The Rangers will face the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round of the playoffs after the Hurricanes eliminated the Islanders in five games.
The Rangers defeated the Hurricanes in seven games in the second round two years ago.
Adam Rotter: This was most likely how it was going to go and the Rangers will face a completely different test than they did against Washington. Carolina has been the same for years. They are relentless, but the Rangers have beaten them and can do so again. Igor Shesterkin is likely going to have to be the best player in any series the Rangers win, but especially so with how much time Carolina spends in the offensive zone. It’s not going to be easy, but a chunk of these players went up against a lot of this Carolina team two years ago and beat them. The players who were the best for the Rangers in the first round, Mika Zibanejad and Vincent Trocheck, will need to be even better, It’s going to be a grind.
The biggest question for the Rangers heading into Round 2 is the same as it was in Round 1: Who will be the 12th forward? Matt Rempe was effective in limited minutes, but the Rangers can’t give any extra PPs to Carolina. It will be up to Peter Laviolette to decide whether the impact Rempe makes in 5-7 minutes is worth it when you consider the penalty risk and going down to 11 forwards. The other option would be Filip Chytil, or Jonny Brodzinski, but if it isn’t going to Rempe, it’s probably going to be Chytil. But Chytil has risks as well considering he hasn’t played in months.
There is also the Jake Guentzel factor in all of this. Carolina got him because the Rangers reportedly wouldn’t part with the prospects or players the Penguins wanted. Obviously, the Rangers knew that this was possible, even likely going to happen when they opted against getting Guentzel and they will have to deal with that.