Eastern Conference Finals shaping up as defensive battle between Florida and New York

The Florida Panthers are heading home after kicking off the Eastern Conference Finals with a pair of games at Madison Square Garden.

Florida scored more goals than the New York Rangers did, twice as many in fact, but return to Sunrise with a series split following the Rangers 2-1 overtime victory in Game 2 on Friday night.

There was more to like than not for the Panthers during their stay in the Big Apple, and it should give the team confidence as they prepare for their first game at Amerant Bank Arena in 12 days.

Before we shift our focus to the game ahead, here are the takeaways from Game 2 at MSG.

Responded well to Rangers push

Florida knew that they were probably going to get the best Rangers effort of the postseason to this point, and the home team did not disappoint.

Right from the opening puck drop it was all New York.

They controlled the majority of the puck possession and had Florida on their heels.

But the Panthers didn’t crumble, despite giving up the first goal.

Just as we’ve seen with this team all season, they don’t get out of sorts if things are going their way.

There is enough confidence among the players that they know they have the power to turn things back in their factor simply by getting back to playing their style of hockey.

“I thought this would be a game that would be a real challenge to manage,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “I was actually really happy with the way we did. They had the first ten minutes. We talked about that this morning, they're going to have a piece of the game they own. Shots I think are 6-1, they’re up 1-0. After that, we were pretty good.

Strong defensive hockey

Coming into this series, there was an expectation that the games would be low scoring and tightly contested.

Two very structured and disciplined teams with world class goaltenders will do that.

Through two games, we’ve seen a total of six goals.

Both the Panthers and the Rangers are doing a good job of making things very difficult for their opponent.

It’s hard enough to sustain any offensive zone time in this series with the way these teams defend, but the forechecking on both sides is making it more difficult to complete clean zone exits and get anything going through the neutral zone.

“There’s better skill on both teams than the plays that are being completed,” Maurice said. “I think it's a bit of a challenge out there right now, for both teams.”

They’ll take the split

As we learned a year ago, earning a pair of wins after opening the conference finals on the road can go a long way toward punching a ticket to the Stanley Cup Final.

Unfortunately for Florida, things didn’t turn out that way in consecutive postseasons, but they are heading back to Sunrise with this series tied at one, which isn’t bad considering they’re facing the Presidents’ Trophy winners.

Now, despite Friday’s loss, the Panthers have another chance to put a stranglehold on the series, and this time they can do it on home ice.

It’s easy to see how this series is expected by many to go six or seven games. If Florida can impose their will on home ice over the next few days, it will create a hole for the Rangers that would be incredibly difficult to climb out of.

“After game five (against Boston), I was some kind of sour about the way we played,” Maurice said. “I wasn’t worried about (the loss) in Game 1, but Game 5 I didn’t like. I’m fine with tonight. You shouldn't come in and be the Presidents’ Trophy team twice in their own building. You really shouldn't. We got that one to overtime, we got in alone a bunch of times and couldn't get it to go. Two really good goaltenders at each end. This is an exciting series, exciting hockey. A lot of hits, a lot of action.”

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