Henrik Lundqvist will be seeing familiar foe Sidney Crosby in the first round.
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Get ready for another series against the Penguins. By defeating the Sabres 2-0, the Pens wrapped up the second wildcard. On two goals from Brandon Sutter and a 28-save shutout from Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh eliminated Boston.

With the Red Wings earning two points in a 2-0 blanking over the Hurricanes, that allowed Detroit to edge the Senators for third in the Atlantic Division. Ottawa gets the first wildcard and draws division winner Montreal while the Red Wings face Tampa. The Penguins finished with 98 points. One less than Ottawa and two fewer than Detroit.

For the second straight year, the Rangers and Penguins will meet in the postseason. This time, it will be in the first round with the pressure on the President’s Trophy winners who have home ice throughout the playoffs. None of that matters when they take to Garden ice this Thursday for Game 1 against their bitter rival. As the players have pointed out, it all starts over.

The Rangers took the season series from the Penguins going 3-0-1. They won both meetings at MSG including a 5-0 win on Nov. 11 and a 4-3 overtime win on Dec. 8. The teams split at Consol Energy Center with the Pens edging the Rangers 3-2 in a bizarre shootout on Nov. 15 and the Rangers defeated the Pens 5-2 on Jan. 18.

The teams haven’t met since. When they do battle, the Pens will be looking to avenge last year’s bitter second round defeat that saw the Rangers come back from a 3-1 series deficit rallying around Martin St. Louis, who lost his Mom France. They still could be without top defenseman Kris Letang, who has a concussion. However, they’re still formidable with Sidney Crosby finishing third in scoring with 84 points and Evgeni Malkin tallying 70 points. Sutter (21 goals), Patric Hornqvist (25-25-50), Chris Kunitz (40 points), David Perron and Blake Comeau supply secondary scoring. They also boast pests Steve Downie and Max Lapierre and Nick Spaling.

If they’re without Letang (54 points), Paul Martin and Rob Scuderi anchor the blueline that has been hurt down the stretch. They were forced to go with five defensemen including Ian Cole, Ben Lovejoy and emergency recall Taylor Chorney. Christian Ehrhoff (upper body) and Derrick Pouliot (upper body) have less than a week to get ready.

The Pens will need big series out of Crosby and Malkin and especially Fleury, who bounced back to lead the league with 10 shutouts. They’ll also have to get strong support from depth players. It’ll be interesting to see if the Rangers superior depth and skating ability can wear down Pittsburgh’s defense.

The Rangers should be healthy with leading scorer Rick Nash rested and Marc Staal also recovering from an injury. Kevin Klein is expected to be ready for Game 1. Henrik Lundqvist looks in form and the lines have been cohesive. Ever since Alain Vigneault stuck J.T. Miller with Derek Stepan and Chris Kreider, they’ve had great chemistry. It allows him to use Nash with Derick Brassard and Mats Zuccarello and have Martin St. Louis on the third line with rookie Kevin Hayes and Carl Hagelin. St. Louis has looked better on that line than at any point with Stepan and Kreider because he’s shooting more. The fourth line played well down the stretch giving Vigneault a choice between Tanner Glass and James Sheppard with Dominic Moore and Jesper Fast.

If Klein is a go, that allows Vigneault to have even more balance on the back end. He can rotate Klein with Keith Yandle and Marc Staal depending on game situations. Dan Boyle can be used with either Staal or Yandle, who has fit in well. That leaves the Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi with the top assignment of Crosby. It’ll be interesting to see if Staal gets Malkin or if the Pens put Crosby and Malkin together during games.

For the Rangers to be successful, the strategy is to control the puck possession, stay disciplined and play smart hockey. If they can do that and do okay on faceoffs while limiting time and space from Crosby and Malkin, they should be fine. It all starts for real in five days.