Brendan Shanahan appears to be switching spots with Petr Prucha.

The veteran is practicing on the fourth line with Blair Betts and Fred Sjostrom, while Prucha is with Scott Gomez and Sean Avery.

These were the combinations for the last game of the regular season.

More after practice…

Greetings from Gate D80 At Mario Lemieux International Airport, where I’m at least fixing to get out of town early to get back in time for practice at noon.

In the meantime, here’s my story on Game 2, and some notes on Petr Prucha’s return and Sidney Crosby’s confrontation with Jaromir Jagr.

More later…

If you’re looking for a synopsis of this lost weekend, that would be it.

Yes, the Rangers can come back and win two at the Garden. They’ve beaten the Penguins in all four games there this season, and they staged the same type of comeback last year against Buffalo.

But that doesn’t change the fact that this team had a chance to steal at least one win here, and they didn’t. And as much as players said it wasn’t the case, I couldn’t help but feel that the events of Friday carried into today.

So now it’s backs-against-the-wall time, and while it wasn’t quite Mark Messier against the Devils, Henrik Lundqvist issued his own sort of guarantee today.

“It feels like the difference between these two teams is not that big. It could be one bounce that’s the difference,” he said. “We should go back to New York and put more pressure on them. I think they looked a little better than they are.  I know we can put more pressure on them. We’re going to do that in New York and we’re going to get the win.”

We’re starting right in. Press room meal was turkey and mashed potatoes, meaning I have a strange desire to curl up and take a nap. But I’ll power through...

UPDATE, 5:11 p.m.: 2-0 is 2-0, no way to dress it up. But the Rangers are already latching on to what they did in falling behind to Buffalo last year, and then coming back to win two straight at the Garden. Two different series, I know.

UPDATE, 4:24 p.m.: Time is getting short. Rangers look tired, and the ice seems choppy—not a promising combination.

UPDATE, 4:14 p.m.: This is not the way to come back. Two Pittsburgh power plays in the first six minutes.

UPDATE, second intermission: The Rangers will go into the third needing a goal to tie it up. After a marginal effort in Game 1, Marc Andre-Fleury has been stellar. Henrik Lundqvist has been every bit as good, but was left exposed after a brilliant move by Evgeni Malkin set up Jordan Staal.

So this it. The series doesn’t end today regardless, but for the Rangers, a loss here makes the collapse in Game 1 sting all the worse.

UPDATE, 3:41 p.m.: After the Penguins miss what seemed like a half-dozen point blank chances in front, Jordan Staal cashes in. The Pens are up 1-0, but Chris Drury just drew a holding penalty against Marian Hossa.

UPDATE, 3:31 p.m.: The Rangers best early scoring chance may have come when Jagr took that drop pass from Martin Straka. But he opted to make an extra move on Brooks Orpik and took away his angle. This is turning into a flinching contest.

UPDATE, 3:24 p.m.: Looks like the Rangers are trying to stretch the Penguins a bit to start the second, which is fine as long as they don’t get caught stretched themselves.

UPDATE, first intermission: All things considered, a better first period for the Rangers than in Game 1—with the notable exception that they don’t have a lead. Of course, we all know how that worked out.

UPDATE, 2:44 p.m.: Crosby goes down, Tom Renney smirks. Easy, Tom. Michel Therrien might see that!

UPDATE, 2:30 p.m.: Some dicey early moments, but no blood. If nothing else, Henrik Lundqvist again looks sharp, staying with Marian Hossa the entire way on his breakaway.

UPDATE, 2:21 p.m.: New lines were a ruse. Avery is back with Scott Gomez and Brendan Shanahan.

UPDATE, 2:16 p.m.: New lines for Rangers: Sean Avery to skate with Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan.

UPDATE, 1:58 p.m.: For the record, no white T-shirt giveaway today. Too bad for the thousands of fans who showed up expecting as much, and now have to sit through the game shirtless.

I’m kidding, of course. There are public decency laws even in Pittsburgh….

UPDATE, 1:45 p.m.: First potential omen of the day: Before Game 1, when the Rangers charged on to the ice for warm-ups, Blair Betts was the first player to touch a puck and he sent a shot sailing past the goal. Today, Betts was again the first player to shoot, and he scores! To borrow from Sam Rosen, It’s a meaningless warm-up goal!

Petr Prucha makes his playoff debut today against the Penguins, in no small part because of his speed.

“I think Pete’s really, really hungry for starters,” Tom Renney said. “I see it in his eyes and he has had some success against Pittsburgh. I liked his game against them. He’s done a good job. He’s worked hard. He’s got a good touch. I like the second and third effort in his game and because usually beyond that, there’s a result with good consequence.”

One would assume that when Renney talks about Prucha’s success against the Penguins this season, he’s referring more to intangibles, because in seven games, Prucha only had one assist. In 16 games before this year, however, Prucha had four goals and five assists against them.

Either way, I think it’s a good move seeing how Prucha has more offensive game than either Colton Orr or Ryan Hollweg, and he immediately makes that fourth line more of a threat as a result.

All this energy expended over Sidney Crosby? Well, actually, still worth it.

But consider this stat via NewYorkRangers.com. In games when the Rangers have held Evgeni Malkin without a goal, they are 5-0. When Malkin scores, they are 0-4, and Malkin has had all four game-winning goals.

