THN Florida's David Dwork and THN Rangers' Matthew Mungo answer three key questions ahead of the ECF
THN Florida's David Dwork and THN Rangers' Matthew Mungo answer three key questions ahead of the ECF
It’s been 27 years since the Florida Panthers and New York Rangers have locked horns in a Stanley Cup Playoff series.
Now the Atlantic Division champion Panthers will try to reach a second straight Stanley Cup Final, but they’ll have to get past the Presidents’ Trophy winning Rangers to do so.
As we prepare for what should be an excellent postseason series between two powerhouse clubs, THN Florida is teaming up with THN Rangers for a quick collaboration.
THN Florida’s David Dwork and THN Rangers’ Matthew Mungo each answered a few questions with their takes on how the series could play out.
Why the Panthers will win the series
THN Florida: Discipline and depth
Discipline was a big key in Florida’s second round win over the Bruins and if the Panthers are going to defeat the Rangers, it will need to remain true in the conference finals.
Now discipline doesn’t only mean trying not to take bad penalties. It means keeping your cool in the moments when it’s the most difficult to do so. The Panthers flexed their disciplinary muscles during the Boston series, refusing to get baited into any after-the-whistle extracurricular activities.
Then there is Florida’s depth. Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice will be looking to roll his four lines dare the Rangers to keep up.
Florida enters the conference finals with a fully healthy roster. As we learned last postseason, the Panthers continuing to avoid the injury bug will go a long way toward them finishing what they couldn’t a year ago.
THN Rangers: The Panthers have more firepower than the Hurricanes. They have six players with at least three goals scored in the post-season. They ranked second in the regular season in hits with 510. The Rangers finished with 316. Couple the physical brand with the physical buy-in from top to bottom and they have the potential to run any team out of the building.
The series may also come down to secondary scoring. Vladimir Tarasenko (two goals, three assists) was acquired at the trade deadline from the Ottawa Senators and could house the Panthers over his former team.
Sam Reinhart (five goals, four assists) is also due for breakout, after his monster 57 goal regular season campaign. He scored four goals agains the Rangers in three regular season contests this season, and could continue his tirade against the Blueshirts.
Why the Rangers will win the series
THN Florida: Puck possession and power play
When at their best, New York has proven to play a very sound, structured game. While the Panthers are a very north-south team, the Rangers have plenty of east-west built into their game, which can be a strength during the playoffs when having more options in how you travel through the neutral zone can be the difference in solving a strong defensive trap game.
Then there’s New York’s power play, which has been operating at an over 30% success rate for much of the postseason. It current sits at 31.4%.
If the Rangers can maintain puck possession through the three zones and continue to capitalize on their potent power play, it could be a long (or not so long) series for the Panthers.
THN Rangers: The power play
The analysis doesn’t run too deep here. It’s different in this series. The Panthers play a heavy game and mix it up after the whistle. The Rangers buried the Capitals by luring them into taking instigator, and post-whistle penalties.
This will be the X-Factor in the series
THN Florida: Goaltending
At the end of the day, both of these teams have something that could dwarf all other elements of the series, and that’s a goaltender who can steal a game…and a series.
There is no denying that Igor Shesterkin is one of the absolute best goalies in the world right now. The 28-year-old is in his prime, and its showing.
Bobrovsky, meanwhile, had an incredible postseason for the Panthers last season and, while his numbers haven’t been much to write home about, he’s continued to come up with big saves in big moments for Florida.
THN Rangers: I said it on the PuckTalkCS Podcast ECF preview and I will say it again, Igor Shesterkin is THE factor. Mika Zibanejad and Adam Fox are the X-Factors.
The Rangers have the physicality to tango with the cats. They need as much goal-scoring as they can get, the scoreboard wins the series.
Mika Zibanejad has 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) good for the fifth most in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The goal scoring has to be there in a best-on-best series like this ECF. The last goal he scored was in Game 1 against Carolina. The Rangers need him to be a goal-scoring threat. That will also create space at 5v5 for Kreider/Roslovic, but also on the power play by drawing attention and opening lanes for Adam Fox (QB1) and Artemi Panarin (QB2) to operate.
Adam Fox is my second X-factor. Fox was the second-fastest defenseman in NHL history to reach 25 points in the Stanley Cup playoffs. With that, he has only produced 4 assists. His underwhelming performance may be from a reaggravated knee injury. There is a difference between subtle and quiet. He makes many surgical plays that are often underappreciated, but the 2021 Norris Trophy winner will need to make big plays against the Ranger's toughest competition yet. They simply did not need Fox to play like prime Brian Leetch against Washington and got by without it against Carolina.
Jacob Trouba's up-and-down play will be a factor, as well as Alexis Lafreniere's hot streak.
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