The Rangers will play the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Panthers won the Eastern Conference last season before losing to Vegas in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Panthers finished four points behind the Rangers and had a plus-68 goal differential.
The Rangers were 1-2 against the Panthers this season, scoring nine goals and allowing 11.
Adam Rotter: This was the expected matchup. The Panthers, like Carolina, will be a tough test and may, like Carolina was, be the favorites heading into the series. They are a tough, deep, skilled, fast team. They are in some ways not that different than Carolina in terms of how they are made up, but they are a better team overall.
It’s going to be tough. Aleksander Barkov will likely matchup most of the time against Vincent Trocheck and Sam Bennett will probably go against Mika Zibanejad. Matthew Tkachuk is a great player and he’s going to get in everyone’s face. Sam Bennett and Nick Cousins will become villains for some of the actions they take on the ice and Sergei Bobrovsky has been solid in net. They are a solid team, they are going to pressure and present a lot of the same issues that the Rangers just dealt with.
But no matter what the Panthers bring, the Rangers can match them. Barclay Goodrow, Jimmy Vesey, and Will Cuylle will be the antagonists for the Rangers, Chris Kreider and Alexis Lafreniere won’t back down and at MSG it wouldn’t be a shock to see Matt Rempe…unless they decide that Filip Chytil is cleared to play. That is a big question, Adam Fox’s health is a big question and can the Rangers win without needing to rely solely on special teams and Igor Shesterkin. They need to play like they did in the last 15 minutes of Game 6. They need to go to the net, they need to pressure and play in the offensive zone. Florida will probably win the time-of-possession battle and fire shots at the net, but if the Rangers can clean up some of the issues they had in the last few games and play a simple, straight-ahead game they should position themselves well to win the series.