Hurricanes-Panthers Series Preview

 2M Carolina vs Florida 3A

We are back with another Playoff preview here on the ETEH Blog, so today we are looking at the Eastern Conference Finals in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, as we're going to be looking at the best team in the Metro this year in the Carolina Hurricanes as they finished 2nd in the Metro this year, then took down the injured Devils in 5 games in RD1 and took down the best in the East in the regular season in Washington in 5 games in RD2 as they reach the Conference final for the 2nd time in 3 years, and they take on the 3rd team in the Atlantic in the Florida Panthers who toppled quite simply the Tampa Bay Lightning in RD1 in 5 games and followed that up with taking down the Atlantic winning Toronto Maple Leafs in 7 games in RD2 as they are the team to once again come out of the Atlantic and make the ECF for the 3rd consecutive season.

History of Rivalry Between teams in playoffs:

Now if you look at the history of the rivalry between the Hurricanes and the Panthers it isn’t very long as just like these two previous series in RD 2 this year, they have only met in the postseason once before and it was actually only 2 years ago, as after stunningly coming back and beating the best ever regular season team in Boston in 7 games and then taking down the Maple Leafs who finally made it to round 2 in 5 games, the Wildcard Panthers would head to the conference final against the Metro winners in the regular season in Carolina who has previously taken down the Islanders in 6 games and Devils in 5, and then although there were 4 extremely tight games the young Panthers would stun the Hurricanes and take them down in a sweep 4-0 to advance to their 1st Cup Final appearance since 1996, while it was the 3rd straight Conference Final the Canes were swept in, so the only previous playoff meeting goes to the Panthers as they will looked to remain undefeated against the Canes in the postseason while Carolina will look to even the score after their 2nd playoff matchup.

Season Series Record: 

Carolina 1-2-0 6-13-7

Florida 2-1-0 13-6+7

John E Sokolowski Imagn Images

Each teams X-Factors: Marchand vs Hall 

Next we go over to the two teams X-Factors in my opinion for this series and the two X-Factors in my eyes are some of the two teams depth scoring and in-season acquisitions as Marchand in Florida who is a big piece of their 3rd line and Hall in Carolina who has done quite good for the Hurricanes in the postseason and has done well helping them with depth scoring. Now for the Panthers a big reason as to why the team was able to beat the Leafs in round 2 was the consistent pressure that the 3rd line of the Panthers had and that was Luostarinen, Lundell and Marchand which provided lots of energy for the Panthers in that series and Marchand in particular was a beast for the Panthers as he continuously destroyed Toronto and was a big contributor in game 7 so if he plays like he did against Toronto the. I like Florida’s chances, meanwhile for the Canes Taylor Hall has been looking great for the Canes in the playoffs as he has been in a middle six role and produced some big goals as secondary scoring including the game winner in game 4 for the Canes against Washington and the Hurricanes will need him to continue to help with the secondary scoring in the conference finals to have any chance of advancing.

Which teams are best at 3 Positions:

Offense: now both teams actually stack up quite well against each other on the offensive side of the puck as both teams have solid top 6’s with elite players but no superstars, and both have extremely good bottom 6’s with solid players who can step into the lineup if there are injuries or changes that need to be made, but in my eyes I would give the slight advantage to the Panthers as they have a solid forward group and I think it is a bit deeper and more talented then the Canes so I would give the Panthers the edge offensively.

James Guillory Imagn Images

Defence: now defensively both teams have pretty solid defenders as with Ekblad now back and joining a blueline that has Jones and Forsling makes that D-Corp a lot better but Carolina has a solid D-Corp that is comprised of solid players such as Orlov, Gostisbehere and one of the best defensive defensemen in Slavin so both have solid defenders and also have pretty good depth but I would give the advantage here to Carolina as even though the Panthers have a pretty good D-Corp, the top to bottom defence is nowhere close to the Canes so that is why they have the advantage defensively.

Goaltending: when it comes to in goal these two teams have some pretty good starters as the Canes have Andersen who has been able to shutdown the Devils and Capitals offensive attacks in the first two rounds while the Panthers have Bobrovsky who has had his bad games in these playoffs but came up big when they needed him, now I am surprised to say this but based on how these two have done in round 1 and 2 I would give Carolina the edge in Net as I think right now Andersen is a better goalie then Bobrovsky but only slightly so I am giving the goalie edge to Carolina. 

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Which top six can score more

Now in my eyes the biggest matchup entering the Eastern Conference Final is the which side will have more production from their top 6, now both teams have gotten past round 1 and 2 with a lot of scoring from the blueline as well as from the bottom six as guys like Hall, Stankoven and Martinook have all down well for Carolina and the Panthers 3rd line of Marchand, Luostarinen and Lundell have been a force for the Panthers, but while they have contributed a bit both teams top 6’s haven’t been as productive as I think they would like them to be, so I feel the biggest matchup and maybe the one that deceides who wins the series is which top 6 will score more this series, as if Tkachuk, Barkov and Rodrigues can get going for Florida, or Aho, Jarvis and Blake for the Canes then I feel that could top the balance one way or the other so we will have to wait and see but that is the biggest on ice matchup in my eyes.

Predictions:

Now when it comes to my predictions for this series I think it will be a close and tightly knit series because as we saw in RD 2 both of these teams can shut down opponents offense at will and play great in low event hockey, so I feel like this will be a series that could go either way but with Carolina’s struggles in recent memory in the Conference Finals and having lost 12 straight in the ECF and given the Panthers domination over the past few years, I am going to predict the Panthers win the series in 5 games, as Florida in my eyes is just a bit more complete and knows how to win in the ECF, while Carolina has had so many problems in the ECF over the years that while I do think they will finally win a game in the ECF, I still feel they will lose which is why I have Florida winning it in 5 games.