 100 percent.

More later, coffee time