Florida is an excellent road team and will now play its first series of the playoffs without home ice advantage
If it feels like it’s been a while since the Florida Panthers have played a hockey game, it has.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs began exactly 32 days ago.
Florida has gone 8-3 so far, defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games in the opening round before taking out the Boston Bruins in six games.
The gauntlet to the Stanley Cup Final only gets more difficult, as the Panthers will now face the Presidents’ Trophy winners of the 2023-24 NHL season: the New York Rangers.
After five days between games, Florida is ready to get back at it.
“It was a perfectly timed break,” said Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues. “A couple days off and a couple practices to get back in the swing of things.”
Both the Panthers and Rangers should feel as rested and ready for this series as anyone could, or should, during a deep playoff run.
The one difference on the Florida side is that for the first time this postseason, they will not be playing Game 1 on home ice.
That actually might be a good thing.
Florida has gone one up and one down in the two Game 1s they’ve played at home this playoff.
On the other hand, the Cats tied with Dallas for most road wins during the regular season, and going back to last year, beginning a playoff series on the road is nothing new to these Panthers.
Florida started every series away from home last year, and through the Eastern Conference Finals, the Panthers went 5-1 in the combined Games 1 and 2 on the road in Boston, Toronto and Carolina.
This year, Florida has done just as well when away from Sunrise, skating to a 4-1 road record, including a perfect 3-0 mark in Boston last series.
Now the Panthers will have to do it in the mecca of hockey barns: Madison Square Garden.
“We’re excited,” said Rodrigues. “It’s gonna be a loud, raucous building – obviously a pretty famous building – and we’re looking forward to it.”
Here are the Panthers projected lines and pairings for Game 1 in New York:
Vladimir Tarasenko – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe – Anton Lundell – Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Sam Bennett – Evan Rodrigues
Ryan Lomberg – Kevin Stenlund – Nick Cousins
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson- Dmitry Kulikov
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