From The Silky Mitten State: New York's playoff success has relied heavily on its special teams. Can their five-on-five game match that of the Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final?
Tonight, at what New Yorkers claim to be the world's most famous arena, the puck will drop on Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final between the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers.
Mar 4, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Rangers right wing Kaapo Kakko (24) and Florida Panthers center Evan Rodrigues (17) battle for control of the puck in the third period at Madison Square GardenIt's a match-up between the two irrefutable top teams in the East, but the two teams vary in their methods of domination. Florida is a deep, five-on-five steamroller, pugnacious, irascible, and seemingly undeniable. New York has leaned on its superstars, special teams, and goaltending to make it to within four wins of the Stanley Cup having lost just twice in the postseason.
Thus far, the Rangers have (clearly) done enough to at five-on-five to make it this far, but heading into this series with Florida (whom I believe to be the league's best team), my biggest question is whether New York can survive at five-on-five against the Ice Cats.
Nine of the Rangers' 19 postseason five-on-five goals have been scored by one line (Alexis Lafreniere, Vincent Trocheck, and Artemi Panarin), and I'm curious to see whether that unit can maintain that production against an opponent with some of the league's best shutdown players in Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling.
On the latest episode of The Silky Mitten State, my co-host Connor Earegood and I discussed this dynamic. You can check out a sample of that conversation via the video above and then go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify for the full episode:
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