Can the Rangers ignite a roar inside of MSG with a Game 2 victory? Simulating Florida vs. New York Game 2 in NHL 24
In our series simulation article, NHL 24 correctly predicted a win for the Panthers in Game 1. We'll see if the simulation we ran for Game 2 favors the home side this time around.
Here are the lineups we used in the simulation:
Florida we assume will roll out the same lines that worked for them in their 3-0 Game 1 victory.
Florida's Projected Lines:
Tarasenko - Barkov - Reinhart
Verhaeghe - Lundell - Tkachuk
Luostarinen - Bennett - Rodrigues
Lomberg - Stenlund - Cousins
Forsling - Ekblad
Mikkola - Montour
Ekman-Larsson - Kulikov
Bobrovsky
Stolarz
There is a lot of mystery on the other side with the Rangers and their lineup for tonight's game. Kaapo Kakko could be scratched for the enforcer Matt Rempe and there was some lineup juggling in New York's top nine when they ran 3-on-3 drills at morning skate.
Considering Kakko only has one goal and two points in the playoffs, we're going to project him out of the lineup and slide Rempe in.
New York's Projected Lines:
Kreider - Zibanejad - Roslovic
Panarin - Trocheck - Lafreniere
Chytil - Wennberg - Cuylle
Vesey - Goodrow - Rempe
Lindgren - Fox
Miller - Trouba
Gustafsson - Schneider
Shesterkin
Quick
In the simulation, Florida dominated the first two periods, outshooting the Rangers 20-8 and holding a 3-1 lead heading into third period.
New York woke up in the third registering 11 shots on Bobrovsky. Alexander Wennberg scored to put the pressure on the Cats. However, Kevin Stenlund's late goal was the nail in the coffin. Anton Lundell added an empty netter to cap off Florida's 5-2 win over the Rangers in our simulation.
Playoff performer Carter Verhaeghe led the charge with two goals. Matthew Tkachuk didn't record a shot on net, but did finish with two assists, a plus-3, and a team-high four hits.
Rangers captain Jacob Trouba had a rough night on the scoresheet finishing as a minus-4. Matt Rempe made an impact in his return to the lineup, but not in the way you would have expected. He finished the game somehow with zero hits but three shots on net.
For fans of the blueshirts, let's hope this NHL 24 simulation for Game 2 isn't an accurate outcome and New York comes out with a far more competitive effort.
For more NHL 24 playoff simulations, bookmark The Hockey News Gaming Site.