ECF : New York Rangers vs Florida Panthers | Panthers lead 3-2

[Leonardo87]

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New York Rangers (1M) vs. Florida Panthers (1A)​

Eastern Conference Finals

Game 1: Panthers at Rangers -- May 22, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
Game 2: Panthers at Rangers -- May 24, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
Game 3: Rangers at Panthers -- May 26, 3 p.m. ET (ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
Game 4: Rangers at Panthers -- May 28, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
+ Game 5: Panthers at Rangers -- May 30, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
+ Game 6: Rangers at Panthers -- June 1, 8 p.m. ET (ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
+ Game 7: Panthers at Rangers -- June 3, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS)
+ If Necessary
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[I am not exposed]

It was more of a slog to get past Boston that I predicted. The Panthers are not playing that well tbh. Certainly, they are capable of more. Tkachuk is having nowhere near the same impact as last year. Luckily Barkov looks better this year.

I think Rangers take this in 6.

its gonna be rangers in 7 and its not even going to be close

If it is going to 7 surely it will be quite close...

 

[I am not exposed]

Panthers have better top end talent and Rangers have nobody like Barkov. Special teams will be a factor but Florida's bottom 6 depth highly outmatches the Rangers and that will win them the series.

Rangers haven't even been tested these playoffs. This is going to be a real wake up call for them.

Carolina > Boston and Tampa.

I don't necessarily understand why people are saying the Rangers are the ones finally playing contenders. The Rangers have as good, if not better goaltending than Boston/Tampa, while being a deeper team.

Carolina blows both of those teams out of the water when it comes to depth and the top end talent isn't vastly different. Carolina down the middle is one of the deeper teams in the league.

Florida is finally going to need to deal with two scoring lines. The x-factor for the series will be Chytil. Came back in game 4, played a really good game for someone that missed 6 months, got sick and hasn't been back yet. It's also believed the flu bug has been running through the room since. If he is back in, the 3rd line adds some series scoring punch.

This is correct.

 

[AlaBlueShirt]

Rangers where in trouble 5v5 against the Canes. Barkov will have Trocheck and Ziba for lunch, any leftovers Lundell and Benett can handle.

You can win a few ruonds just with goaltending and a great pp, but not a cup.

Barkov is great but I don't think that even he is capable to play over 40 minutes in ECF.

 

[ScottyMascotty]

Tkachuk is having nowhere near the same impact as last year.

?

 

[thaman8765678]

can any flames fan comment?

why did Tkachuk wanna leave Calgary? What measures did the management make to try to keep that guy? Dudes a beauty to have on the team. wtf happened here?

Long story to go with this that you could write a novel about.

But the reason Gaudreau and Tkachuk left basically comes down to Brad Treliving is one of the worst GMs of all time.

 

[Coffey]

Hype for this series. No passenger teams sneaking into the ECF.

 

[Chinaski89]

Panthers will lose this in 6 games if htey played the way they did against Boston. So, I'm voting for Rangers in 6. I wish I felt better about this series, but I don't. Florida no-showed two games against a team with the center depth of a wet paper bag.

Panarin vs Bob is good for at least one goal a game, too.

Panarin didn’t do squat against Andersen who is a pewee goalie compared to Bobrovsky lol

FLA in 5

 

[Kupo]

Panarin had 176 points this year? Wowza

I’m drunk. Math is hard.

MT had 88P. That’s a 32 point difference compared to Panarin. All I’m saying is Tkachuk is not a “higher end talent” than Panarin.

If you want to compare high end talents — Rangers had 5 players score over 70 points. Higher scoring forward, higher scoring dmen, and more players over that, close to PPG threshold.

Panthers had 4. Their 5th forward is Tank, who drops down to the 50P range.

The Panthers don’t have higher end talent. That’s my argument. They scored less goals than the Rangers this year. They don’t have a Panarin offensively or Fox defensively.

It’s going to be a good series. Best 2 teams In the east who both have very good rosters, with equal top end top end talent.

 

[Kupo]

Panarin didn’t do squat against Andersen who is a pewee goalie compared to Bobrovsky lol

FLA in 5

Panarin had 7 points in 5 games against the Canes. So even when he wasn’t dominating, he was still a PPG+.

 

[CanePanther]

I’m drunk. Math is hard.

MT had 88P. That’s a 32 point difference compared to Panarin. All I’m saying is Tkachuk is not a “higher end talent” than Panarin.

If you want to compare high end talents — Rangers had 5 players score over 70 points. Higher scoring forward, higher scoring dmen, and more players over that, close to PPG threshold.

Panthers had 4. Their 5th forward is Tank, who drops down to the 50P range.

The Panthers don’t have higher end talent. That’s my argument. They scored less goals than the Rangers this year. They don’t have a Panarin offensively or Fox defensively.

It’s going to be a good series. Best 2 teams In the east who both have very good rosters, with equal top end top end talent.

Man you speak like a amsteur. High end talent has nothing to do with scoring especially in Hockey. The Panthers from top to bottom is considered by most pundits to have the most talent in the NHL that’s a fact that’s what most are saying.

 

[ultrathrash]

Hoping panarin and zib turn into ghosts against this big tough panther team. Go cats

 

[Felidae]

Not gonna compare the whole roster since that's too much work.

But in terms of high end talent I'd say.

