Rangers vs Canes...who wins?

[Barnaby]

Rangers in 5... goaltending is the difference

 

[Maximus]

Carolina's goaltending lets them down.

We on paper definitely have the goaltending advantage...totally agree with you. The one caveat tho is Mrazek isn't a stiff and he at times gets into one of these zones where he thinks he's Hasek and plays like him.

I've owned him in fantasy and I know trust me. Case in point last year during the Islander series where he was the main reason the Canes so gloriously swept them punks from the Island.

I'm not saying I'm uber worried about Mrazek but I also don't think we can discount the fact that this guy when he's in one of his zones, he can throttle us. That said, I'll take my chances that Igor outplays him.

 

[eco's bones]

We on paper definitely have the goaltending advantage...totally agree with you. The one caveat tho is Mrazek isn't a stiff and he at times gets into one of these zones where he thinks he's Hasek and plays like him.

I've owned him in fantasy and I know trust me. Case in point last year during the Islander series where he was the main reason the Canes so gloriously swept them punks from the Island.

I'm not saying I'm uber worried about Mrazek but I also don't think we can discount the fact that this guy when he's in one of his zones, he can throttle us. That said, I'll take my chances that Igor outplays him.

Mrazek can get hot but both last year and this year the Islanders offense is not really all that dangerous. Barzal is the Islanders biggest threat but he's more of a playmaker than a shooter.

Both Zibanejad and Panarin are a notch up from Barzal and Fox and DeAngelo are better offensive D than anything the Islanders have. The Rangers defense is not nearly as solid as the Islanders but our goaltending is better. So there are trade offs. Carolina will want to stay away from shorthanded situations and play more of a defensive counter attack style at least when their top guns aren't on the ice. To me the Rangers are more explosive offensively but aren't that deep at forward or on defense. The Rangers don't always need a lot of shots to put up goals and some of Carolina's D might be experienced but aren't particularly strong defensively--Hamilton, Gardiner, Vatanen. If Pesce isn't able to play for them that will hurt.

 

[Mac n Gs]

Mrazek can get hot but both last year and this year the Islanders offense is not really all that dangerous. Barzal is the Islanders biggest threat but he's more of a playmaker than a shooter.

Both Zibanejad and Panarin are a notch up from Barzal and Fox and DeAngelo are better offensive D than anything the Islanders have. The Rangers defense is not nearly as solid as the Islanders but our goaltending is better. So there are trade offs. Carolina will want to stay away from shorthanded situations and play more of a defensive counter attack style at least when their top guns aren't on the ice. To me the Rangers are more explosive offensively but aren't that deep at forward or on defense. The Rangers don't always need a lot of shots to put up goals and some of Carolina's D might be experienced but aren't particularly strong defensively--Hamilton, Gardiner, Vatanen. If Pesce isn't able to play for them that will hurt.

On the flip side, Carolina's d corps is loaded offensively, and, if we get the helter skelter Rangers defense from the beginning of the season, I can see them feasting on throwing a ton of pucks on net and making our defense chase all game.

If we get the Rangers that actually started playing some defense after the New Year, I think our goalies will help edge out this series in 4 or 5.

 

[RangersFan1994]

Play off experience matters. Canes in 5

goaltending matters

 

[Maximus]

So right this moment in the "take the temperature" poll, we got basically 80%-20% for us to win over the Canes. I gotta be honest, I'm a bit surprised at how overwhelming the feeling is in here that we are going to advance.

I'm not saying we aren't...I think we will win in 5 so long as our goaltending out performs Carolina's. What's surprising to me is that more often than not the board here is quite cynical and pessimistic when it comes to our boys winning playoff series. Not all the time but for the most part, whenever there is optomism, there's usually a boatload of peeps in here who put pins in the balloon and tell us to relax.

That said, maybe this is a good sign that so many of us feel confident we are going to somehow someway get past Carolina. I'll be interested to see what the poll of our series on the main board turns out to be as we get closer to 7/30 when festivities begin, when neutral observers evaluate our chances.

As I said in my opening comments a few days ago, I personally feel it's a 50/50 proposition that we win the series but apparently I'm in the minority on this one...go figure....