The Blueshirts DNA Is Resilience And Tonight's The Night!

IMPORTANT MEMO FOR RANGERS FANS: Not to worry.

Losing the opener at home still stings but – sorry, you worry warts – it is not a big deal; not with this Presidents' Trophy-winning team and its comeback-ability.

That said, there are smart cookies on the other side. The Panthers high command has probed the Rangers weaknesses. Florida's forechecking won the game for them so it's time that The Maven help the embattled Peter Laviolette win tonight.

Here's what the Blueshirt general staff must do:

1. MUCH BETTER START: This means that the club – defensemen and forwards have to pounce right off the opening face-off. Throw the Panthers off their game from the get-go; and no fooling around. Your audience will be restless.

2 . IMPROVE PASSING: Enough with the soft passes. Stop! Pass better and put more pucks on the Florida net. Guaranteed, you'll get more goals that way.

3. BOTHER BOB: The Blueshirts made it too easy on Comrade Bobrovsky. He's seeing the puck. Now is the time to create traffic so he cannot see pucks.

Here's one impartial scout's observation with one game in the hopper:

"The Rangers were not better prepared to overcome Florida's fearsome forechecking. The Panthers are large, strong and dynamic as well as thoroughly committed.

"By the time the Rangers got up ice, they seemed too pooped to do much of anything such as scoring."

Here's what my Florida bird dog Alan Greenberg sees:

"The Rangers are too good not to correct their flaws. Despite the fact that they were outplayed they lost by only one "real" goal. Another positive is that they held off Florida's power play.

"What's more, Sam Reinhart who led the NHL in power play goals over the regular season had only one power play shot in the first game."

My educated sidekick Patrick Hoffman suggests a few line changes. They go as follows:

First Line: Kreider, Zebanejad, Chytil; Second Line: Panarin, Trocheck, Lafrenière;

Third Line: Roslovic, Wennberg, Kakko; Fourth Line: Cuylle, Goodrow, Vesey.

Defense: Fox-Lindgren; Trouba-Schenider; Miller-Gustaffson.

According to one insider: "Trouba and Miller have been a nightmare of turnovers and mistakes when pressed by the Panthers."

While The Maven – and Mark Messier – have all but pleaded with Peter Laviolette to play Menacing Matt Rempe, there remains a firm anti-Rempe bloc;

"He's a liability," offers one naysayer. "He takes too many penalties. We need people who stay out of the penalty box."

MAVEN'S CONCLUSION: The Blueshirts will display their resilience, patch the potholes and win with Igor Shesterkin leading the way.