Rangers-Panthers Series Preview.

 ECF 1M NYR vs Florida 1A

Now in the First of our two Conference Final previews, we have a ECF matchup between the Rangers and the Panthers, now this is going to be an interesting series as these two teams both won their divisions and it is the first time in a while we have had a ECF with both division winner, as this year the Panthers were able to win the Atlantic division, while the Rangers won the Metro Division and also won the President's trophy for the best record in the league this season so that's going to be an interesting series to see who has the edge between two division winners.

History of Rivalry between teams in playoffs:

Now for the Rangers and Panthers this is going to be the second all time meeting between these two franchises, as both teams met once before back in the 1997 playoffs where the New York Rangers were able to beat the Florida Panthers and this is going to be the second all time meeting, now the Rangers wound up beating the Panthers in five games last meeting so we'll see how this series goes, so it's definitely going to be an interesting series but this will be the second all time meeting between the New York Rangers and the Florida Panthers in the playoffs. 

Season Series Record:

NYR 1-2-0 9-11-2

Florida 2-0-1 11-9+2

Stephen R Sylvanie USA Today Sports 

Each Teams X-Factors: Tkachuk vs Shesterkin

Next we look at the two teams X-Factors for this series in my opinion, and one is the heart and soul leader of their team and the other is the brick wall in Net. Now for the Panthers there could very well be a ton of X-Factors on their team for this series such as Verhaeghe, Reinhart, Montour, Bobrovsky etc, but I think the X-Factor for Florida has to be Tkachuk, now entering this series Tkachuk has been solid but not as noticeable as last year and I think this is the perfect time for that too change, as he is perfect in the big moments and I think if Tkachuk plays like he did last year in the ECF where he had game winner after game winner, I think he could single handedly win this series for Florida, while on the Rangers side, I think Shesterkin has to be their X-Factor, as we saw in the last series how good Shesterkin is shutting down a high powered Hurricanes offense and he looked great doing it too, so if Shesterkin continues that play from Round 2 and continues to look steady in Net I think the Rangers will have a real shot to win this series, while if he starts to look a bit shaky I think the Rangers will be hard pressed to win this series. 

Which teams are best at 3 Position:

Offense: now offensively between these two teams I would say the Panthers have a little bit more scoring prowess, now I know the Rangers have a pretty good forward group with guys like Zibanejad, Kreider, Trocheck, Lafreniere, Kakko, Wennberg, Roslovic, so they have a lot of really good offensive weapons, but I think that the Panthers are a little bit more deeper right now and their best players are just a little bit more better than the Rangers so I'll give the slight Edge right now to the Panthers on the offensive side.

Defence: now defensively I'll give the edge to the New York Rangers, I think the Rangers have a fantastic D-Corp with guys like Miller, Trouba, Schneider, Lindgren and Fox and I think as much as the Panthers also have a pretty good Defence with guys like Ekblad, Forsling and Montour, it's just not as good as the New York Rangers is right now so I'm going to say the Rangers have the better defensive core.

Goaltending: goaltending wise these two goalies are extremely good, both Shesterkin and Bobrovsky are fantastic net minders, but if I had to pick one at this point in time I would say Shesterkin slightly because I still think Shesterkin is probably at this point in time the best goalie in the NHL, so saying that I think the Rangers have the slight Edge in Net, but only slightly because Bobrovsky has been fantastic ever since last year's playoffs, so I'm going to say that the Rangers have the slight Edge in Net and on the defensive core while the Panthers have the the better offense so that is my opinion on those two interesting things.

James Guillory USA Today Sports

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Panthers Physical group vs Rangers D group

Now this in my opinion has to be the most intriguing matchup on the ice in the ECF and that would be the Rangers D-Corp against the Panthers physical play, now the Panthers as a group play a extremely physical style of game that allows them to force their opponents to make mistakes that sometimes are costly and I would expect the Panthers to try and keep playing that style of game, and it will be interesting to see how the Rangers counter that because they have a blueline that is prone to injuries with guys like Lindgren and Gustafsson, so it will be interesting to see how that Rangers blueline stacks up in this series against the physical style of play the Panthers like to play. 

Prediction: 

And finally my predictions for this series, so we've done decent so far on our predictions this season and in the ECF I'm going to pick Panthers in six for this one, I think the Rangers are a really good team and it would not overly surprise me if the Rangers came out and actually did win this series and got to the final, but I still believe in the president's trophy curse as no team has been able to win the Cup and Presidents trophy since 2012 and I still think that the Rangers at some point will choke, so I think this could be the time that happens, plus the Panthers each time they've played the Boston Bruins in a playoff series they've went to The Cup Final so I'm going to say this happens again, they played the Bruins in 2023 and lost to the Golden Knights in the Final, and the played them in 1996 and lost to the Avalanche in the Final, so I think they are going to go back to the Cup Final and maybe this time they don't lose in the Stanley Cup Final, so I don’t know exactly what happens there but I do think that the Panthers will escape this series in six games to go on to their second consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearance, so it'll be interesting to see but that's my prediction on the Panthers and the Rangers Series.