The Rangers open up the Eastern Conference Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight at MSG.
The Rangers were 3-0 against Tampa this season, with a 4-3 shootout win, a 4-0 win and a 2-1 win.
The Rangers and Lightning last met in the playoffs in 2015 with Tampa Bay beating the Rangers in the Eastern Conference Final in seven games.
All but three of Tampa’s skaters have Conference Final experience. Chris Kreider, Barclay Goodrow, Ryan Reaves, Justin Braun, Jacob Trouba and Andrew Copp are the Rangers with Confe
Kreider is the only one that has played in the Conference Final with the Rangers.
Barclay Goodrow won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay and Tampa’s Ryan McDonagh was the Rangers captain.
27 of 28 votes from The Athletic have Tampa Bay winning the series, with most thinking it will happen in six games.
An anonymous coach, executive and scout all picked Tampa Bay to beat the Rangers. (The Athletic)
20 of 28 people at ESPN chose the Lightning over the Rangers. Former Rangers Kevin Weekes, Dominic Moore, Mark Messier and John Tortorella all picked the Rangers. Ryan Callahan and Ray Ferraro chose the Lightning.
Adam Rotter: At this point it sure seems crazy to count the Rangers out, even though they are going against a two-time defending Champion and their greatest advantage in the first two rounds, Igor Shesterkin, is effectively neutralized with Andrei Vasilevskiy across the way.
It’s obvious to say, because they are the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champs, but the Rangers have not faced a team like Tampa Bay so far in the playoffs. The Lightning have the goaltending, they grind, play physical and have an infrastructure to fall back on. They have that same sort of “No Quit” belief that the Rangers have and it’s been built over the last few years. The Lightning won’t unravel the way that Pittsburgh and Carolina did at times, they are very unlikely to beat themselves, and they can fall back on experience in almost any situation they face. Tampa doesn’t just have experience, they have Championship experience up and down the lineup.
So how do the Rangers in this series? The same way they won all season and won against Carolina: goaltending and special teams. If you assume that Igor Shesterkin vs Andrei Vasilevskiy will be close to a draw, then the difference will come on special teams and on the margins. Will Filip Chytil and the Kid line be able to continue their strong play? Will Artemi Panarin break through and lead in the way that Nikita Kucherov is expected to? What will Brayden Point’s status be? The Rangers benefited from injuries to key players, mostly goalies, in the first two rounds, but Point was an enormous part in driving the Tampa offense the last two years.
It’s possible that this is a series where each game is “first to three goals” or even “first to two goals” with the goalies involved. I thought that the Rangers winning last round was going to be tough, this is going to be even tougher. I think they can win because they have shown that not much in the playoffs will phase them, but Tampa Bay seems like a different animal. The Rangers will need other players to step up in this series the way that Mika Zibanejad did and Chris Kreider did at times.
It’s not exactly the same situation, but it sure would be nice to see the Rangers, as the ascendant team, knock off Tampa Bay and, hopefully, end their run at the top in a similar way to how Tampa Bay ended the Rangers window as contenders in 2015.