More later…

A group of us spent Saturday night in Pittsburgh at charming PNC Park perched on the river here—I forget which river, there are so many—watching the hometown Pirates take a beating at the hands of the hated Phillies.

It was a fun night fueled by Iron City and assorted ballpark fare, although the game itself was a little on the dull side, as evidenced by a certain former Ranger defenseman-turned-broadcaster who felt the need to bring a book along with him (Ah, he’s Canadian. They don’t really get baseball anyway).

But again, a ballpark on a warm spring night among friends is still good fun, especially one as cool as this one. If I had to take with issue with anything, it would be this guy sitting directly in front of me, who may have the biggest head in creation, and who ended up blocking more of home plate than Pudge Rodriguez.

At least, I wasn’t missing much.

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As for your Rangers, the verbal sparring going on between the two teams seems to have extended to the media, or at least that’s what this column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review would suggest (To the same writer’s credit, he did write a fascinating account of Jaromir Jagr’s tenure in Pittsburgh that ran the other day).

This whole affair risks venturing into dangerous territory. It’s true, some of us from New York papers have been representing the Rangers’ side of things so far, particularly in the team’s views of Sidney Crosby (and that would include me, who has obviously had some fun at young No. 87’s expense).

But as reporters, the last thing you want to do is get into a whole our team-is-better-than-your-team spitting contest.

We should leave that stuff to the teams themselves and the fans.

That Michel Therrien wanted to continue the dialogue about Sidney Crosby today came as something of a surprise to the Rangers, because they said they were done with it the moment the final horn sounded last night.

“I haven’t read the papers today but I feel like the only thing our team did last night was defend Martin Straka,” Brendan Shanahan said. “We certainly didn’t come into the room and throw down our equipment and say we got hosed by the refs. So I’m kind of surprised that Therrien’s making a big issue today. I’m actually really surprised. But if he wants to bring the referee’s attention to it, that’s fine.”

The point isn’t that the players think Crosby was innocent of embellishment, because some still expressed bemusement that a player who is arguably the strongest skater in the game can still lose his footing when he does. The difference is other than when asked abot it by the media, it hasn’t been much of a topic of conversation.

“Whatever. If he’s not diving, fine,” Brandon Dubinsky said. “If he is, that’s too bad for him. He’s too good a player to be doing that. I don’t think he needs to do that because he can draw enough penalties on his his talents and skill level alone. I don’t know whether he is or not, that’s something within himself. I could tell you certainly my trip last night was for going for the puck.

“But we can’t worry about. We’ve got to focus on our own game and we can’t get caught up with it. When we start focusing on whether he’s not diving or not, that’s when we know we’re in trouble. We have to focus on the important parts of our game.”

Some other notes:

Although there wasn’t much hope anyway that this Sidney Crosby-is-a-diver storyline was going away, Michel Therrien breathed new life into after practice today in defending his captain.

And for the record, it didn’t take much prodding, either.

“Where I’m kind of disappointed is that there’s gamesmanship before the series about Sidney drawing penalties,” Therrien said. “And I’m disappointed. I’m kind of disappointed about that. This is a star player that plays into traffic—a powerful skater. And when a star player like this goes to traffic and plays into traffic, well he’s going to draw penalties.

“And we all know what Tom Renney’s trying to do. He tried to do it before we started the series. He tried to do it last night, I saw his comments today. He’s trying to get attention to the referees and complaining about the penalty last night at the end of the game.

“As far as I’m concerned – as far as we’re all concerned – it’s not even close. In the 1990s, I could understand we let those things go. With the new game, it’s about speed. It’s about the good players getting a chance to make plays. It’s letting those good players be able to skate if you get caught out of position.

“But we know what he’s trying to do. But I’m convinced the referees don’t buy into those things, the league doesn’t buy into those things. Why don’t we give credit to a guy that plays into traffic, will get shots?

“I’m kind of disappointed they complained about.”

But how do you really feel?

The Rangers are on the ice now but surely this will become a topic of conversation once they’re done.

Now that my head is clear:

There are some similarities between last year’s Game 1 loss in Buffalo in the second round, and last night’s meltdown against the Penguins. In both instances the Rangers gave up five goals in a rowdy arena, and were preaching more prudent defensive work afterward.

The difference, though, is that while the Rangers seemed slighty dazed and even outclassed in that first loss to the Sabres, Game 1 this time only reinforced the belief that beating the Penguins is fully within the Rangers’ reach.

And let’s not mistake: the Rangers were dreadful last night, with regards to their puck management, in taking too many penalties (legitimate or not), and in allowing the Penguins way too much room to maneuver. And when it comes to Crosby and Co., talk of their quick-strike capability was more than just pre-series bluster.

But even with all that, this was not a tone-setting, wake-up call as much as it was simply a game they could have won—and after taking a 3-0 lead, should have won—and didn’t.

So now it’s Penguins 1, Rangers 0, and at the risk of the obvious, tomorrow becomes huge.

“Our team’s good at turning the page,” Tom Renney said. “This wasn’t our best game by any stretch. We’ll be here Sunday. We’ll be ready to go.”

The Penguins skate at 11:30 and the Rangers go at 1:30. I’ll check in later…