With Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Sabres fresh in their minds, the Rangers want nothing more than to avoid another disappointment this afternoon against the Penguins.
The Blueshirts were outhustled, outshot and outplayed by the young Buffalo squad, and Tom Renney knows that if his club comes out flat again, they likely will meet with a similar result.
“I think that we’ll be prepared for a very good, young, hard-working team,” Renney said after practice yesterday. “This is a good team, and they’re on a mission of respectability – and that’s a scary team to play against. You better be ready.”
Renney did all he could to prepare his players yesterday, putting them through an hour-and-a-half of vigorous practice drills in the hopes they will come out a more inspired bunch this afternoon at the Garden.
“More often than not, we get out of our guys what we’re looking for in practice because they do work hard, and that energizes you,” Renney said.
Ideally, the Rangers will be able to channel that energy into the first period today; fast starts at home nearly always have ended in victory this season. The Blueshirts are 13-1-1 at the Garden when they have scored the first goal of the game. They have won twice at home (2-5-3) when their opponents got on the board first.
“We’ve got to get back to good habits of how we start our games,” Renney said, clearly dissatisfied with his team’s start against Buffalo, which both outshot (11-7) and outscored (1-0) the Blueshirts in the opening period Tuesday.
“How we manage the circumstances in those first six, eight, 10 minutes is really important to us,” Renney continued. “We have to try to dictate the terms.”
An essential element to a good start by the Rangers will be the play of Jaromir Jagr, who returned to practice yesterday after staying home Wednesday and Thursday with a severe cold.
Jagr said he was hopeful he would have enough energy to play the entire game, though his illness had weakened him and resulted in a fair amount of soreness. Most of the pain, he said, was centered in his abdominal region, the result of a near-constant cough. He said he wanted to be able to contribute and not overextend himself.
“It’s just like when you are running a marathon,” Jagr said. “You cannot sprint the first 5 kilometers, because you’re not going to finish it.”
*
Marcel Hossa, who missed the past two games with a mouth injury, may return to the lineup in place of Ryan Hollweg . . . Pittsburgh (12-29-10) has the fewest wins and points in the Eastern Conference, and the highest goals-against total . . . Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, who sat out Thursday night’s shootout loss to the Islanders, is expected to start.
pat.reichart@nypost.com