The New York Rangers did not have to wait long to find out who they would be facing in the 2024 Eastern Conference Final. Just one day after beating the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 6, the Florida Panthers defeated the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of their series to punch their ticket to the final four. This will be the second time the Rangers and Panthers will meet in the playoffs, with the first meeting happening back in 1997, where the Rangers won the series in five games.
Both of these teams won their divisions this season and this will be the fifth time in the last 18 years that two division winners have met in the round before the Stanley Cup Final. The Rangers are also the first Presidents’ Trophy-winning team to make the conference final since 2015. The last team to accomplish that was also the Rangers. Now, this series has all the makings of going seven games and in this piece, we are going to look at just how well the Rangers match up against the Panthers. We will compare the forward groups, defensive groups and goaltending and see which team has the edge going into the series.
Forward Depth: Rangers Have the Edge
When looking at both teams’ forward groups, they are both top loaded with elite talent. For the Panthers, they have Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe. To add to that, they also have the second highest goal scorer from the regular season in Sam Reinhart, who scored 57 goals. These four players can carry the Panthers offensively, but they also have great depth as well.
The Panthers have Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell, and they also added former Ranger, Vladimir Tarasenko at the trade deadline to add to their depth. They have an elite top six and some great depth pieces, but the Rangers can also match and quite possibly have a better overall forward group than the Panthers.
The Rangers can match the Panthers in top talent and depth amongst their forward group. They have Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider, who have all been very good this postseason. Adding to that, they have gotten breakout seasons and great playoff performances from both Alexis Lafreniere and former Panther, Vincent Trocheck. Players like Will Cuylle and Kaapo Kakko have thrived on the third line and give the team just that much more depth. They also have players like Filip Chytil and Blake Wheeler, both of whom have been injured and both could end up playing in this series. While the Panthers can match the Rangers with top-end talent, they don’t have the depth that the Rangers have up front.
Defensive Depth: Panthers Have the Edge
The biggest area for concern on the Rangers’ side is their defensive play. They struggled at times during the series against the Hurricanes and now going up against an arguably better team than Carolina, can the Rangers’ defense hold up? They have the best defenseman on either team in Adam Fox, but he has not been himself in these playoffs so far. He has only four points in ten games, but no goals at all and no points in his last four games. He also hasn’t looked great defensively and could be playing through injury after getting hit knee-on-knee in Game 4 against the Washington Capitals in the first round. The rest of the defense hasn’t been great either. Jacob Trouba and Ryan Lindgren have played below average so far and if the Rangers want to get by the Panthers, they need them and the rest of the defensive core to step up in this series.
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For the Panthers, they have been getting great performances from their top defensemen. Gustav Forsling, who led the entire NHL this regular season in plus/minus with a plus-56, scored the series-winning goal against the Bruins. He has kept up his great defensive play as well. Brandon Montour and Arron Ekblad have also had strong showings this postseason and have been key on the backend for the Panthers. Adding to that the additions of Oliver Ekman-Larsson and former Ranger, Niko Mikkola, and they have a very strong defensive group. Right now, they are playing better than the Rangers’ group and they have the edge heading into this series.
Goaltending: Rangers Have the Edge
The goaltending dual in this series will be Igor Shesterkin against Sergei Bobrovsky. For the Rangers, they arguably have the best goalie remaining of the teams still in the playoffs. Shesterkin has been great this postseason, with a 2.40 goals-against average (GAA) and a .923 save percentage. After an up-and-down regular season, he truly has saved his best for the playoffs. He kept the Rangers in Game 6 against the Hurricanes and allowed them to stay in the game and ultimately, win the game and the series. He has allowed one less goal than Bobrovsky so far (26 to 25), but he has also made 61 more saves than him in these playoffs. He has faced 299 shots so far and he has been able to play a consistent game despite going from facing an “easier” team in the Capitals to a much more dangerous team with the Hurricanes. He has been up to the task and will likely be a key factor in this series.
For Bobrovsky, he’s had a mediocre playoff performance so far. He has a 2.37 GAA and a .902 SV%. As of this writing, he currently has the same GAA that he had in the regular season, but his SV% is way down. He had a .915 SV% and it was good enough to get him nominated for the Vezina Trophy. So while he had a good regular season, his playoff performance could use some improvement. He also has been a hot and cold goalie for most of his career. You truly never know what kind of performance you will get from him each game. If the Rangers can take advantage of that as they did against the Hurricanes and Frederick Anderson, they have a great chance of winning this series because they know that Shesterkin can save them on the other end.
The Rangers don’t have the best track record against teams from Florida in the Eastern Conference Final as they have lost both times against the Tampa Bay Lightning in both 2015 and 2022. Now, they will try their luck against the other team from Florida and will look to beat them and get to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2014. This is going to be a close series as both teams have elite talent up and down the roster. It should be a fun and exciting series to watch and the Rangers hope to be the ones walking away as the winners.