Barkov > any NYR center
Fox > any Panthers defenseman
These 2 are self explanatory

Reinhart > Kreider
Reinhart just had a career year, is arguably our 2nd best two way forward as well as our top goalscorer.

Shesterkin > Bobrovsky
Similar statistically, but Shesterkin is younger and plays behind a weaker overall defense.

Panarin >= Tkachuk
Last year I would have said Tkachuk. But Panarin is coming off his best season and Tkachuk had a down year.

Ofc, this is just based off their body of work this season. Anyone could be the hero in this series.

 

[bossram]

I wanted Carolina to win, but the Rangers saved us from what would be one of the most boring series in NHL history. CAR-FLA would have been horrific hockey to watch.

This will be an interesting series. In many ways, the composition and style of the Rangers are like a beefed-up Boston. I expect the series to play out similarly to BOS-FLA but go the distance.

 

[Brooklyndevil]

I like the Rangers in 6. Actually, I like them to win the cup.

 

[CanePanther]

I think one of the most anticipated conference finals in many years. Let’s hope it lives up to the hype. Or we all know the Cats are going to win it regardless
and just make it 4 and done Panthers……

 

[Cats2TheCup]

Trocheck will get under their skin. He flaps the gums between every whistle. I think he's a marvelous trash talker.

Lol. Do yourself a favor and find out why Vinny wears number 16.

Looking forward to the Panthers introducing themselves to you guys.

 

[Peltz]

Rangers where in trouble 5v5 against the Canes. Barkov will have Trocheck and Ziba for lunch, any leftovers Lundell and Benett can handle.

You can win a few ruonds just with goaltending and a great pp, but not a cup.

That has certainly been the Rangers’ issue in the past. But they’re now a decent (not necessarily elite) 5v5 team under Lavi, without sacrificing special teams success.

Lol. Do yourself a favor and find out why Vinny wears number 16.

Looking forward to the Panthers introducing themselves to you guys.

Barkov will just get some extra chirps. No prob.

 

[DialUp]

Look, everyone wanted Carolina to win and pumped them as cup favorites with the fancy stats. But since they are out now we can stop pretending and recognize they were never good. Panthers in 3 with a forfeit in game 4 as NYR can't handle the real contender. But if the Panthers do wind up losing then they weren't any good in the first place.

What I'm trying to say is, rangers are like Columbus tier.

 

[Gee Wally]

I dont really have a horse in this race. I just want to see a 7 game series where they give us one for the ages. Battle of the Bastards style.

 

[CanePanther]

My honest opinion as A Panther fan is that I fear the Rangers the most. Great solid in every category team. And the Panthers are loaded from top to bottom. If I have to make an early prediction before the fur flys it’s gonna be one word and that’s experience. I think once a team advances to the show and if they have the luxury of getting there again just on experience alone plus the Panthers are a better team this year ya have to give the Cats the benefit of the doubt.

 

[UnSandvich]

Carolina PP & PK were both Top 3 in the regular season, and the Rangers mauled them. If they can keep the 5v5 side of things relatively close, I think Igor & the Rangers special teams will make the difference. Rangers in 7

 

[Svenhart2008]

I have no ill will towards the cats. Should be a good series.

 

[RockTheRedDC]

let's check the PO results in the last 2 years:
rags played only against Metro opponents: Caps, CAR and eliminated by NJ that even did not make PO this year... LOL. Metro is way weaker than ATL division.

Cats beat Boston 2 times, Tampa, CAR and Toronto and lost at Vegas last year.

Cats is very hard battle tested and I think they will win the cup this year.

 

[DelZottoHitTheNetJK]

I dunno man. Every time I've watched Barkov against the Rangers, it's obvious he's a really good player but he doesn't have the foot speed to scare me. He doesn't push back defenses, he doesn't command respect off the rush as a puck carrier. That's the Rangers biggest weakness and in no way does he exploit that. He likes to set up in the zone and the Rangers will gladly defend that all day long.

Defensively, I don't doubt he's legit. But we also have a couple elite defensive centermen.

I expect a lot of the top talent in this series to negate each other and to see the majority of whatever scoring we get to be from both teams bottom 6.

Also, for everyone (or probably just that one guy because it's a trash take) that thinks the Rangers haven't beaten strong competition yet..Carolina would have curb stomped Boston. Every single day and twice on Sunday. That is an excellent team and the Rangers started playing with their food after going up 3-0. To the victor goes the spoils, the Rangers handled business in the regular season to draw Washington. They earned a tune-up round, this core has proven itself in the playoffs in 22' as well

 

[Idiot Stick]

I’m drunk. Math is hard.

MT had 88P. That’s a 32 point difference compared to Panarin. All I’m saying is Tkachuk is not a “higher end talent” than Panarin.

If you want to compare high end talents — Rangers had 5 players score over 70 points. Higher scoring forward, higher scoring dmen, and more players over that, close to PPG threshold.

Panthers had 4. Their 5th forward is Tank, who drops down to the 50P range.

The Panthers don’t have higher end talent. That’s my argument. They scored less goals than the Rangers this year. They don’t have a Panarin offensively or Fox defensively.

It’s going to be a good series. Best 2 teams In the east who both have very good rosters, with equal top end top end talent.

Tbf he had 109 pts last year on a team that barely made it to the playoffs, and this year he was fighting off a broken sternum from the finals and really only starting producing points in January.